I got shot.
I always felt like I'd be shot.
Somebody was trying to do me some harm
because a lot of people don't like me.
But I didn't think it was gonna happen at that particular moment.
I'm surprised, but I'm happy.
I believe that, you know, this is all in God's hands.
And I'm very appreciative to God for everything I've gotten to do.
But also, about death, we look at death from the selfish side, like:
"That guy died. Oh, it's so sad." Why is it sad?
He's away from all of this bad stuff that's here on Earth.
I mean, at the worst, he's just somewhere quiet, no nothing.
At best, he's an angel... or he's a spirit somewhere.
What is so bad about that?
Throughout my life, I just wanted to be like an angel for God,
do something where I could be of some help.
And I can do that. I mean, I'm an artist.
It's not like I have to tell the truth. I have to tell a story
and reach you and get some kind of feeling from you.
And then try to get the moral across.
So this is my story.
A story about ambition, violence, redemption and love.
In my life, I was different things for different people.
What's up, nigga?
Don't fuck around with real Gs Quick to snatch your ugly ass
- Off the streets - So fuck peace
I let them niggas know It's on for life
So let the West Side ride tonight
Bad Boy murdered on wax and killed
- Fuck with me you'll get your - Caps peeled
Yeah, my niggas say...
Some people say I was a thug and a gangsta.
Other people remember me as a poet and a born leader.
But I'm saying to you measure a man by his actions fully,
through his whole life, from the beginning to the end.
Everybody's past is what made their future.
It's, like, about destiny.
Speak, drums Tell the real story
My mother was a Black Panther,
and she was really involved in the movement.
Power! Power!
Power to the people! Power to the people!
You know, just black people bettering themselves and things like that.
She had a high position in the Panther Party, which was unheard of,
because there was sexism, even in the Panthers.
All of my roots to the struggle are real deep.
I was named after this Inca chief from South America
whose name was Tupac Amaru. And I think the tribal breakdown
means, like, intelligent warrior, something like that. He's a deep dude.
If I go to South America, they're gonna love me.
My stepfather at the time, Mutulu Shakur,
he was also, like, a well-known revolutionary.
And then my godfather, Geronimo Pratt,
had a top official rank position with the Panthers on the West Coast.
You can jail a revolutionary, but you can't jail a revolution.
I think that my mother, like Fred Hampton, Mark Clark,
Harriet Tubman, they felt like they were laying tracks
for a generation to come.
Come in, little brothers, sisters. Y'all sit down and get something to eat.
There was always white people around helping out.
But still, you know, there's racism.
So when the Panthers hit, the government panicked.
And they felt like the Panthers were detrimental to American society.
Remember, this country had a man named J. Edgar Hoover,
whose job it was to destroy the credibility of any black man coming up.
- That's what they did to the Panthers. - Power to the people.
The government raided every Panther's house, especially the ones
who they felt like could do the most damage as an orator.
So they just burst in and put a gun to my mother's head and said:
"Don't move. You're under arrest."
They treated her like less than human.
My mother was pregnant with me while she was in prison.
She was her own attorney, never been to law school.
She was facing 300 and something odd years.
One black woman, pregnant, beat the case.
That just goes to show you the strength of a black woman
and the strength of the oppressed.
And a month after she got out of prison, she gave birth to me.
So I was cultivated in prison. My embryo was in prison.
When I was a little baby, I remember that one moment of calm peace,
and three minutes after that, it was on.
I rebelled against my mother because she was in the movement
and we never spent time together. She was speaking and going to colleges.
I used to feel like she cared more about the people than her people.
And then after that was over, it was more time spent with me,
and we were like, "You're my mother." She was like, "You're my son."
Then she was really close with me and really strict, almost.
My mother is totally brilliant, totally understanding and caring.
And she's human. I mean, she'll be wrong a lot, but we can talk about it.
She taught me how to be community-oriented,
and to analyze society.
Me and my sister grew up good, and we have good minds and everything.
But we just didn't have money.
Poverty is...
It's no joke. If there was no money and everything depended
on your moral standards and the way you treated people,
we'd be millionaires. We'd be rich.
But, since it's not like that, then we're stone-broke.
I can't always have what I want or things that I think I need.
Poverty, if I hated anything, it would be that.
You and me were born and raised in Harlem.
And every time you put it down, you're not only putting us down,
but Mama and Papa.
My real father was a Black Panther,
but when I was growing up, I never knew who my father was for sure.
My stepfather was a gangster, a straight-up street hustler.
My mom had a kid, he didn't even care.
He's like, "That's my son," took care of me, gave me money.
He was a criminal too, out doing his thing.
So he only came, brought me money and then left.
It's OK to go to Harlem and celebrate your birthday with your friends,
but I don't think we would really fit in.
I hate saying this because whites love hearing blacks talk about this.
I know for a fact that, had I had a father,
I'd have had some discipline, I'd have had more confidence.
Your mother cannot calm you down the way a man can.
Your mother can't reassure you the way a man can.
My mother couldn't show me where my manhood was.
You need a man to teach you how to be a man.
When I was young, I was quiet, withdrawn.
I read a lot. I wrote poetry. I kept a diary.
I watched TV all the time. I stayed in front of the television.
And I could see all these people out there in this pretend world.
And I knew I could be part of it if I pretended too.
The way Arnold looked on Diff'rent Strokes,
I used to like the lifestyle, the way he used to live.
So early on, I just watched and emulated.
I thought if I can be an actor and act like those characters,
I could have some of their joy.
Oh, thank you, Mr. D!
If I could act like I had a big family, I wouldn't feel as Ionely.
My first acting job was at the Apollo Theater
when Jesse Jackson was running for president in 1984.
It was a fundraiser, and I was a little kid.
Travis, from Raisin in the Sun. When the curtain went up,
I just caught that bug that everybody talks about.
I was like, "Whoa, this is it."
It was better than sex and anything, money, everything. It was like, "Whoa,
"I want this."
We moved out of New York because my mother lost her job.
We were, like, stranded.
So we moved to Baltimore...
...which was total ignorance town to me.
I mean, Baltimore has the highest rate of blacks killing blacks in the country.
Then I auditioned for the Baltimore School of Performing Arts.
Then I started to have good-luck times.
Parents are the same No matter time nor place
They don't understand that us kids Are gonna make some mistakes
So to you, all the kids all across The land, there's no need to argue
Parents just don't understand
I spent three years in Baltimore, high-school years. I made friends,
like Jon Cole and Jada Pinkett.
You should've seen This girl's bodily dimensions
I honked my horn to get her attention She said, "Was that for me?"
I said, "Yeah." She said, "Why?"
I said, "Come on and take a ride With a hell of a guy"
I loved my classes. We were exposed to everything.
You know, theater, ballet...
...listening to different types of music,
songs that became a soundtrack to my life.
But in my homeboys' high school, it's not like that.
They don't have trips to go see this Broadway play,
they don't read things we read. They didn't know when I was like:
"Yo, Shakespeare's dope." They don't have the same experiences we had.
Then I started thinking the art school I went to
was mostly for white kids and rich minorities.
I started going, "I would have been totally different
"had I not been exposed to this."
I was living in the ghetto. We didn't have lights and electricity.
- We was about to get evicted. - We want home!
We want heat! We want lights!
We want something to do for our children!
I thought, "We're not being taught to deal with the world as it is."
The rich should live like the poor,
the poor should live like the rich. They should change every week.
The president stirred up a hornets' nest earlier this week
when he suggested the problems of the hungry
came about because they were uninformed about where to go for help.
How could Reagan live in a White House, which has a lot of rooms,
and there be homelessness? And he's talking about helping.
I don't believe that there is anyone
that is going hungry in America simply by reason
of denial or lack of ability to feed them.
It is by people not knowing where or how to get this help.
Why can't he take people off the street and put them in his White House?
Then he'll have people from the streets to help him with his ideas.
Not helpless! Homeless! Not helpless!
They haven't been homeless forever. They've done things in society.
The White House would be tainted because he doesn't want to get dirty.
Growing up in America, I loved my childhood, but I hated growing up poor.
We live in hell. We live in the gutter. We live in a war zone.
We've got us stacked up 80-deep in one building.
When you get out your house, you're strapped to protect yourself.
The same crime element that white people are scared of
black people are scared of.
While they waiting for legislation to pass, we next door to the killer.
All them killers they let out, they're in that building.
Just because we black, we get along with the killers?
What is that? We need protection too.
Then I came to California to escape that violence.
Come to Marin City, and there's even more poverty.
I was starting to see the one thing we have in common
as black people, is we share that poverty.
I made it to where I had knowledge this wasn't just me.
It was a bigger picture. It was my people getting dogged.
It wasn't just my family. It was all of us.
Moving to Baltimore and Oakland and Marin and New York,
and the poverty helped me to relate to everybody's struggle.
Don't get the wrong idea. I feel like I'm being gloomy.
I don't mean just to be like, "Damn it, it's bad out there."
I still try to be positive.
I know that good things are gonna come for me.
- Where you go to school? - Are you rolling?
- Yeah, rolling. - Go ahead, that's OK.
You dressed right for it.
He said he's been a little chilly, so this is good for him.
- Somebody will enjoy the heat in here. - Anytime.
OK. My name is Tupac Shakur, and I attend Tamalpais High School.
And I'm 17 years old.
Oh, my God, I got the phattest dja vu.
I chased girls and bought the car and loud music,
but I like to think of myself as really being socially aware.
Kept my history a mystery But now I see
The American dream Wasn't meant for me
'Cause Lady Liberty's a hypocrite She lied to me
Promised me freedom, education Equality
I think there should be a class on drugs.
There should be a class on sex education, a real sex-education class.
There should be a class on police brutality.
There should be a class on apartheid.
There should be a class on why people are hungry.
But there are not. There are classes on gym.
Physical education. Let's learn volleyball.
Fathers of this country Never cared for me
They kept my ancestors Shackled up in slavery
And Uncle Sam never did A damn thing for me
Except lie about the facts In my history
Now I'm sitting here mad Because I'm unemployed
But the government's glad Because they enjoy
When my people are down So they can screw us around
Time to change the government now No more
How do you think you're most like your mom?
I'm most like my mom because I'm arrogant. Totally arrogant.
You should see us when we get in our attitude moods.
We get in our tiffs and everything, but it's good.
My mom's my homey, but we went through our stages,
where first we was mother and son,
then it was like drill sergeant and cadet.
Then it was like dictator, little country.
Then I moved out, and I was on my own.
I was broke, nowhere to stay.
I smoked weed. I hung out with the drug dealers,
pimps and the criminals.
They were the only people that cared about me.
And I needed a father. I needed a male influence,
and these were the males.
You could see where I spent time in the streets when you talk to me.
The words I say don't come from a mother's or father's mouth.
They come from a pimp's mouth or a prostitute or a hustler or drug dealer.
To me, these were my role models.
My mom was lost at that particular moment. She was addicted to crack.
It was hard. It was hard because she was my hero.
Not long ago in Oakland, California,
I was asked by a group of children what to do if they were offered drugs.
And I answered, "Just say no."
I was broke. I didn't have enough credits to graduate, so I dropped out.
I said, "I gotta get paid. I gotta make a living."
I started selling drugs for maybe two weeks.
The dude was like, "Give me my drugs back," because I didn't know how.
The dope dealers used to look out for me. They would give me money
and be like, "Don't get involved with this. Get out there, do your dream."
So they was like my sponsors.
My dream was to make a living rapping.
Just to make music that was coming from my heart.
When I first started rapping, I needed the money, and I had to work.
Yeah, sexy baby
Do the Humpty Hump Do the Humpty Hump
Sexy baby
Do the Humpty Hump Do the Humpty Hump
That was me.
For me to get paid, I had to go out in bikini briefs and hop on top of this doll.
I was homeless. That's what I had to do.
You have to work from one point to go to another point.
I admire the work ethic.
Do the Humpty Hump Do the Humpty Hump
Just watch me do the Humpty Hump
Shock was responsible for my success.
I'm the original two-tone, big-nosed, skinny rapper.
Shock G.
Leila introduced me to Atron who was managing Digital Underground.
He was like, "I'll send you to Digital Underground. They're in the studio.
"Rap for Shock G on the spot. If he like you, I'll pick you up."
I walked in and rapped.
He was like, "Good. You're in." Boom, boom. "See you later."
And I left, walked out of there like, "Dang."
Shock was like, "Come on the road. Be my roadie. It ain't glamorous.
"You'll be working, meeting people." I said, "Cool."
Off the road, he said, "I'm gonna pay you and let you do 'Same Song'."
I did "Same Song". Ever since, it's been on.
- Tupac, rock this - I clown around when I hang
Around with the Underground
Girls who used to frown Say I'm down when I come around
Gas me and when they pass me They used to diss me
Harass me but now they ask me If they can kiss me
Get some fame, people change Wanna live their life high
Same song, can't go wrong If I play the nice guy
Claiming fame must have changed Now that we became strong
I remain, still the same Because it's the same song
I look back with the greatest fondness. Those were some of the best times.
Watch this one.
I'm gonna fuck you up. I'm gonna fuck you up.
DJ Mark, "The 45 King" This is your thing
Check out how we swing Look at my ding-a-ling
And know that I am the king A lyrical lunatic
I can rap slow or quick About fishing or politics
It don't matter because girls Be on your dick
Atron had been shopping my demo tape as a solo album.
All of a sudden, Interscope got in touch with us, and I was told that Ted Field,
this millionaire, multimillionaire, his daughter had heard my demo,
and she liked it. So he was like, "That's how I picked you."
And I was like, "Well, tell your daughter thanks."
You know you gotta love the sound It's from the rebel
The rebel of the Underground
So I went from being unknown to now having a platinum record.
2Pacalypse Now is a story of a young black male, from track one to track 13,
whether it be about teenage pregnancy, police brutality or poverty.
Also, I tell my own personal problems.
All my songs deal with the pain that I've felt from my childhood.
That's what makes me do what I do.
My inspiration for writing music is, like, Don McLean when he did "Vincent",
Lorraine Hansberry with Raisin in the Sun,
Shakespeare when he does his things.
Like deep stories, you know, like raw human needs.
I just try to speak about things that affect me and our community.
Sometimes I'm the watcher and sometimes the participant.
Sometimes it's just allegories or fables that have a moral
or theme, like the ghetto lifestyle.
Brenda's belly's getting bigger But no one seems to notice
Any change in her figure She's 12 years old
And she's having a baby In love with the molester
Who's sexing her crazy
She thinks that he'll be With her forever
And dreams of a world Where the two of them are together
Whatever
I seen that, the crack babies, what we had to go through,
losing everything and being poor and getting beat down.
Being the person I am, I said, "No, I'm changing this."
I'm trying to think of a good analogy.
It's like you've got the Vietnam War, right?
And just because the reporters show us pictures at home
of the Vietnam War, that's what made the Vietnam War end when it did,
or the shit probably would have lasted longer.
If no one knew exactly what was going on,
we just thought they were just dying valiantly, in some beautiful way.
But because we saw the horror, that's what made us stop the Vietnam War.
I thought, "That's what I'll do as an artist, as a rapper.
"I'm gonna show the graphic details of what I see
"and my community, and hopefully they'll stop it, quit."
Hello, I'm Tanya Hart, and welcome to our show.
My guest today has experienced a truly horrendous life to just be 20 years old.
His family portrait could well be a poster for America's Most Wanted.
His lyrics are controversial but also a reality of life as he has seen it.
My ear is to the streets.
I represent 20 years on this planet Earth
and what I've seen. This is my report.
It's like my battle cry to America.
They got me trapped
They can't keep the black man down
They got me trapped
No, they can't keep The black man down
In my album, the number one enemy is the crooked police officer.
They got me trapped Can barely walk the city streets
Without a cop har-asking me Searching me then asking my identity
And the ironic thing is that it never happened to me.
I was speaking from the stories of my peers.
Cuffed up, throw me on the concrete Coppers try to kill me
I mean, I said all of these things, and then it happened to me.
I had no record, all my life, no police record, until I made a record.
As my video was debuting on MTV, I was behind bars,
getting beat up by the police department.
Good morning. My name is John Burris,
and I am here today with my client, Tupac Amaru Shakur,
as well as other members of the Digital Underground rap group
and some members of the Digital Underground rap group,
a combination of the various groups.
Basically, I walked across the street at 17th and Broadway.
The police officers stopped me on the sidewalk and asked to see my ID.
They sweated me about my name. The officers said:
"You have to learn your place."
They were charging me with jaywalking.
I was riffing, arguing about why would they charge me with a petty crime.
I kept yelling, asking them to give me my citation and let me go.
Next thing I know, my face was being buried into the concrete,
and I was laying facedown in the gutter,
waking up from being unconscious in cuffs
with blood on my face. And I'm going to jail for resisting arrest.
That's harassment to me,
that I have to be stopped in the street and checked,
like we're in South Africa and asked for my ID.
Officer Boyavich repeatedly slammed my face into the floor,
while Rogers put the cuffs on. That's not called for, for jaywalking.
I got a ten-million-dollar lawsuit. They said they would settle,
but nobody cared. That wasn't blew up all over the news.
They didn't see me on TV with my eye and head busted. There are pictures.
- In Oakland? - Yes. You don't see them.
You see pictures of Tupac coming out of jail in cuffs.
You don't see pictures of police, beating my brains in.
You don't see that. But I see that. That's what I see.
We have seen what they did to Rodney King.
The whole world has seen what happened to Rodney King.
Baby, let me show you what they did to Tupac Shakur.
All that movie, that didn't mean nothing to OPD.
I was still an N-l-G-G-A, and they proved it.
And if you can see this, Mr. Cameraman,
- this is scars I'll go to my grave with. - I can see it.
These are "learn to be a nigger" scars.
- You're suing them? - For ten mil.
What else can I do? See what happens. You know how that go.
Rodney King's still fighting for his, and they got it on tape. They got it on tape.
One day I'm gonna bust Blow up on this society
Why did you lie to me? I couldn't find a trace of equality
- They settled with me. - They did?
They gave me 42,000. I had to pay my lawyer a whole bunch
and bought a car.
I settled because I was tired of court.
I could have won more, but I was tired of going to court.
I felt like any dollar from any police department was good money.
- So you got $42,000 for jaywalking? - That's a hell of a ticket.
After that case, people perceived me as a menace.
I've had chief of police, vice president,
the leader of the Black National Women's Council...
Everybody against me. Why? Why me?
I have not brought violence to you. I have not brought Thug Life to America.
I didn't create Thug Life. I diagnosed it.
What's up?
When I did Juice, my image got even more scary.
Everything starts from now.
We all go down unless we stay together.
No one's above the crew. You know that shit.
You're crazy, man.
When I auditioned for Juice, that was another good-luck time.
It was my first big part, and I just took everything and internalized it.
You're right.
I am crazy.
But you know what else?
I don't give a fuck.
Bishop is a psychopath, but more true to his character,
Bishop is a Ionely, misguided, young kid.
His heroes are James Cagney and Scarface, those kind of guys.
- Made it, Ma. Top of the world. - "Made it, Ma. Top of the world."
Know what I'm saying, "shoot them up, go out in a blaze" type gangsters.
If you've gotta go out, that's how you go out.
That motherfucker took his destiny in his own hands.
When I get a part, at first I just try to find out, how does this character feel?
Like, I make the person up in my mind.
What he looks like, try to put a face to him.
Even though it's my face, I'll give him a walk and give him an attitude.
All you have to do is relate to your character.
Even away from the set I just let myself go. I just stopped caring.
I stopped worrying about what people thought
and started staring people down more. I really just got into the part.
- Yo, Bishop, man, give me the piece. - No.
No? What the hell you mean, no? Give me the gun.
I mean I'm holding onto this till I say so.
I'm not playing.
Oh, really?
When I'm playing a character, I'm really that character.
There's nothing fake.
Oh, shit!
I just took everything and internalized it.
Tell us about your character. I know you're the villain.
Yo, I play me, straight ruthless villain, straight killer, straight take no sszzz-s.
You know what I'm saying? Straight popping partners.
Yo, Tupac will go ahead and rock this.
Juice helped me because it gave me that trust.
It let me trust my instincts.
I was confident about what I could do and what it would look like afterwards.
My next guest has not only become one of today's most talented new stars,
but he's becoming one of today's most talked about new stars.
Please welcome Tupac Shakur.
I know what I feel like when I'm in the zone, when I'm there.
So I was just trying to get that feeling.
Why are you always so mad?
The exciting performance in the film is the one of Tupac Shakur.
What do you want from me?
I think you're kind of fly. Shit.
We could start with your phone number.
This is a 22-year-old young actor, Tupac Shakur.
He's been in the film Juice, and I hope to see him again soon.
When I was doing Poetic Justice, I had to tone myself down a lot to be Lucky.
Lucky is doing the opposite of Bishop. He's working, responsible,
deliberate about things, caring for his daughter.
I'm a Gemini, so I got both sides.
See, I get a feeling there are two Tupacs.
See, I mean, you're this kind, sensitive, friendly guy,
yet you're involved in so much controversy.
I'm talking about Tupac Shakur, who had an incident
with a limo driver during a taping of In Living Color.
Tupac Shakur is free on bond tonight after his arrest this weekend in Atlanta.
The 22-year-old singer and actor was charged with shooting
two off-duty police officers.
The wounds were not serious.
The fight that led to the shooting in Marin City
reportedly broke out in this field on Saturday night.
Marin Festival USA was in full swing.
Neighbors say Tupac should not have let anyone bring a gun here.
Since he got big, they claim he's changed.
That change has broken some hearts.
Tupac was homeless. He's from here. We helped him out.
Over my career, I got arrested, like, 12 times,
some by mistake, some fate and some unwarranted.
But for whatever reason, I got to see police more than I wanted to.
In some of my cases, they dropped the charges.
But because of trouble in these court cases,
it was hard at that point for me to be trying to do a movie.
I wasn't professional. I think I was talented,
but I didn't have the concentration. And I was immature,
and my ego was out of control.
Harry Connick ain't got nothing on me. Check it.
I had to get humble again before I could do this.
More hot water may await Tupac,
based on what he tells the new issue of The Source
about costarring with Janet Jackson in her film debut, Poetic Justice.
Among other complaints,
Tupac says Janet's people asked him to take an AIDS test
- before shooting a love scene. - I don't know if it came from Janet,
but suddenly they wanted me to take an AIDS test for this love scene.
I did not disagree if we were really gonna make love.
I said, "If we can make love, I'll take four AIDS tests."
But if I'm doing a love scene with her just like somebody else did,
and they didn't take a test, I'm not.
Not only am I not taking a test, but get out of my trailer.
And they sent, like, four different people to ask me.
First they sent the producer, then the black dude, then John, then a girl.
It don't matter who you send, I'm not taking one.
To me, it was just like an insult. We had a good experience on the set.
- You look like the type of guy to care. - What's the type?
I thought I made a friend. I thought, "I know Janet Jackson for life."
When the movie was over, it was like, "This number has been changed."
And it was like a movie. I mean, it was like the day after the movie wrapped.
"I'm gonna call you." "All right."
"This number's been changed." I said, "Oh, OK."
Still, when I see her again, I'd run up and hug her. We was real cool.
I love women. I'm not gonna lie. I love women with a passion. I do. I do.
Sometimes I just wanna call Prince and be like, "Can we hang?"
Because I love women like he love women.
Hold on. I've been talking to little girls all day.
Seeing somebody my age. How you doing?
- Fine, how you doing? - Yourself?
I have ultra respect for women. I like being around females,
I'm comfortable with them on every level.
I don't get a predator thing going when I'm around demure females.
- Don't be shy. - Y'all making me blush.
You got me blushing.
I'm not uncomfortable around strong women.
- Sorry. I'm not enough. - No, I'm looking you up and down.
On TV, they'll go, "Look how he looking at Tabitha."
Don't do that.
Madonna is real nice. She's a good person. She helped me a lot.
She was real cool, like any one of my homeboys.
Jasmine Guy, she helped me. She's a good supporter.
Jada Pinkett. Jada's my heart, you know what I mean?
She will be my friend for my whole life.
Well, I'll scoop you up later in life if you ain't all shriveled up.
We'll be old together. Be like Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.
Pic, you always got a place in my heart.
She can have my one heart, my liver, my lungs, my kidneys,
my blood, marrow, all of that.
Keep your head up
Child, things are gonna get easier
- Keep your head up - Child, things will get brighter
My mother taught me to understand women a lot more than my peers can.
When I was young, I was surrounded by strong women.
My sister's the bomb. She's my biggest critic.
She's real smart, funny as all hell. She's real funny.
My mother was a matriarch. If you raised by a woman,
you're gonna think like a woman.
Since we all came from a woman, Got our name from a woman
And our game from a woman
I wonder why we take From our women
Why we rape our women Do we hate our women?
I think it's time to kill for our women Time to heal our women
Be real to our women
But I'm not a woman. I'm just a normal man.
To me, I'm the hardest man around, the hardest nigga, because I'm real.
But I'm also very soft.
I'm very sensitive, but that's why I'm so harsh, because I'm so sensitive.
And that's what I think has made me successful and famous.
So sensitive. Don't be so sensitive, Tupac.
- Well, basically... - Bugaloo.
Bugaloo? Boogaloo?
Marlon Wayans, I am playing the role of Bugaloo.
- What is Bugaloo? - Where did that name come from?
Some white guy's sitting there, "What's a homeboy hip-hop name? Bugaloo!"
"What are they calling each other these days?"
- Check it out - I get around
- What you mean you don't know? - Round and round, round we go
I get around
The Underground just don't stop For ho's. I get around
When I got famous, I got famous friends.
Mickey Rourke was a good friend, good person. He's really funny.
My memory of him is the night he's arguing with Carr, his wife.
He didn't know what to do. I was like, "Man, buy her some Cristal.
"Cristal will make someone forgive you, trust me."
They be like, "What was we fighting about?"
He's like, "That's a good idea, 'Pac." I was like, "He gotta be twice my age,
"and I'm giving him ideas."
Ain't no party like a Thug Life party Because a Thug Life party don't stop
I always gave Biggie a lot of props. The Notorious B.I.G.
I thought at the time he was my friend.
Mike Tyson, we used to kick it. He's a real cool brother, a big brother.
The only difference in us is that he's big and I'm small.
But I got the same heart he got. I want to knock everybody out.
My brother, I'm telling you, you were good.
- I enjoyed your performance. - Appreciate it. Thank you very much.
I like that people come to me and go, "You did a good job."
I was loving that somebody said, "Tupac, you a great actor."
- I'm telling you, Tupac a real nigga. - Being famous gave me confidence.
- Is Tupac a sexy motherfucker? - The crowd gave me confidence.
- Go Tupac, go Tupac, go. - Let me hear you say:
- "Go Thug Life, go Thug Life, go." - Go Thug Life, go Thug Life, go.
That's what I wanna hear. Now, I'm my own man.
I got you now! I got you now!
I put it down. I wanna get into the head seat. Excel at it.
Do it one more time, clear as possible.
Can we double it, see what it sound like?
I'm a natural-born leader.
If not, everybody lose their jobs. Everybody lose their jobs!
Back to servant. Playing the drums in the corner.
But nobody could call me a sellout. I'm not going for that.
I didn't want to change.
I loved that even though I was with Janet Jackson in big movies,
I'll be up at the dirtiest house party in the 'hood.
Damn, sweetheart You got some thighs on you
Now I can't wait to get you home Get you all alone in my bedroom
People could not believe it. I used to thrive off that.
Being up in the party, and somebody go, "Oh, my God, that's Tupac."
Going crazy because I'm in a dirty party, no security,
lights out, drinking, hella drunk. Drunk with everybody else.
But that's what kept my sanity, kept me right, kept me going.
My fans know that I'm real. My fans go to jail just like me.
They understand me. Half my fans are white.
The white fans listen as much as the black fans.
The ones that have approached me have been genuine fans.
These people will have jobs in the future and will hire my family.
Get down, man!
But many of my fans don't have ID. Some have jobs, some don't.
Some are on welfare, you know? Some are not.
Some are rich and some are poor,
but they all share that hopeless feeling. I got the underdogs on my side.
Body bags of adversaries That I had to bury
I'm almost more in awe of the people in awe of me than they are of me.
Outlaw, outlaw, outlaw
Everybody just be screaming, and I get uncomfortable.
It's similar to a deer caught in the headlights.
It's like a battle to find the right words to say at the right time.
I live Thug Life And let the money come to me
Because they could never take The game from a young G
I'm getting money
It was cool. I got to speak to young black males all over the country
about this new idea called "Thug Life"...
...which is a new kind of Black Power.
When I say, "Thug Life", I mean that shit
because these white folks see us as thugs.
I don't care if you think you a lawyer, a man, an African-American.
If you whatever the fuck you think you are,
we thugs and niggas to these motherfuckers!
Until we own some shit, I'll call it like it is.
How you gonna be a man and we starving?
Walk about five different houses,
there ain't a man in either one of them motherfuckers.
How we gonna be African-Americans if we all need a gun?
We thugs and niggas until we set this shit right.
Trust me when I tell you that shit.
Young black males identify with Thug Life, but I couldn't handle it.
I could handle it, but not right away.
- Mr. Shakur, can we get a comment? - Hell, no. Thug Life.
- Pardon me? - Thug Life. That's my comment.
What's that mean? I don't understand.
- What did happen? - Thug Life.
Imagine you have 14,000 people ready to do whatever you want.
You have, all over the country, people waiting to hear what you wanna do.
I got people in the penitentiary, bigtime OG criminals, calling me,
telling me they want me to lead their movement.
I mean, I'm gonna have a problem.
So they told me to watch my language.
Fuck that.
I'm gonna have a small identity crisis. I felt like, "I got every man in America
"who wants to take orders from me, who wants to know what I wanna do."
Holler if you hear me Pump, pump if you're pissed
Wants to know my plan for young black males. That makes me scared.
My homeys in the back streets The black streets
They fear me when they rolling In they phat jeeps
This ain't just a rap song A black song
Telling my brothers, get they strap on And look for me in the struggle
Hustling to the other brother's bubble Holler if you hear me
And I'm 22.
I was having concerts sold out, white boys, Mexicans, blacks,
and they would do what I say. I could tell them to turn in a circle,
and they would do it. I was having love,
like, undeniable love, and I was scared.
Holler if you hear me
I was scared, but so was America, so was somebody else.
- I'm a liberal Democrat. - I'm a conservative Republican,
but we both worry about the society our children live in.
But that makes me want to rise to the occasion.
It makes me want to give my whole life to it.
And I will give my whole life to this plan that I have for Thug Life.
That's my new posse, my new way of thinking.
That's how we rolling in the nine-three, Thug Life.
By "thug", I mean, not criminal, someone that beats you.
I mean, the underdog.
The person that had nothing and succeeds is a thug
because he overcame all obstacles.
It has nothing to do with the dictionary's version.
To me, thug is my pride, not being someone that goes against the law,
not being someone that takes, but being someone that has nothing,
and even though I have nothing and no home to go to, my head is up high.
My chest is out. I walk tall. I talk loud. I'm being strong.
I'm against racial, ethnic entitlements. I think they are un-American.
I don't understand why America doesn't get Thug Life.
America is Thug Life.
How is me saying, "I don't give a fuck,"
different than Patrick Henry saying, "Give me liberty or give me death"?
What makes my freedom less worth fighting for than Bosnians
or whoever they wanna fight for this year?
They should give money to the ghetto.
Even gangs can be positive. It just has to be organized.
It has to steer away from being self- destructive to being self-productive.
I organized the OGs on the East and West Coasts in penitentiaries
to come up with codes of ethics for criminals.
It's called the Code of Thug Life.
It's a code, putting order to the violence on the streets.
In Watts, Compton, Chicago, wherever.
People all over the country say, "We go by this code.
"We're against attacks on people not involved with the street gang,
"the drug trade or the illegal business at all.
"All that kidnapping and shooting drive-bys, we against that."
Thug Life ain't just a bunch of niggas going crazy.
We wanna patrol our streets. So all we saying is,
if every motherfucker out here right now gave up one dollar
to this Thug Life fund, the money don't go to me,
it go to somebody from y'all neighborhood,
and we do this shit every month. I'll bring new rappers,
I'll bring Snoop, whoever y'all want.
I'll go snatch them niggas.
For that shit to happen, we can't have violence,
and everybody gotta be down for that shit.
We gonna start slowly but surely taking our communities back.
Regulate our community. Organize. Start taking care of our own.
We gotta start somewhere, and I don't know about anything but this.
- What is the message, though? - All the people you threw away,
the dope dealers, criminals, they will be legit next to you in first class,
thanks to your boy.
You know those little things for mice,
where they go through and there's little blocks?
Well, society is like that.
They'll let you go as far as you want, but when you ask too many questions
and you're ready to change, boom, that block'll come.
There is no reason for a record like this
to be published by a responsible corporation.
Never before has there been such a will to use music
to advertise self-destructive violence.
It glorifies violence. It's creating a culture of guns and rape.
Adding insult to injury, she says, is rapper Tupac Shakur
being nominated for an NAACP Image Award.
I got the whole world fearing me, and I ain't even started.
I don't have my plan, and they're trying to stop me.
I challenge the view that those who revel in violence and depravity,
on the screen or in the song, bear no responsibility
when that spirit spreads into our culture.
No disrespect to Bob Dole. He don't know what he talking about.
He's just talking. Some card somebody gave him, he's just reading off a card.
But he's cute, you know? He's my grandfather.
- Right. - He's an old dude, talking mess.
You don't have to use vile and ugly language.
WPGC in Washington, D.C. Dropped violent or demeaning lyrics.
KACE in Los Angeles followed suit.
You're yelling, "Shoot!" in a community that is crowded with guns.
I'm not looking for approval from the black community. We are a part of it.
I'm a thug, and I rap about the oppressed fighting back.
Yes, my raps are filled with rage.
You have to be logical. You know? If I know that in this hotel room
they have food every day, and I'm knocking on the door every day to eat,
and they open the door, let me see the party,
let me see them throwing salami all over,
I mean, just throwing food around, but they're telling me there's no food.
Every day, I'm standing outside trying to sing my way in.
We are hungry, please let us in We are hungry, please let us in
After about a week that song is gonna change to:
We hungry, we need some food
After two, three weeks, it's like:
Give me the food Or I'm breaking down the door
After a year you're just like:
I'm picking the lock Coming through the door blasting
It's like, you hungry, you reached your level.
We asked ten years ago. We was asking with the Panthers.
We was asking with them, the Civil Rights Movement. We was asking.
Those people that asked are dead and in jail.
So now what do you think we're gonna do? Ask?
I put my gun away and grab my AK It's getting hectic, I can't call it
House full of alcoholics Now we're niggas under pressure
There's a bad part because kids see that and mimic you.
I haven't figured that out yet. But the positive side
is the kids who live in a house where the mother is a crackhead,
he hears the rap. He's like, "That's every day.
"So I don't have to feel ashamed." It cuts both ways.
To me, it's like, when I sing:
I live the Thug Life Baby, I'm hopeless
One person might hear that and just like the way it sounds.
But I'm doing it for the kid that lives a Thug Life and feels like it's hopeless.
So when I say, "Hopeless", and when I say it like that, it's like I reach him.
And even if, when I reach him,
it makes it look glorious to the guy that doesn't live that life,
I can't help it. It's a fad. He'll drop the Thug Life soon.
But for the person I tried to reach, he'll pick it up, and I'll be able to talk to him.