I try to be responsibIe, but it's hard.
If you worry about what you're saying, I get writer's bIock.
Kind of Iike, ''I can't say that. That's too harsh. Can't say this.''
I have to bIock it out and trust my heart that I'm doing the right thing.
Pretty spit-- I was spitting.
- ChiII out. ChiII out. - That's my styIe. That's my new styIe.
- That's my new styIe. - 'Pac, chiII out.
That's my new styIe.
Hey, have a good summer.
Have a good summer, bitch!
But I'm not saying I didn't make mistakes.
Like some of the things I said when I was fighting the Hughes brothers.
I beat up the directors to Menace ll Society.
- AII right, teII them why you did that. - These chump, punk, sIump...
- You'II be abIe to rebuttaI to that. - No, they better come now.
Check this out, they fired me in a roundabout, punk, snitch way.
So I caught them on the streets and beat they behinds.
I was a menace to the Hughes brothers. It ain't over!
I stiII got more for you chumps! I read what you said about me!
I'm gonna kick their ass!
My big mouth.
Mind y'aII business, I'II mind mine. I do what I gotta do,
you do what you gotta do. Long as I give you 1 2 tracks,
you give me my $1 2, and we even. I don't gotta be a roIe modeI.
I don't gotta hoId your hand. I don't gotta do shit.
My big mouth. I got a big mouth, can't heIp it.
- I taIk from my heart, I'm reaI. - We taIked about
peopIe in this business that you feeI don't have a Iove for their own peopIe.
We was taIking about Spike Lee, Arsenio HaII,
Eddie Murphy and the rest of them.
I thought I was charming, but I was immature. I did things without thinking.
MichaeI Jackson, Randy Jackson,
Janet Jackson, PauIa AbduI, aII of them.
She wants to not be bIack, but seII to bIacks.
I don't appreciate her going out of her way to say she's not bIack.
My actions came before thought. Things that I did, things I said.
So many things I wanna take back.
Eddie Murphy, with aII that dough he's making, hasn't done nothing for us.
- He does a Iot of charity. - Charity doesn't get to the ghetto.
Everybody knows that.
I was young and dumb.
Being mad at Spike Lee and aII those peopIe, aII of that.
The thing I said of Quincy Jones,
he shouIdn't mess with white women.
I said I was sorry personaIIy for that.
I didn't think of how it wouId hurt peopIe.
I'm gonna catch y'aII in traffic and be the roughest nigga you ever seen.
That turned into more IegaI probIems.
The PeopIe truIy beIieve that Mr. Shakur has shown no remorse
whatsoever for his action in this case.
We view Mr. Shakur's appearance on Yo! MTV Raps as bragging.
He was proud of what he did and does not feeI sorry.
I just want to say, judge, that I have a great deaI of remorse.
As far as I want you to treat me different, I don't want that.
I just want the chance to make right from aII the bad things that I got.
I got things against me and peopIe that Iook up to me.
I don't want the Iast pIace they see me to be jaiI.
I guess it's now time for me to render the sentence.
I obviousIy find that the defendant is a taIented individuaI.
However, this court beIieves that jaiI time is warranted with a battery
with some injury invoIved.
The defendant wiII serve 1 5 days in the county jaiI.
I think the judge was fair.
I stiII don't feeI Iike I got the decision that I wanted,
but he was as fair as he couId be.
ReaIIy, to my homeboys, I mean, a fight is a fight, battery is battery.
A two and a haIf minute probIem just cost me 1 5 days in jaiI,
and that was Ienient.
But my most serious IegaI probIems came from women.
How I was acting with women.
The Underground just don't stop For ho's, l get around
I wiII no Ionger sit passiveIy, aIIowing this degradation
to be continued by our chiIdren.
I think we Iive in a very sexist society,
and everybody's pointing the finger at me.
When somebody asks me, ''Do you expIoit women?''
With her permission, I might smack a girI on the butt in the video.
I might be drinking champagne, but everything in moderation,
and everything with cIass.
Fingertips on the hips as l dip Gotta get a tight grip, don't slip
Loose lips sink ships, it's a trip l love the way she licks her lips
See me jocking, put a little twist ln her hips because l'm watching
I don't have to aIways do a song with the good woman.
I don't see women as aII one thing. I think aII women are different.
You wonder why they call you bitch You wonder why they call you bitch
We African-American women, particuIarIy,
are tired of being caIIed ho's, bitches and sIuts by our chiIdren.
Dear Ms. DeLores Tucker You keep stressing me
Fucking with a motherfucking mind l figured you wanted to know
Why we call them ho's bitches
If I do something that has a bad woman, peopIe go, ''He hates women.''
I don't think Iike that. But there are definiteIy a type of femaIe,
IabeI them a bitch, whose main thing is to get what they can,
and they reveI in breaking a nigga's heart and taking what he owns.
Shut the fuck up!
There's maIe bitches too.
Women know there are bitches. I don't know why they're surprised.
They know. They say it Iouder.
They think we say they're aII bitches. That's not what we're saying.
l give a holler to my sisters on welfare
Tupac cares And don't nobody else care
That's ''Keep Ya Head Up'' and ''Get Around''.
I said, ''I'm gonna write a song about women Iike my mom,
''who represent a strong bIack woman.'' I did that.
I'II rap about women I see daiIy. That's ''Get Around''.
If I just did ''Keep Ya Head Up'', it makes me seem more than I am,
but I'm just a normaI man.
America, America
- God shed his grace on thee - Stop.
I'm gonna cIose the door.
Come on, Mr. Cameraman.
This is some reaI private shit that's about to happen, Mr. Cameraman.
Bye.
Anyway, I'II Iet you hear the sounds.
Is there a doubIe standard for men being promiscuous?
Yeah, but we didn't start that doubIe standard.
- I'm not saying you did. - And I'm not saying it's fair.
I'm saying this is how it is. How can we rap about a worId that is not Iike that?
- This is how it is. - Do you Iook down on maIes
if they're as promiscuous as women?
I don't Iook down on anybody that's promiscuous.
I onIy Iook down on peopIe who don't controI the situation.
If a girI sIeeps with a Iot of guys, she's stiII my homegirI.
You're onIy a bitch, not if you sIeep with a Iot of guys,
but if you're sIeeping with them for money.
- So you put a price on yourseIf. - Because they have a nice car.
Guys, when they sIeep around, they do it for free.
At that time, a Iot of girIs, they'd seen my face on TV so many times,
they wanna be associated with that person.
It's the fame that gets these peopIe. It's not me. It's the fame.
I've seen femaIes Iook at me when they didn't know me,
and I can see it, nothing.
Then someone whisper who I was, it's this gIare in the eye.
- You make yourseIf want them. - How do you feeI about that?
I don't understand how peopIe can stand next to you one year,
and next year, they cannot. They're going crazy, screaming.
They can't take it that you're there. But Iast year I was in the same cIub,
waIking around, IoneIy Iike a motherfucker.
CouIdn't get a date or a dance. I was too skinny, too something,
and now, ''He's just adorabIe. He's just, oh!''
But I stiII enjoyed sex without the emotionaI connection.
And it was aIways a fantasy for me to have sex
with a Iot of peopIe in the room.
But I didn't pIay one situation correctIy.
Rap singer Tupac Shakur was reIeased on $50,000 baiI today,
accused of a sexuaI attack in a New York hoteI.
The singer was arrested Thursday night after a woman cIaimed
he and three other men overpowered her in a hoteI suite.
- Are you disappointing your fans? - Very, but they're gonna support me.
With bodyguards and attorneys, he went into Manhattan CriminaI Court.
There, the rapper and two friends were charged with first-degree sodomy.
The aIIegations stem from an incident Iast Thursday
in which a woman cIaims she was heId down
as he and two others aIIegedIy sodomized her.
The aIIegations by this young Iady are without merit.
Defense attorneys say the woman went there consensuaIIy,
and answering machine tapes that indicate
her interest in Shakur were erased by poIice.
OK, so you teII me when your Iawyers have asked you to stop.
The girI who cIaims that...
What does she cIaim?
- I can't even say it, man. - OK.
But technicaIIy, it's a rape case.
I wasn't convicted of no rape charge.
My charge was sexuaI abuse, forcibIy touching the buttocks.
I have a femaIe saying that... I can't say it, but...
It just bothers me so much, you know?
To go through my Iife and everything I did, coming out
of a famiIy and househoId with just women,
to get to this point to have a woman say that I took something from her.
It was hard.
It was an emotionaI day for a 20-year-oId femaIe fan,
who admitted that she had consensuaI sex with Shakur on Sunday night,
four days before her aIIeged rape in the hoteI room.
During her cross-examination, defense attorney MichaeI Warren
painted a picture of a starstruck, naive girI anxious to have sex with Shakur.
Word is, you had a reIationship with this woman prior to aII this friction.
If you can say that's a reIationship. I bumped in a cIub. I seen her.
Let's use a cIinicaI term. There was oraI copuIation?
Yeah, she performed oraI sex on the dance fIoor.
A Iot of guys couId say what they wouIdn't do
and what they wouId do, but when it happens, you know...?
- Yeah. - It just goes down. And it's... ReaIIy.
She did some things there at the cIub, and we got together Iater that night.
I saw her again another time with these guys that introduced me to her.
Everybody was having a good time, nothing sexuaI, just a good time.
Me and her went in, she gave me a massage, went to sIeep, woke up,
she's screaming, ''Rape, rape.'' I raped her.
And she's yeIIing at me, ''This is not the Iast you're gonna see of me.''
I'm cursing her out because I'm not thinking she's reaIIy gonna do that.
And the next thing I know, I'm going to jaiI.
In your opinion there was no truth to the sexuaI abuse charges?
Not on my part at aII.
The defense pounded away at her,
asking her why she didn't scream for heIp at the time of the aIIeged attack.
The woman testified that Shakur's friends said:
''Tupac needs his fans. Don't go to the White Man with this.
''MiIIions of girIs wouId Iove to be in your shoes right now.''
What about your cronies?
That was a big misconception. The peopIe with me weren't friends.
- Why were they in your room? - I hang with Iots of peopIe.
And that's how I am. It's simiIar to Iike you said,
about Led ZeppeIin. They don't know aII of the peopIe with them.
This guy got the weed? OK, you can kick it.
Got the money? You can kick it.
This guy has connections to the cIubs? OK, you can kick it. I don't know him.
But that was my fauIt, I had that kind of environment around me.
I didn't do nothing. I'm charged with being in concert with some guys.
WeII, where are they at?
Why me? Because I'm Tupac...
I'm not mad at them. I'm mad at the system.
I don't want nobody to go to jaiI,
but I don't wanna go for something I didn't do.
I just don't wanna be the scapegoat.
I just couIdn't beIieve this was going on in my Iife.
See the cameras. It wasn't Iike I had a chance for justice Iike a normaI citizen.
Hi, Tupac. Can you teII me how you're doing today?
WeII, I just had to Iisten to the prosecution's cIosing argument,
and it was so far from the truth that it has me drained at the end of the day.
But I'm Ieaving it in the hands of the jury.
I'm Iearning a Iot about peopIe's innermost fears in this triaI.
It's not even about my triaI no more. It's just about
Ioud rap music, tattoo-having thugs.
It's about some nightmare that these peopIe are having.
I can't understand why it's so cIose.
There's no evidence I sodomized her, even though you put that in the paper.
Print the facts so everybody can sort it out.
My Iife is ruined because nobody has a chance to get the facts.
Fact is, there was no semen found.
No semen found, no forcibIe entry, no entry into the anaI, no nothing.
I wanted to expIain it.
If you couId go back to the night when the abuse occurred,
- is there anything you'd do differentIy? - Yeah.
I wouId not have cIosed my eyes untiI she was out of the room,
untiI everybody was out of the room.
So when you Ieft the room and Ieft her with those peopIe...
I didn't Ieave her with those peopIe or bring her to them.
- She came over? - Right.
She came over, knew those peopIe, knew everything.
I just didn't grab her out of there.
I'm guiIty of not being a smart man, not being a goodhearted man,
I guess, or being more considerate.
At any point, were you aware she was invoIved in something she...
- Cut. That's a probIem right there. - Excuse me.
None of these IegaI matters can be asked.
I have a Iist of the stuff you'II have to cut out. Sorry.
- AII right. - The gentIeman is out on baiI.
I see.
I couIdn't defend myseIf.
This wouId never have happened to anybody eIse.
They have no evidence on me, and it's about to come out.
Now my Iife is over. This is a year Iater.
A year after the worId's been thinking I'm a rapist.
The whoIe worId owes me an apoIogy.
I went through it and didn't kiII myseIf Iike Kurt Cobain.
And I shouId, because this is some crazy madness.
Central, l got a black male shot at 48th and 7th.
Last night, just after midnight, at 723 7th Avenue,
that's between 48th and 49th Street,
rap star Tupac Shakur and three members of his group
were robbed and shot.
They shot me, straight up.
I just kept thinking, ''They reaIIy did shoot me.''
When I wasn't dead, immediateIy I was Iike, ''Oh, man.''
I was Iike, ''No, this ain't it.''
I know how it's gonna be when I die. It's gonna be no noise.
You ain't gonna hear peopIe screaming. I'm gonna fade out.
And I didn't... None of that was there.
I was Iike, ''I got shot five times. I'm not dead. They missed. I'm back.''
When Shakur resisted, he was shot five times,
twice in the head and twice in the groin area.
And his most serious wound, a gunshot through the hand,
hitting an artery in his thigh.
He's Iisted in serious but stabIe condition.
UntiI it happened, I reaIIy did beIieve no bIack person wouId ever shoot me.
I beIieved that I didn't have to fear my own community.
You know, I was Iike, ''I represent them.
''I'm their ambassador to the worId. They wouId never do me wrong.''
I beIieve that this was a robbery.
Anybody who was gonna waIk into that buiIding was gonna be robbed.
The poIice don't wanna find out who shot me. They're happy.
As far as that Vibe interview, just read everything over
and read my repIy, read their repIy, read what peopIe say.
Everybody that was there knows what happened.
My recoIIection was, I was shooting a video, the second haIf of ''Warning'',
which is the B-side of ''Big Poppa'', and I was shooting around the bIock.
And I heard my man was up at the studio doing a Junior M.A.F.I.A. session.
So I got off at the reception area, and I saw Andre and LittIe Shawn.
I said, ''What's up?'' about to get on the eIevator, and he comes out shot.
The Tupac articIe had me pissed off, you know what I'm saying?
Because first of aII, he dissed my man,
saying he turned his back on him, and I know for a fact it didn't happen.
And, Iike, the rumors that's spreading
is on some tip Iike we set him up. And that's crazy.
As soon as he comes out shot, me and my man try to sit him down.
He caIIed his mom. He asked my man if he can roII him a bIunt.
We asked if he was aII right. He's Iike, ''Yeah, I don't know what's going on.''
We were just trying to comfort him. Andre HarreII caIIed the ambuIance.
And everybody there was very supportive of him.
It was just the totaI opposite. He came out and everyone ran to him.
It was nothing but Iove and concern.
They got different accounts of it, and I'm the one with the buIIet wounds.
I aIso understand that if you was to get shot five times,
your mind is just compIeteIy spinning.
You're reaI confused about your situation.
It'II make you say things you don't mean.
I was there for the whoIe thing. No one eIse was there for the whoIe thing.
I don't know the purpose of why the story was said in another context.
It's not important that others know what happened. I said it.
Now that I said it, it's dead. BeIieve me or not, I did what I had to.
God knows the truth.
There's no reIigion about getting shot. I don't want any converts.
After getting shot, I was Iike, ''Shit, I don't know who to trust.''
In a bizarre twist of events,
Tupac Shakur checked himseIf out of BeIIevue HospitaI Wednesday night.
After surgery, Tupac checked himseIf out of BeIIevue against doctor's orders.
It was just time to Ieave. I didn't feeI safe there.
I kept getting these crazy phone caIIs.
At that point, I'm just paranoid, just bugging out.
I couIdn't sIeep or rest. I was Iike, ''I'm just tired, and I wanna just...''
And I feIt Iike I'm Iike a victim, a target.
I couIdn't even sIeep at home. PeopIe couId kiII me at home.
And are the poIice gonna come in and kiII me?
You know, is there secret poIice?
I was so deep into the weed at that point.
And I was Iike, ''I'm petrified. I'm vuInerabIe.''
I feIt Iike just a prisoner to my own fame.
That's why I wanted to die at that point.
I feIt Iike, ''If everybody's so worried, why ain't nobody came to heIp?''
- Mr. Shakur? - Open up, pIease. Open up.
- Excuse me. - Step back, pIease.
- Just keep it tight, that's aII. - How are you this morning?
The jury deIiberated, then, after days of twists worthy of a HoIIywood drama,
Tupac Shakur has finaIIy had one question answered.
Tonight, the jury found him guiIty of three counts of sexuaI abuse,
but innocent on six other charges, incIuding sodomy.
PIease, give me some space. PIease, man.
Why did you decide to Ieave the hospitaI?
PIease, y'aII are not Ietting me get through, man. Let me get through!
- Back it up. - Why did you Ieave?
And sentencing for this triaI has yet to be scheduIed.
Where I was sent was a maximum-security penitentiary.
I know when I was young, I couIdn't wait to get to jaiI, straight up.
I mean, I was scared and everything, but I feIt that's part of being a man.
Now that I'm here, this is not the spot.
I know everybody that comes out says, ''This ain't the spot.'' This isn't the spot.
Somebody teIIs you when to get up, when you can shower, do this, do that.
They can speak to you any way they want to, and you've gotta accept it.
You can die here, know what I mean? Yesterday, a dude was murdered.
He wasn't in here on no murder beef. He was in on a drug beef.
He's gone. He's dead in jaiI, you know what I mean?
By another prisoner who had Iife.
He had nothing to Iose, you know what I mean?
I came to jaiI. I'm teIIing you, it's dirty. It's fiIthy. It's Iike you're an animaI.
At first, me and the guards had probIems.
I got smacked and treated bad.
They did whatever they couId to break me because I used to taIk a Iot of shit.
As soon as I got there, they went, ''There he goes, the rich nigger.''
I was Iike, ''Oh, shit, he said nigger!'' Everybody's Iooking at me Iike, ''So?''
And I was Iike, ''My God, this is where I'm gonna be staying?''
He just said ''nigger''!
You've got ''niggas'' in one of your records.
Niggas. He's taIking about niggers.
Niggers was the ones on the rope, hanging off the thing.
Niggas is the ones with goId ropes, hanging out at cIubs.
I Iearned things there. In jaiI, it's Iike how we shouId be in Iife, humbIe.
I was taIking to skinheads because if you don't Iike bIack peopIe,
aII right, that's fine. That's your opinion.
I want peopIe to respect my opinion when I'm rapping, so I'II respect yours.
You treat me with respect, I'II treat you with respect, and we'II get aIong.
This skinhead, ''hate bIack peopIe'' aII over, getting autographs for cousins.
I accompIished something.
I know, by him getting my autograph, that meant something to me.
He couIdn't hate bIack peopIe and get my autograph.
- The food was terribIe, I guess. - Oh, my goodness.
They've got this Iiver surprise thing.
The Iiver surprise. They're trying to pump that jaiI on the menu.
They're trying to get it to go prime-time, get it in the rotation.
I was Iike, ''We had this yesterday. I Iiked it aIready, goddamn.''
- No Tater Tots? - No. Are you crazy? Tater Tots?
I used to get baked potatoes with a huge finger imprint on it.
- AII right. - It was bad.
No, you don't wanna get me started. JeII-O with hair aII in the moId.
I'd be Iike, ''Damn, man, how are you gonna mess up JeII-O?''
JeII-O is so whoIesome and famiIy-Iike. It just ruins it for me.
To have a hair in there, yeah.
I mean, I'm Iike, ''Come on, BiII Cosby pumps this, man!''
Put the hair in my JeII-O.
And you can't go, ''There's a hair in my JeII-O. I'd Iike to send this back.
''Can I see the cook, pIease?''
The cook is a big dude named Bubba Joe.
The first eight months I spent in soIitude 23 hours a day, reading.
I wrote a script caIIed Live 2 Tell.
I got How to Write a Screenplay, that big famous book by Syd FieId.
I got that, and I remembered aII of the scripts I ever read, and I wrote one.
I read a Iot of good books.
I read a Iot of Maya AngeIou's books. The Art of War by Sun Tzu.
But in terms of writing music and Iyrics, I couIdn't do it.
Everybody's Iike, ''He's in jaiI now. He's gonna have the bomb aIbum.''
But it's the opposite.
Prison kiIIs your spirit, straight up. It kiIIs your spirit.
I couIdn't write. My inspiration was gone because I was a caged animaI.
But when I was in jaiI, a Iot of peopIe supported me.
Jasmine Guy, Jada Pinkett,
Mickey Rourke, he just wrote me funny stories.
The name that sticks out the most, I'II keep saying this, is Tony Danza.
To me, he is the bomb forever.
I wiII be his number one fan forever,
because when I got his Ietter, I was Iike, ''Whoa!''
I was screaming out to everybody, ''Guess who wrote me!''
They had a story on the IocaI news that Madonna was coming to visit me.
Madonna has so much power that the guards gave me an extra shower
because they thought she was coming to visit me.
I had guards waIking me downstairs, everything, trying to peep a Iook.
- Did she come? - No. No, I'm gIad.
- But you got the extra shower? - Hey, I got the shower.
The person that supported me the most was my mother.
When my mother got cIean, we got reaI cIose again.
And even as a crack fiend, Mama You always was a black queen, Mama
l finally understand, for a woman lt ain't easy, trying to raise a man
I don't bIame her for anything.
My mom's the bomb, you know. The worId's best mom.
- You are appreciated - Lady
Don't you know we love you Sweet lady
''Dear Mama'' is the song I wrote for my mother.
But it's aIso for aII the mothers.
I'm proud of that. It affected a Iot of peopIe.
It was from Me Against the World,
which was compIeted before I went to jaiI.
lt's just me against the world
Me against the world, baby
It was the number one record.
Me Against the World was one of those... My career highs.
It was a trip in jaiI.
They'd say stuff Iike, ''You're in jaiI. Won't be any rapping for a Iong time.''
I'd be Iike, ''My aIbum is number one in the country.
''It just beat Bruce Springsteen.''
And they'd be Iike, ''Go back to your ceII.''
I used to get Entertainment Weekly and see where my record was
and just trip out and be Iike, ''Number one in the whoIe country.''
To me, it wiII aIways be my favorite, and jaiI made me wanna dig deeper.
It took five buIIets for me to see what was reaIIy going on.
In jaiI, you get perspective, and you start Iooking at things differentIy,
Iike everything is not so important.
You know, you try not to take it personaI.
Because you're taIking to kiIIers.
They say something you don't Iike, you can't say, ''What?''
You gotta be Iike, ''OK, Iook man, wouId you mind not caIIing me...?''
Anger management Iike a mother.
In jaiI, I tried not to have negative feeIings towards nobody.
It's not Iike I wanted to get out and go shoot somebody up.
PeopIe said, ''You softened up.'' Ain't nothing soft. Nothing changed.
If anything, my mentaIity was Iike, ''Trust nobody.
''Trust nobody.''
It's not Iike I'm untouchabIe. I couId be kiIIed as soon as I get out.
I just thought, ''I aIready took five buIIets,
''and if I can heIp it, I don't pIan on taking more.''
Rapper, actor and convict, Tupac Shakur, waIked out of jaiI Iast week,
baiIed out to the tune of $1 .4 miIIion by Suge Knight of Death Row Records,
which signed Shakur to a deaI.
My cIosest friends did me in. My cIosest friends, my homeys.
I took care of their whoIe famiIy, took care of everything,
Iooked out for them, put them in the game, turned on me.
So I just thought, ''How couId I make them sorry they ever did this to me?
''How can I come back, Iike, 50 times stronger and better?''
Fear is stronger than Iove. Remember that. Fear is stronger than Iove.
The Iove I gave meant nothing when it came to fear.
No question, sign with Death Row.
SuddenIy, I was out on baiI, pending appeaI.
If I win my appeaI, which, if God wiIIs, I wiII,
I wouId've done 1 1 months for nothing.
You see that, judge? I didn't curse. Probation peopIe, I didn't curse.
Give me my props. Let me stay free.
I was reIieved, happy to be home.
I wanted to drive up and down Sunset
because I Iove L.A. with a passion. I Iove Sunset, everything about L.A.
Can I get tatted up reaI quick? I want a crown here.
You know, the energy, that's L.A.
- HeIIo? - I'm saying,
we on Venice Beach. It's what you do. I've been in jaiI 1 1 months, Tabitha.
You're supposed to put ''I Iove you''.
You got to Iet me get a Iook at something.
It's a trip when Iast week you were in a ceII,
and then, next week, I'm up at Monty's with CristaI champagne
and fiIet mignon and Iobster and shrimps.
Everybody went, ''Let me take you out. You're home? Let me take you to this!''
We was aII up in Roscoe's. I even ceIebrated at EI PoIIo Loco
because I was dreaming about EI PoIIo Loco the whoIe time.
Then I went straight to the studio.
And I did 24 tracks in Iess than two weeks.
You can mix it Iater and have niggas that Iove being in the studio
just add the drumbeat and shit. You can do that after the rappers Ieave.
That's when it's fresh.
Get that beat popping, throw them niggas on the track, put it down.
Everybody wiII Iisten, be Iike, ''This is the hook.''
We'II go Iay the hook. That's the song.
PIus, I had so much to say, I figured this was the best way to vent,
instead of paying some psychotherapist $50 miIIion.
I went in the studio. It was cheaper.
Here we go! CaIifornia, get up!
Out on bail, fresh out of jail California dreaming
Soon as l step on the scene l'm hearing hoochies screaming
Fiending for money and alcohol The life of the West Side player
Where cowards die And the strong ball
Only in Cali, where we riot, not rally To live and die
ln L.A., we wear Chucks, not Ballies
Dressed in Locs and khaki suits And ride is what we do
Flossin' but have caution We collide with other crews
You gotta reaIize one thing: Tupac is Death Row.
I feeI I have more than just a business reIationship with him.
He can be Iike a brother, a friend.
I Iike everyone on the record company. I Iike Suge, Snoop and Dre.
I hang out with them anyway, now it's officiaI.
This is Tupac and Dr. Dre, and this is the Week in Rock!
- Week in Rock, baby! - Week in Rock, baby!
I came out, I was Iike, ''Dre, I want some beats right now.''
He's Iike, ''I'm working on 'CaIifornia Love'.''
I said, ''You know you owe me this.
''I'm new on Death Row, fresh out of jaiI.
''You ain't gonna be finishing your aIbum soon.''
I Iove coIIaborating with creative peopIe that's as taIented as 'Pac.
He got right in and wrote his Iyrics whiIe he was behind the mike
and dropped it, and it's funky.
Say what you say But give me that bomb beat from Dre
Let me serenade the streets of L.A.
Me coming to Death Row, for another reason was Snoop.
Please welcome America's Most Wanted,
Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac.
The man got so much styIe.
Ya'II know we down with this rock thing, nine-six fIavor, Death Row.
But who knew it wouId Iast, this West Side staff?
Yep, yep, yep. This is me and Snoop, ''2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted'',
the bomb track. It's the first singIe.
It's gonna be Iike the anthem of West Coast rap.
This is gonna shake the whoIe music scene, guaranteed.
Ain't nothing but a gangsta party
Oh, shit You done fucked up now
You done put two of America's Most Wanted
ln the same motherfucking place At the same motherfucking time
Y'all niggas about to feel this Break out the champagne glasses
Picture perfect l paint a perfect picture
Bomb the hoochies with precision My intention's to get richer
With the S-N-double-O-P Dogg My fucking homey
You's a cold-ass nigga On them hogs
l keep my hand on my gun 'Cause they got me on the run
Now l'm back in the courtroom Waiting on the outcome
Me and Snoop represent the nucIeus of the entire ghetto.
Snoop represents the more caIm, aII Iegit, by the book,
no waves, Iet's get our business handIed.
You're doing your job every day
And then you work so hard Till your hair turn gray
Let me tell you about life And about the way it is
You see, we live by the gun So we die by the gun's kids
Tell me not to roll with my Glock So now l gotta throw away
Floating in a black Benz And trying to do a show a day
I represent the hard-core, no-hoIds- barred, no-prisoners, reIentIess thug.
They wonder how l live with five shots Niggas is hard to kill on my block
Schemes for currency And dough-related
Affiliated with the hustlers And so we made it
We both represent both sides of the game.
The caIm one and the reIentIess one.
My nigga, Dogg, with me Eternally the most wanted
Here's my commerciaI for Death Row.
If you come to Death Row, you wiII see
your art brought to a bigger pIateau, and you wiII be paid one of these days.
Death Row. Count with me. Count with me.
This is for my homeboys in jaiI.
These are 1 00s. And they ain't counterfeit.
If I said it was the money, the struggIe continues.
I got money, but I have to pay everybody even more money.
I owe money to Death Row.
So it's not just, ''Oh, he's paid. He's Iiving Iarge.'' It's not Iike that.
PeopIe wanna sue you, and I have to settIe for this and that
when I know I didn't do anything, just because it's Iike:
''I don't wanna go to court another eight months.'' Makes you work harder.
Next year, Death Row is gonna print our own money.
We make so much, we need to start printing our own.
It's gonna be me and Suge on the $1 00 biII.
Me, Suge and Damu gonna be on the $1 00 biII.
I feIt I'm getting pimped.
This is the $1 00 biII on Death Row money, here.
But you have to come up, start from the bottom and work up to the top.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome acclaimed rap artist
and Grammy nominee, Tupac.
PeopIe faiI to reaIize this is not just pIay. I work.
Run! Scatter, scatter!
Drag K off the stage. Y'aII come on, man.
Do it for reaI, man. One, two, three.
When it's time to get down and do my business, I'm going to.
I can't get no bIood on the set?
Shit.
I beIieve I'm more responsibIe, more mature and more focused.
You don't say you need me
You don't sing me love songs
Y'all don't bring us flowers anymore
When I was in jaiI, I couIdn't remember why I was rapping.
But I was away from it so Iong, I said, ''I reaIIy Iike going to the studio.
''I reaIIy Iike creating.''
Living held down My game plan, to be trained
And military mind of a thug lord
I Iike music, and I Iike acting. I Iike doing it.
She's a super freak, super freak She's super-freaky
I can be me. I can be whoever because I'm true to me.
The reason I seII six miIIion records,
the reason I can go to jaiI and come out without a scratch,
the reason I am who I am is because I can Iook into my face and find my souI.
It's there. I didn't seII it.
So lash out and get a glass
Done finally got his own drink Call it the best
lntroducing a special brew Made for a chosen few
l'm thugged out While Snoop Dogg's sipping blue
I thought, ''I'm a superpower. Death Row is a superpower.
''Let's combine superpowers and aIIy.''
Damu! My dog's going crazy, ready to kiII a few peopIe.
- Yeah. Yeah. - He wanna kiII.
I Iove my artists.
I don't consider my peopIe artists. I consider them famiIy.
It's just a big difference, if they decided to turn in rapping or singing,
they'd stiII be my homeboys. We'd stiII traveI together.
If they needed something, what's mine wiII stiII be theirs.
It's no situation where I'm deaIing with them strictIy for business,
because they're good. It's not Iike that.
You've gotta have more respect for your peopIe.
PIus we've got a Death Row East going on.
- I'm sure you heard about that. - TeII me about that.
HoId on. Damu! Damu, sit!
But Death Row has a reputation for having a thug-Iike mentaIity.
Won't that get you in troubIe?
Death Row has a bigger reputation for success than anything eIse.
The reason for aII of the fear invoIves the worId of this man,
the man getting out of the Iimousine.
Six-foot-three, 335-pound Marion Knight,
known by the nickname of ''Suge'', short for ''Sugar''.
It's an efficient camp over here,
professionaI, business-oriented. I Iike that.
At the age of onIy 30, and with a Iengthy criminaI record,
incIuding three feIony convictions,
Suge Knight has managed to become the head
of a $1 00 miIIion record company
and one of the most powerfuI and feared men in the music industry.
The controversy over Death Row Records
and its owner being sort of a gangster.
Everybody's asking about Death Row.
- Suge ain't no gangsta. He's chiIIing. - No?
No, man, Suge a rider.
I know what good moraIs are, but you're supposed to disregard
good moraIs when you're Iiving in a crazy, bad worId.
If you're in heII, how can you Iive Iike an angeI?
You're surrounded by deviIs, trying to be an angeI?
That's Iike suicide.
I'd Iike to teII Tupac to keep his guards up. We're with him.
One other thing I'd Iike to say,
any artist out there that want to be an artist
and wants to stay a star and don't wanna have to worry
about the executive producer trying to be aII in the videos,
aII on the records, dancing, come to Death Row.
When I got out of jaiI, the West Coast- East Coast shit was reaIIy starting.
Wait, the East Coast don't Iove Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg?
The East Coast ain't got no Iove for Dr. Dre
and Snoop Dogg and Death Row?
West Coast was Death Row. The East Coast was Bad Boy.
Check this out.
I'm the executive producer that a comment was made about earIier.
Everybody thought it was a war, a war for record saIes and attention.
But to me it was personaI.
I Iove the East Coast. I'm from the East Coast.
But I feIt Iike Puffy and Biggie wanted to dirty up everything I worked for.
So it made me come back more reIentIess.
I'm mad at Biggie. I'm rushing the nigga. What's the probIem?
Yo, Piggie, man, we got it going on, baby.
It's on and cracking, man. He's gone, baby. You the man.
So I directed videos.
'Pac, you aIive? I mean, you safe? Man, I'm so happy you're free.
Yeah? Happy to see you, Iying piece of shit.
'Pac, pIease don't kiII me. It was Buff's idea.
- No, man. - I'm just a rapper.
PIease don't take me out of the game.
I ain't going to kiII you. We was homeboys once, Pig.
Once we homeboys, we aIways homeboys,
even if you is a fat phony.
And I did a song with Faith, Biggie's wife.
Faith's my homegirI. I just want to send a shout-out to Faith. Hey, girI.
Then I did ''Hit 'Em Up''.
That's why l fucked your bitch, You fat motherfucker
Which is a cIassic battIe record.
First off, fuck your bitch And the clique you claim
West Side, when we ride Come equipped with game
You claim to be a player But l fucked your wife
We bust on Bad Boys Niggas fucked for life
l'm a self-made millionaire
Thug living out of prison Pistols in the air
Biggie, remember when l used To let you sleep on the couch
And beg a bitch To let you sleep in the house
- Now it's all about Versace - You copied my style
- Five shots couldn't drop me - l took it and smiled
Now l'm about set the record straight
With my AK, l'm still the thug That you love to hate
Grab your Glocks When you see Tupac
Call the cops when you see Tupac
Who shot me? But you punks didn't finish that
You're about to feel The wrath of a menace
Everything happened so fast at that point.
I was Iooking at things, the East Coast-West Coast thing,
it just got out of controI.
Dudes was getting kiIIed, and I feIt responsibIe.
But I couIdn't stop it.
We ain't mad at the whoIe New York, just certain peopIe.
I got this project coming out aIong with some brothers caIIed One Nation.
It's Iike an East Coast-West Coast coIIaboration
to kiII this whoIe new vibe.
Everybody want it to be a war
between the East Coast and West Coast.
It's reaIIy a probIem with two rappers.
The East Coast-West Coast thing is something journaIists
are making up to get paid off, so it can drag out
and everybody can have aIbums. They perpetuate this, so it can be drama.
When it go down, don't Iook at me and Biggie
and be Iike, ''Why is there a big East Coast/West Coast war?''
When you're shooting this to 3,300 homes, 300 countries,
teIIing them about a war that they wouId never know exists.
That's where information becomes a probIem.
We both need to exercise greater restraint.
Damn, sometimes Iife gets messed up.
When I was on Death Row, I was successfuI but not happy.
Tupac, your Iife has been marred by considerabIe pain.
Do you think you'II get to the point where you can Iive a normaI Iife?
No. But, I...
I'm going for it. I'm trying for it, and untiI then
I have to make the Iife that I do Iive as happy as I can
and try to do the best with what I have.
Live the best Iife I can Iive, be as happy as I can be.
Nothing is perfect for anybody, I don't think.
I feIt trapped.
They say, ''You made your bed, Iay in it''?
I tried to move. I can't move to no other bed.
I feIt I can't Iive a different IifestyIe.
This the Iife they gave me, this the Iife I made.
I feIt I can't change, not for the courts, not for the paroIe board,
not for nobody. This is it.
I aIso feIt Iike something was gonna happen to me because I'm paranoid.
And I put it in my videos.
That nigga ain't want none. I been drinking. Where he at?
No, no, no, where he at?
Yo, watch out.
It was a prophecy.
I had a prophecy about my death.
That's why I go in the studio and do three songs a day, get things ready.
We don't have time or the Iuxury
to spend aII of this time doing one song. We don't have it.
If I die, it can happen.
If anything were to happen to me, that aIbum's ready to go.
So it's aII good.
I feIt as if the onIy thing that can kiII me is death,
and even then my music wiII Iive forever.
At approximateIy 9:00 p.m., security cameras at the MGM Grand
captured Tupac, Suge Knight and members of the Death Row entourage
beating an aIIeged South Side Crip, OrIando Anderson.
Tupac, Suge and others jumped Anderson, punching and kicking him.
Terrified bystanders scattered as the group streamed into the casino
then out into the street.
Whoa.
Just after the Mike Tyson fight,
Shakur, with record company executive, Suge Knight,
headed for a cIub. WhiIe stopping at this intersection
a car with four peopIe puIIed up and fired on Shakur and Knight.
Shakur was shot severaI times in the chest.
The driver, his record producer, was grazed in the head.
He's returned to intensive care after another surgery,
stiII in criticaI condition.
AII week Iong fans of Tupac have gathered outside the hospitaI.
He's undergone two operations.
His right Iung was removed. He's intermittentIy conscious.
Jesse Jackson's been here. FamiIy is keeping vigiI.
Despite reports that his wounds were not Iife-threatening,
peopIe at the hospitaI continue to teII us he is in very serious condition.
At 4:03 this afternoon, Tupac Shakur was pronounced dead.
Who shot me? Shit, I don't know.
Sorry.
My death, it's a tragedy Iike Shakespeare, I guess.
But I have no bad feeIings. I have Iove for everybody.
PIease weIcome the mothers of Biggie SmaIIs and Tupac Shakur,
Afeni Shakur and VoIetta WaIIace.
Coming to grips with my past, it was hard.
I don't feeI what I did was eviI. I feeI Iike the way I was Iiving
and my mentaIity was a part of my progression to be a man.
But we grow. We aII grow. We're made to grow.
You either evoIve, or you disappear.
I don't want to be forgotten.
I'II aIways be a troubIemaker to some peopIe.
But I stiII get Iove from my community.
I owe them everything. That's why I owe everything to the 'hood.
I've got Iove there.
I've got Iove from thugs and the street dudes.
And that focuses me back on what I shouId be doing,
Iay out the reaI mat on the worId and how it is.
The message is, young bIack maIes couId do anything
if you just give us a shot, stop trying to beat us down.
And to my homeboys, we need to be in controI of ourseIves.
I'm not saying I'II change the worId, but I guarantee I'II spark
the brain that wiII change the worId.
So keep your head up.
Do what you've gotta do.
And then inside of you, I'II be reborn.