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 lonely.
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 dj 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
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
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,
Iosing 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 lonely,
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
Ain't no party like a Thug Life party
Because a Thug Life party don't stop
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 lmage 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
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.]
[But for the person I tried to reach,] he'll
pick it up, and I'll be able to talk to him.
I try to be responsible,
but it's hard.
If you worry about what you're saying,
I get writer's block.
Kind of like, "I can't say that.
That's too harsh. Can't say this."
I have to block it out and trust
my heart that I'm doing the right thing.
Pretty spit...
I was spitting.
- Chill out. Chill out.
- That's my style. That's my new style.
- That's my new style.
- 'Pac, chill out.
That's my new style.
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 II Society.
- All right, tell them why you did that.
- These chump, punk, slump...
- You'll be able to rebuttal 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 still got more for you chumps!
I read what you said about me!
I'm gonna kick their ass!
My big mouth.
Mind y'all business, I'll mind mine.
I do what I gotta do,
you do what you gotta do.
Long as I give you 12 tracks,
you give me my $12, and we even.
I don't gotta be a role model.
I don't gotta hold your hand.
I don't gotta do shit.
My big mouth.
I got a big mouth, can't help it.
- I talk from my heart, I'm real.
- We talked about
people in this business that you feel
don't have a love for their own people.
We was talking about
Spike Lee, Arsenio Hall,
Eddie Murphy and the rest of them.
I thought I was charming, but I was
immature. I did things without thinking.
Michael Jackson, Randy Jackson,
Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul,
all of them.
She wants to not be black,
but sell to blacks.
I don't appreciate her going
out of her way to say she's not black.
My actions came before thought.
Things that I did, things I said.
So many things I wanna take back.
Eddie Murphy, with all that dough he's
making, hasn't done nothing for us.
- He does a lot of charity.
- Charity doesn't get to the ghetto.
Everybody knows that.
I was young and dumb.
Being mad at Spike Lee
and all those people, all of that.
The thing I said of Quincy Jones,
he shouldn't mess
with white women.
I said I was sorry personally for that.
I didn't think of how
it would hurt people.
I'm gonna catch y'all in traffic and
be the roughest nigga you ever seen.
That turned into
more legal problems.
The People truly believe 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 feel sorry.
I just want to say, judge,
that I have a great deal 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 all the bad things that I got.
I got things against me
and people that look up to me.
I don't want the last place
they see me to be jail.
I guess it's now time
for me to render the sentence.
I obviously find that the defendant
is a talented individual.
However, this court believes that jail
time is warranted with a battery
with some injury involved.
The defendant will serve 15 days
in the county jail.
I think the judge was fair.
I still don't feel like I got
the decision that I wanted,
but he was as fair as he could be.
Really, to my homeboys, I mean,
a fight is a fight, battery is battery.
A two and a half minute problem
just cost me 15 days in jail,
and that was lenient.
But my most serious legal problems
came from women.
How I was acting with women.
The Underground just don't stop
For ho's, I get around
I will no longer sit passively,
allowing this degradation
to be continued by our children.
I think we live in a very sexist society,
and everybody's pointing
the finger at me.
When somebody asks me,
"Do you exploit women?"
With her permission, I might
smack a girl on the butt in the video.
I might be drinking champagne,
but everything in moderation,
and everything with class.
Fingertips on the hips as I dip
Gotta get a tight grip, don't slip
Loose lips sink ships, it's a trip
I love the way she licks her lips
See me jocking, put a little twist
In her hips because I'm watching
I don't have to always do a song
with the good woman.
I don't see women as all one thing.
I think all women are different.
You wonder why they call you bitch
You wonder why they call you bitch
We African-American
women, particularly,
are tired of being called ho's,
bitches and sluts by our children.
Dear Ms. DeLores Tucker
You keep stressing me
Fucking with a motherfucking mind
I figured you wanted to know
Why we call them ho's bitches
If I do something that has a bad
woman, people go, "He hates women."
If I do something that has a bad
woman, people go, "He hates women."
I don't think like that. But there
are definitely a type of female,
label them a bitch, whose main thing
is to get what they can,
and they revel in breaking a nigga's
heart and taking what he owns.
Shut the fuck up!
There's male bitches too.
Women know there are bitches.
I don't know why they're surprised.
They know. They say it louder.
They think we say they're all bitches.
That's not what we're saying.
I 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 like my mom,
"who represent a strong
black woman." I did that.
I'll rap about women I see daily.
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 normal man.
America, America
- God shed his grace on thee
- Stop.
I'm gonna close the door.
Come on, Mr. Cameraman.
This is some real private shit that's
about to happen, Mr. Cameraman.
Bye.
Anyway, I'll let you hear the sounds.
Is there a double standard
for men being promiscuous?
Yeah, but we didn't start
that double 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 world that is not like that?
- This is how it is.
- Do you look down on males
if they're as promiscuous as women?
I don't look down on anybody
that's promiscuous.
I only look down on people
who don't control the situation.
If a girl sleeps with a lot of guys,
she's still my homegirl.
You're only a bitch, not if you
sleep with a lot of guys,
but if you're sleeping
with them for money.
- So you put a price on yourself.
- Because they have a nice car.
Guys, when they sleep around,
they do it for free.
At that time, a lot of girls, they'd seen
my face on TV so many times,
they wanna be associated
with that person.
It's the fame that gets these people.
It's not me. It's the fame.
I've seen females look at
me when they didn't know me,
and I can see it, nothing.
Then someone whisper who I was,
it's this glare in the eye.
- You make yourself want them.
- How do you feel about that?
I don't understand how people 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 last year I was in the same club,
walking around,
lonely like a motherfucker.
Couldn't get a date or a dance.
I was too skinny, too something,
and now, "He's just adorable.
He's just, oh!"
But I still enjoyed sex without
the emotional connection.
And it was always a fantasy
for me to have sex
with a lot of people in the room.
But I didn't play
one situation correctly.
Rap singer Tupac Shakur was
released on $50,000 bail today,
accused of a sexual attack
in a New York hotel.
The singer was arrested Thursday
night after a woman claimed
he and three other men
overpowered her in a hotel suite.
- Are you disappointing your fans?
- Very, but they're gonna support me.
With bodyguards and attorneys, he
went into Manhattan Criminal Court.
There, the rapper and two friends were
charged with first-degree sodomy.
The allegations stem
from an incident last Thursday
in which a woman claims
she was held down
as he and two others
allegedly sodomized her.
The allegations by this
young lady are without merit.
Defense attorneys say the woman
went there consensually,
and answering machine tapes
that indicate
her interest in Shakur
were erased by police.
OK, so you tell me when your
lawyers have asked you to stop.
The girl who claims that...
What does she claim?
- I can't even say it, man.
- OK.
But technically, it's a rape case.
I wasn't convicted of no rape charge.
My charge was sexual abuse,
forcibly touching the buttocks.
I have a female saying that...
I can't say it, but...
It just bothers me so much,
you know?
To go through my life
and everything I did, coming out
of a family and household
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 emotional day
for a 20-year-old female fan,
who admitted that she had consensual
sex with Shakur on Sunday night,
four days before her alleged rape
in the hotel room.
During her cross-examination,
defense attorney Michael Warren
painted a picture of a starstruck, naive
girl anxious to have sex with Shakur.
Word is, you had a relationship with
this woman prior to all this friction.
If you can say that's a relationship.
I bumped in a club. I seen her.
Let's use a clinical term.
There was oral copulation?
Yeah, she performed oral sex
on the dance floor.
A lot of guys could say
what they wouldn't do
and what they would do,
but when it happens, you know...?
- Yeah.
- It just goes down. And it's... Really.
She did some things there at the club,
and we got together later that night.
I saw her again another time with
these guys that introduced me to her.
Everybody was having a good time,
nothing sexual, just a good time.
Me and her went in, she gave me
a massage, went to sleep, woke up,
she's screaming,
"Rape, rape." I raped her.
And she's yelling at me, "This is not
the last you're gonna see of me."
I'm cursing her out because I'm not
thinking she's really gonna do that.
And the next thing I know,
I'm going to jail.
In your opinion there was no truth
to the sexual abuse charges?
Not on my part at all.
The defense pounded away at her,
asking her why she didn't scream for
help at the time of the alleged attack.
The woman testified
that Shakur's friends said:
"Tupac needs his fans.
Don't go to the White Man with this.
"Millions of girls would love
to be in your shoes right now."
What about your cronies?
That was a big misconception.
The people with me weren't friends.
- Why were they in your room?
- I hang with lots of people.
And that's how I am.
It's similar to like you said,
about Led Zeppelin. They don't
know all of the people 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 clubs?
OK, you can kick it. I don't know him.
But that was my fault, I had that
kind of environment around me.
I didn't do nothing. I'm charged with
being in concert with some guys.
Well, 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 jail,
but I don't wanna go
for something I didn't do.
I just don't wanna be the scapegoat.
I just couldn't believe
this was going on in my life.
See the cameras. It wasn't like I had a
chance for justice like a normal citizen.
Hi, Tupac. Can you tell me
how you're doing today?
Well, I just had to listen to the
prosecution's closing argument,
and it was so far from the truth that it
has me drained at the end of the day.
But I'm leaving it in
the hands of the jury.
I'm learning a lot about people's
innermost fears in this trial.
It's not even about my trial no more.
It's just about
Ioud rap music, tattoo-having thugs.
It's about some nightmare
that these people are having.
I can't understand why it's so close.
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 life is ruined because nobody
has a chance to get the facts.
Fact is, there was no semen found.
No semen found, no forcible entry,
no entry into the anal, no nothing.
I wanted to explain it.
If you could go back to the night
when the abuse occurred,
- Is there anything you'd do differently?
- Yeah.
I would not have closed my eyes
until she was out of the room,
until everybody was out of the room.
So when you left the room
and left her with those people...
I didn't leave her with those people
or bring her to them.
- She came over?
- Right.
She came over, knew
those people, knew everything.
I just didn't grab her out of there.
I'm guilty 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 involved in something she...
- Cut. That's a problem right there.
- Excuse me.
None of these legal matters
can be asked.
I have a list of the stuff
you'll have to cut out. Sorry.
- All right.
- The gentleman is out on bail.
I see.
I couldn't defend myself.
This would never have happened
to anybody else.
They have no evidence on me,
and it's about to come out.
Now my life is over.
This is a year later.
A year after the world's
been thinking I'm a rapist.
The whole world
owes me an apology.
I went through it and didn't
kill myself like Kurt Cobain.
And I should, because this is
some crazy madness.
Central, I 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 really did shoot me."
When I wasn't dead,
immediately I was like, "Oh, man."
I was like, "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 people
screaming. I'm gonna fade out.
And I didn't... None of that was there.
I was like, "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 listed in serious
but stable condition.
Until it happened, I really did believe
no black person would ever shoot me.
I believed that I didn't have to
fear my own community.
You know, I was like,
"I represent them.
"I'm their ambassador to the world.
They would never do me wrong."
I believe that this was a robbery.
Anybody who was gonna walk into
that building was gonna be robbed.
The police don't wanna find out
who shot me. They're happy.
As far as that Vibe interview,
just read everything over
and read my reply, read their reply,
read what people say.
Everybody that was there
knows what happened.
My recollection was, I was shooting
a video, the second half of "Warning",
which is the B-side of "Big Poppa",
and I was shooting around the block.
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 Little Shawn.
I said, "What's up?" about to get on
the elevator, and he comes out shot.
The Tupac article had me pissed off,
you know what I'm saying?
Because first of all,
he dissed my man,
saying he turned his back on him,
and I know for a fact it didn't happen.
And, like, the rumors that's spreading
is on some tip like 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 called his mom. He asked
my man if he can roll him a blunt.
We asked if he was all right. He's like,
"Yeah, I don't know what's going on."
We were just trying to comfort him.
Andre Harrell called the ambulance.
And everybody there was
very supportive of him.
It was just the total opposite. He
came out and everyone ran to him.
It was nothing but love and concern.
They got different accounts of it,
and I'm the one with the bullet wounds.
I also understand that if you
was to get shot five times,
your mind is just
completely spinning.
You're real confused
about your situation.
It'll make you say things
you don't mean.
I was there for the whole thing. No one
else was there for the whole 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.
Believe me or not, I did what I had to.
God knows the truth.
There's no religion about getting shot.
I don't want any converts.
After getting shot, I was like,
"Shit, I don't know who to trust."
In a bizarre twist of events,
Tupac Shakur checked himself out of
Bellevue Hospital Wednesday night.
After surgery, Tupac checked himself
out of Bellevue against doctor's orders.
It was just time to leave.
I didn't feel safe there.
I kept getting
these crazy phone calls.
At that point, I'm just paranoid,
just bugging out.
I couldn't sleep or rest. I was like,
"I'm just tired, and I wanna just..."
And I felt like I'm like a victim,
a target.
I couldn't even sleep at home.
People could kill me at home.
And are the police gonna
come in and kill me?
You know, is there secret police?
I was so deep into the weed
at that point.
And I was like,
"I'm petrified. I'm vulnerable."
I felt like just a prisoner
to my own fame.
That's why I wanted to die at that point.
I felt like, "If everybody's so worried,
why ain't nobody came to help?"
- Mr. Shakur?
- Open up, please. Open up.
- Excuse me.
- Step back, please.
- Just keep it tight, that's all.
- How are you this morning?
The jury deliberated, then, after days
of twists worthy of a Hollywood drama,
Tupac Shakur has finally had
one question answered.
Tonight, the jury found him guilty
of three counts of sexual abuse,
but innocent on six other charges,
including sodomy.
Please, give me some space.
Please, man.
Why did you decide to
leave the hospital?
Please, y'all are not letting me get
through, man. Let me get through!
- Back it up.
- Why did you leave?
And sentencing for this trial
has yet to be scheduled.
Where I was sent was
a maximum-security penitentiary.
I know when I was young,
I couldn't wait to get to jail, straight up.
I mean, I was scared and everything,
but I felt 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 tells 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 jail,
you know what I mean?
By another prisoner who had life.
He had nothing to lose,
you know what I mean?
I came to jail. I'm telling you, it's dirty.
It's filthy. It's like you're an animal.
At first, me and the guards
had problems.
I got smacked and treated bad.
They did whatever they could to break
me because I used to talk a lot of shit.
As soon as I got there, they went,
"There he goes, the rich nigger."
I was like, "Oh, shit, he said nigger!"
Everybody's looking at me like, "So?"
And I was like, "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 talking about niggers.
Niggers was the ones on the rope,
hanging off the thing.
Niggas is the ones with gold ropes,
hanging out at clubs.
I learned things there. In jail, it's like
how we should be in life, humble.
I was talking to skinheads
because if you don't like black people,
all right, that's fine.
That's your opinion.
I want people to respect my opinion
when I'm rapping, so I'll respect yours.
You treat me with respect, I'll treat you
with respect, and we'll get along.
This skinhead, "hate black people" all
over, getting autographs for cousins.
I accomplished something.
I know, by him getting my autograph,
that meant something to me.
He couldn't hate black people
and get my autograph.
- The food was terrible, I guess.
- Oh, my goodness.
They've got this liver surprise thing.
The liver surprise. They're trying
to pump that jail on the menu.
They're trying to get it to go prime-time,
get it in the rotation.
I was like, "We had this yesterday.
I liked it already, goddamn."
- No Tater Tots?
- No. Are you crazy? Tater Tots?
I used to get baked potatoes
with a huge finger imprint on it.
- All right.
- It was bad.
No, you don't wanna get me started.
Jell-O with hair all in the mold.
I'd be like, "Damn, man,
how are you gonna mess up Jell-O?"
Jell-O is so wholesome and family-like.
It just ruins it for me.
To have a hair in there, yeah.
I mean, I'm like, "Come on,
Bill Cosby pumps this, man!"
Put the hair in my Jell-O.
And you can't go, "There's a hair in
my Jell-O. I'd like to send this back.
"Can I see the cook, please?"
The cook is a big dude
named Bubba Joe.
The first eight months I spent in
solitude 23 hours a day, reading.
I wrote a script called Live 2 Tell.
I got How to Write a Screenplay,
that big famous book by Syd Field.
I got that, and I remembered all of the
scripts I ever read, and I wrote one.
I read a lot of good books.
I read a lot of Maya Angelou's books.
The Art of War by Sun Tzu.
But in terms of writing music
and lyrics, I couldn't do it.
Everybody's like, "He's in jail now.
He's gonna have the bomb album."
But it's the opposite.
Prison kills your spirit, straight up.
It kills your spirit.
I couldn't write. My inspiration was
gone because I was a caged animal.
But when I was in jail,
a lot of people supported me.
Jasmine Guy, Jada Pinkett,
Mickey Rourke,
he just wrote me funny stories.
The name that sticks out the most,
I'll keep saying this, is Tony Danza.
To me, he is the bomb forever.
I will be his number one fan forever,
because when I got his letter,
I was like, "Whoa!"
I was screaming out to everybody,
"Guess who wrote me!"
They had a story on the local 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 walking me downstairs,
everything, trying to peep a look.
- Did she come?
- No. No, I'm glad.
- 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 clean,
we got real close again.
And even as a crack fiend, Mama
You always was a black queen, Mama
I finally understand, for a woman
It ain't easy, trying to raise a man
I don't blame her for anything.
My mom's the bomb, you know.
The world'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 also for all the mothers.
I'm proud of that.
It affected a lot of people.
It was from Me Against the World,
which was completed
before I went to jail.
It'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 jail.
They'd say stuff like, "You're in jail.
Won't be any rapping for a long time."
I'd be like, "My album is
number one in the country.
"It just beat Bruce Springsteen."
And they'd be like,
"Go back to your cell."
I used to get Entertainment Weekly
and see where my record was
and just trip out and be like,
"Number one in the whole country."
To me, it will always be my favorite,
and jail made me wanna dig deeper.
It took five bullets for me to see
what was really going on.
In jail, you get perspective, and you
start looking at things differently,
like everything is not so important.
You know, you try not
to take it personal.
Because you're talking to killers.
They say something you don't like,
you can't say, "What?"
You gotta be like, "OK, look man,
would you mind not calling me...?"
Anger management like
a mother.
In jail, I tried not to have
negative feelings towards nobody.
It's not like I wanted to get out
and go shoot somebody up.
People said, "You softened up."
Ain't nothing soft. Nothing changed.
If anything, my mentality was like,
"Trust nobody.
"Trust nobody."
It's not like I'm untouchable.
I could be killed as soon as I get out.
I just thought,
"I already took five bullets,
"and if I can help it,
I don't plan on taking more."
Rapper, actor and convict, Tupac
Shakur, walked out of jail last week,
bailed out to the tune of $1.4 million by
Suge Knight of Death Row Records,
which signed Shakur to a deal.
My closest friends did me in.
My closest friends, my homeys.
I took care of their whole family,
took care of everything,
Iooked out for them, put them
in the game, turned on me.
So I just thought, "How could I make
them sorry they ever did this to me?
"How can I come back, like,
50 times stronger and better?"
Fear is stronger than love. Remember
that. Fear is stronger than love.
The love I gave meant nothing
when it came to fear.
No question, sign with Death Row.
Suddenly, I was out on bail,
pending appeal.
If I win my appeal, which,
if God wills, I will,
I would've done 11 months
for nothing.
You see that, judge? I didn't curse.
Probation people, I didn't curse.
Give me my props. Let me stay free.
I was relieved, happy to be home.
I wanted to drive up
and down Sunset
because I love L.A. with a passion.
I love Sunset, everything about L.A.
Can I get tatted up real quick?
I want a crown here.
You know, the energy, that's L.A.
- Hello?
- I'm saying,
we on Venice Beach. It's what you do.
I've been in jail 11 months, Tabitha.
You're supposed to put "I love you".
You got to let me get a look
at something.
It's a trip when last week
you were in a cell,
and then, next week, I'm up at Monty's
with Cristal champagne
and filet mignon and lobster
and shrimps.
Everybody went, "Let me take you out.
You're home? Let me take you to this!"
We was all up in Roscoe's.
I even celebrated at El Pollo Loco
because I was dreaming about
El Pollo Loco the whole time.
Then I went straight to the studio.
And I did 24 tracks in
less than two weeks.
You can mix it later and have niggas
that love being in the studio
just add the drumbeat and shit. You
can do that after the rappers leave.
That's when it's fresh.
Get that beat popping, throw them
niggas on the track, put it down.
Everybody will listen, be like,
"This is the hook."
We'll go lay the hook.
That's the song.
Plus, I had so much to say,
I figured this was the best way to vent,
instead of paying some
psychotherapist $50 million.
I went in the studio. It was cheaper.
Here we go! California, get up!
Out on bail, fresh out of jail
California dreaming
Soon as I step on the scene
I'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
In 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 realize one thing:
Tupac is Death Row.
I feel I have more than just
a business relationship with him.
He can be like a brother, a friend.
I like everyone on the record company.
I like Suge, Snoop and Dre.
I hang out with them anyway,
now it's official.
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 like,
"Dre, I want some beats right now."
He's like, "I'm working on
'California Love'."
I said, "You know you owe me this.
"I'm new on Death Row,
fresh out of jail.
"You ain't gonna be finishing
your album soon."
I love collaborating with creative people
that's as talented as 'Pac.
He got right in and wrote his lyrics
while 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 style.
Ya'll know we down with this
rock thing, nine-six flavor, Death Row.
But who knew it would last,
this West Side staff?
Yep, yep, yep. This is me and Snoop,
"2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted",
the bomb track. It's the first single.
It's gonna be like the anthem
of West Coast rap.
This is gonna shake the whole
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
In the same motherfucking place
At the same motherfucking time
Y'all niggas about to feel this
Break out the champagne glasses
Picture perfect
I 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
I keep my hand on my gun
'Cause they got me on the run
Now I'm back in the courtroom
Waiting on the outcome
Me and Snoop represent the nucleus
of the entire ghetto.
Snoop represents the more calm,
all legit, by the book,
no waves,
let's get our business handled.
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 I gotta throw away
Floating in a black Benz
And trying to do a show a day
I represent the hard-core, no-holds-
barred, no-prisoners, relentless thug.
They wonder how I 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 calm one and the relentless one.
My nigga, Dogg, with me
Eternally the most wanted
Here's my commercial for Death Row.
If you come to Death Row,
you will see
your art brought to a bigger plateau,
and you will be paid one of these days.
Death Row. Count with me.
Count with me.
This is for my homeboys in jail.
These are 100s.
And they ain't counterfeit.
If I said it was the money,
the struggle 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 living large." It's not like that.
People wanna sue you,
and I have to settle for this and that
when I know I didn't do anything,
just because it's like:
"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 $100 bill.
Me, Suge and Damu gonna be
on the $100 bill.
I felt I'm getting pimped.
This is the $100 bill
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.
People fail to realize
this is not just play. I work.
Run! Scatter, scatter!
Drag K off the stage.
Y'all come on, man.
Do it for real, man. One, two, three.
When it's time to get down
and do my business, I'm going to.
I can't get no blood on the set?
Shit.
I believe I'm more responsible,
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 jail, I couldn't
remember why I was rapping.
But I was away from it so long, I said,
"I really like going to the studio.
"I really like creating."
Living held down
My game plan, to be trained
And military mind of a thug lord
I like music, and I like acting.
I like 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 sell six million records,
the reason I can go to jail
and come out without a scratch,
the reason I am who I am is because I
can look into my face and find my soul.
It's there. I didn't sell it.
So lash out and get a glass
Done finally got his own drink
Call it the best
Introducing a special brew
Made for a chosen few
I'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 ally."
Damu! My dog's going crazy,
ready to kill a few people.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- He wanna kill.
I love my artists.
I don't consider my people artists.
I consider them family.
It's just a big difference, if they
decided to turn in rapping or singing,
they'd still be my homeboys.
We'd still travel together.
If they needed something,
what's mine will still be theirs.
It's no situation where I'm dealing
with them strictly for business,
because they're good.
It's not like that.
You've gotta have more respect
for your people.
Plus we've got a Death Row East
going on.
- I'm sure you heard about that.
- Tell me about that.
Hold on. Damu! Damu, sit!
But Death Row has a reputation
for having a thug-like mentality.
Won't that get you in trouble?
Death Row has a bigger reputation
for success than anything else.
The reason for all of the fear
involves the world of this man,
the man getting out of the limousine.
Six-foot-three, 335-pound
Marion Knight,
known by the nickname of "Suge",
short for "Sugar".
It's an efficient camp over here,
professional, business-oriented.
I like that.
At the age of only 30,
and with a lengthy criminal record,
including three felony convictions,
Suge Knight has managed
to become the head
of a $100 million record company
and one of the most powerful
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 chilling.
- No?
No, man, Suge a rider.
I know what good morals are,
but you're supposed to disregard
good morals when you're
living in a crazy, bad world.
If you're in hell,
how can you live like an angel?
You're surrounded by devils,
trying to be an angel?
That's like suicide.
I'd like to tell Tupac to keep
his guards up. We're with him.
One other thing I'd like 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 all in the videos,
all on the records, dancing,
come to Death Row.
When I got out of jail, the West Coast-
East Coast shit was really starting.
Wait, the East Coast don't love
Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg?
The East Coast
ain't got no love 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 earlier.
Everybody thought it was a war,
a war for record sales and attention.
But to me it was personal.
I love the East Coast.
I'm from the East Coast.
But I felt like Puffy and Biggie wanted
to dirty up everything I worked for.
So it made me come back
more relentless.
I'm mad at Biggie. I'm rushing
the nigga. What's the problem?
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 alive? I mean, you safe?
Man, I'm so happy you're free.
Yeah? Happy to see you,
lying piece of shit.
'Pac, please don't kill me.
It was Buff's idea.
- No, man.
- I'm just a rapper.
Please don't take me out of the game.
I ain't going to kill you.
We was homeboys once, Pig.
Once we homeboys,
we always homeboys,
even if you is a fat phony.
And I did a song
with Faith, Biggie's wife.
Faith's my homegirl. I just want
to send a shout-out to Faith. Hey, girl.
Then I did "Hit 'Em Up".
That's why I fucked your bitch,
You fat motherfucker
Which is a classic battle 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 I fucked your wife
We bust on Bad Boys
Niggas fucked for life
I'm a self-made millionaire
Thug living out of prison
Pistols in the air
Biggie, remember when I 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
- I took it and smiled
Now I'm about set the record straight
With my AK, I'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 looking at things,
the East Coast-West Coast thing,
it just got out of control.
Dudes was getting killed,
and I felt responsible.
But I couldn't stop it.
We ain't mad at the whole New York,
just certain people.
I got this project coming out along with
some brothers called One Nation.
It's like an East Coast-West Coast
collaboration
to kill this whole new vibe.
Everybody want it to be a war
between the East Coast
and West Coast.
It's really a problem
with two rappers.
The East Coast-West Coast thing
is something journalists
are making up to get paid off,
so it can drag out
and everybody can have albums. They
perpetuate this, so it can be drama.
When it go down,
don't look at me and Biggie
and be like, "Why is there a big
East Coast/West Coast war?"
When you're shooting this
to 3,300 homes, 300 countries,
telling them about a war
that they would never know exists.
That's where information
becomes a problem.
We both need
to exercise greater restraint.
Damn, sometimes life gets
messed up.
When I was on Death Row,
I was successful but not happy.
Tupac, your life has been marred
by considerable pain.
Do you think you'll get to the point
where you can live a normal life?
No. But, I...
I'm going for it. I'm trying for it,
and until then
I have to make the life that I do live
as happy as I can
and try to do the best
with what I have.
Live the best life I can live,
be as happy as I can be.
Nothing is perfect for anybody,
I don't think.
I felt trapped.
They say, "You made your bed,
lay in it"?
I tried to move.
I can't move to no other bed.
I felt I can't live a different lifestyle.
This the life they gave me,
this the life I made.
I felt I can't change, not for the courts,
not for the parole board,
not for nobody. This is it.
I also felt like 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 luxury
to spend all 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 album's ready to go.
So it's all good.
I felt as if the only thing
that can kill me is death,
and even then my music
will live forever.
At approximately 9:00 p.m.,
security cameras at the MGM Grand
captured Tupac, Suge Knight and
members of the Death Row entourage
beating an alleged South Side Crip,
Orlando 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 club.
While stopping at this intersection
a car with four people pulled up
and fired on Shakur and Knight.
Shakur was shot
several times in the chest.
The driver, his record producer,
was grazed in the head.
He's returned to intensive care
after another surgery,
still in critical condition.
All week long fans of Tupac
have gathered outside the hospital.
He's undergone two operations.
His right lung was removed.
He's intermittently conscious.
Jesse Jackson's been here.
Family is keeping vigil.
Despite reports that his wounds
were not life-threatening,
people at the hospital continue to tell
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
like Shakespeare, I guess.
But I have no bad feelings.
I have love for everybody.
Please welcome the mothers
of Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur,
Afeni Shakur and Voletta Wallace.
Coming to grips
with my past, it was hard.
I don't feel what I did was evil.
I feel like the way I was living
and my mentality was a part
of my progression to be a man.
But we grow. We all grow.
We're made to grow.
You either evolve,
or you disappear.
I don't want to be forgotten.
I'll always be a troublemaker
to some people.
But I still get love
from my community.
I owe them everything. That's why
I owe everything to the 'hood.
I've got love there.
I've got love from thugs
and the street dudes.
And that focuses me back
on what I should be doing,
lay out the real mat
on the world and how it is.
The message is,
young black males could do anything
if you just give us a shot,
stop trying to beat us down.
And to my homeboys, we need
to be in control of ourselves.
I'm not saying I'll change the world,
but I guarantee I'll spark
the brain that will change the world.
So keep your head up.
Do what you've gotta do.
And then inside of you,
I'll be reborn.