From Tupac's Death To LA Wildfires, These Current Events Were Predicted by Movies, Books and Shows

When Will Smith’s 2004 film “I, Robot” hit theaters, no one thought we’d ever live in a world where intelligent robots and self driving cars would exist, but not even 20 years later, here we are. The plot of the movie centered around what happens when high tech robots revolt against humanity, but what’s even more scary is robots with similar designs were created by Tesla just a few years ago. Tesla bots don’t speak and aren’t part of our daily lives... for now... but you have to admit “I, Robot” gave us a glimpse of what could happen in our near future.

As The Root previously reported, Octavia Butler’s 1993 novel, “Parable of the Sower,” is told from a 15-year-old girl’s perspective “who lives in a gated community with her family in a 2024 California ravaged by fires and rocked by political unrest due to an authoritarian president who wants to ‘Make America Great Again.’’ Of course, no one would’ve thought President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement would shape the country in the way we see today, but what makes Butler’s prediction that much more accurate is back in January, California was set ablaze with a series of wildfires that killed dozens and displaced hundreds more, just like in Butler’s novel.

COVID-19 took the world by storm, but maybe if we paid closer attention to past depictions of pandemics, we would’ve learned a thing or two. In the case of the 2011 film “Contagion,” a mysterious virus takes over the world as healthcare professionals, government officials, and regular people navigate a deadly pandemic... sounds familiar? In 2020, a similar phenomena changed the world as COVID ravaged every community killing millions and flat out changing society as we know it forever. It’s been reported Black people accounted for about 15 percent of total COVID deaths.

In 1993, Snoop Dogg released one of his most notable songs, “Murder Was the Case,” just a couple years before he’d go to trial where murder was actually the case. As we all know, Snoop beat the case and went on to rebrand himself from a gangster rapper to one of America’s favorite Hip-Hop uncles, but 30 years after the song, the 53-year-old rapper revealed he feels he manifested his potential demise. On “The Breakfast Club,” Snoop said “My life and my freedom was on the line.” He continued, “It just made me feel like my pen created this.”

When “Fahrenheit 451" was published in 1953, televisions had already made it to everyday Americans households, but you know what hadn’t hit society yet? Reality TV. Today, we all know and love shows like “Love & Hip Hop” and “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” but you may be interested to know one of the first mentions of reality TV happened in the novel by Ray Bradbury. In the book, scripted shows resembling modern reality TV shows have viewers caught up in the lives of people that they only knew through the screen. Like modern reality television, the shows in the novel were scripted to guarantee viewership.

When former President Barack Obama hit the political scene, Black folks were not only eager at the mere possibility of having a Black president but many musicians began manifesting his win big time. In 2007, The Game dropped a song titled “Hard Times” where he rapped about Obama one day capturing Osama bin Laden, the former leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization who claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. The LA rapper wrote “I’m feeling like a black democrat / Barack Obama, the only n**** that can catch Osama” way before Obama even set foot in the Oval Office. In 2011, during Obama’s first term, bin Laden was killed by U.S. troops.

Over the years, “The Simpsons” have been dropped in the spotlight after a long list of scarily accurate predictions. But their best prediction came in 2000 when they warned the world of a Trump presidency. In the episode “Bart to the Future,” one of the main characters, Lisa, assumes presidency, taking over the White House after four years of Trump. “As you know, we’ve inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump,” she says. To make matters even freakier, in 2016, “The Simpsons” predicted Trump’s second win in 2024... and then a third one.

It wasn’t until the mid ‘80s that climate change became a focal point in mainstream media, but back in 1967, rockstar Jimi Hendrix was already expressing his concerns about the planet. His song “Up From The Skies” was written about an alien that returns to earth to see just how drastically our world has changed. And it’s safe to say he’s disappointed with his findings. “The smell of a world that has burned / Well, maybe, maybe it’s just a change of climate.”

George Orwell’s “1984" is one of those classic novels that most of us remember reading when we were younger. But what you might not remember is how accurate the British author’s book was more than 75 years later. In the novel, Orwell warns about the dangers of technology, but more specifically, he predicted a society were music could be produced “without any human intervention,” as the novel states. In 2025, the rise of artificial intelligence has led to AI music being created using the likes of artists like Beyoncé, Drake, The Weeknd, and Justin Bieber just as Orwell predicted.

A$AP Rocky is the perfect example of manifesting exactly what you want for your future. In 2013, he dropped “Fashion Killa” where he raps about styling and profiling with his special lady. But specifically, he name dropped the Bajan billionaire saying “Her attitude Rihanna, she get it from her mama,” which in 2025, means so much more as he and RiRi have a beautiful family with two sons, RZA and Riot Rose. The song continued saying “But she save it so our babies will be flyer than their parents.” It looks like Rocky got his wish!

In 2023, “They Cloned Tyrone” hit Netflix filled with government conspiracies and mistrust, and *spoiler alert* in the end, the government was indeed cloning Black folks for their benefit! But in the middle of the film, the main character, Fontaine— played by John Boyega— sits down for lunch at a chicken spot with Yo-Yo— played by Teyonah Parris— and Slick Charles— played by Jamie Foxx. We won’t give too much away, but let’s just say their experience at the chicken spot drew strange similarities between the 2020 craze over Popeyes chicken sandwich and the Louisiana restaurant’s recent collab with Don Julio.

The Hip-Hop mogul has never shied away from speaking his mind and using his music to manifest what he wants, but the 2013 track “Picasso Baby” took things to a new level when he manifested his own billionaire status. “Oh what a feeling, f**k it I want a billion,” he rapped. And just six years later, Jay would get his wish after he was officially named a billionaire in 2019.

“Back to the Future” became the highest-grossing film of 1985 bringing in a total $381.1 million worldwide at the box office, according to reports. But what’s more interesting about the classic SciFi trilogy is just how the films predicted the future. Although we’re not flying in the sky like Marty McFly, hoverboards have indeed taken over society with many kids even getting one as Christmas presents! And that’s not all. In 2016, Nike dropped their Nike Mag shoes from “Back to the Future Part II.” The replica of the film’s high tech sneakers can cost anywhere between $500 to $200,000 on Ebay.

Kanye’s 2005 hit “Gold Digger” was meant to warn Black men about women only after them for their money, but two decades later, it seems Mr. West has fallen victim to a similar fate. Now, we’re not saying his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, is a gold digger. We all know she has more than enough money without Ye, but just take a look at some incriminating lyrics from the song: “She got one of your kids, got you for 18 years / His baby mamma car and crib is bigger than his... My psychic told me she’ll have a a** like Serena, Trina, Jennifer Lopez, four kids / And I gotta take all they bad asses to ShowBiz?” It seems these lyrics paint a clear picture of West’s relationship with his ex. Together they have four children, North, Saint, Psalm, and Chicago.

Just one year before he was tragically gunned down, rapper Tupac recorded the song “If I Die 2nite,” which, as the song suggests, details what he wants to happen when he dies. The track was for his 1995 project titled “Me Against The World,” the second to last album he would ever release on his own. In the song, the rapper says, “I hope they bury me and send me to my rest, Headlines reading ‘Murdered to death, My last breath.” And months later, Tupac would meet an eerily similar fate.