Patrick Ryan

USA TODAY

NEW YORK — To Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur was more than just "the greatest rapper of all time."

The hip-hop icon took the stage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony to pay tribute to his late friend, who was welcomed into the Hall Friday nearly 21 years after he was murdered at age 25.

"When I sat down to gather my thoughts about my labelmate, my homie, my brother, there's one thought I kept coming back to: that Tupac was an actual human being," Snoop said. "While everyone now thinks of him as some thugged-out superhero," Tupac was many things: "strong and vulnerable, hardheaded and intellectual, revolutionary and — oh yeah, don’t get it (messed) up — gangsta."

Here are some of the other highlights of the Tupac salute at Brooklyn's Barclays Center:

1. Snoop fondly remembered his first time meeting Tupac at a party in Los Angeles in 1993. "That night, Pac passed me my first blunt," he said. "For real. That's right: Tupac is the one that got Snoop Dogg smoking blunts. ... We became very good friends quickly thereafter."

2. The rappers were virtually inseparable coming up with Death Row Records co-founders Dr. Dre and Suge Knight. Snoop laughed as he recalled one vacation to South America where they tried out parasailing together — with Knight driving the boat. "Does anybody know what parasailing is?" he said. "Because we sure didn't. Me and Pac were sitting on the edge of the boat with all this gear on when all of a sudden, the boat pulls away and we start floating away. We were scared as a (expletive), we were holding hands."

3. Later in the speech, he paid tribute to Tupac's late mother, Afeni Shakur, for giving her son a compassionate spirit. When Shakur was shot, Snoop immediately flew to see her in Las Vegas. Walking into her room, "his mom came up to me and she grabbed me, and held me and said, 'You've got to be strong,' " Snoop said. "Even in that moment, his mom cared more about me than herself. It was amazing that his mom was so strong and loved so hard."

4. Snoop ended his tribute by lifting his friend's award in the air. "Tupac, we love you, dawg. You gon' always be right with us. ... They can't take this away from you, homie. I love you, Tupac. Welcome to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Thug life!"

5. The tribute was rounded out by a star-studded performance, including a medley of I Ain't Mad at Cha and Ambitionz As a Ridah by Alicia Keys; Snoop and YG dueting on Gangsta Party; and T.I. — decked out in Tupac-inspired garb — covering the West Coast rapper's Keep Ya Head Up.