2Pac Vibe Interviews

Transcribed Vibe Interviews

The Lost Interview, Part 1

Where do you see yourself in twenty years from now?
If God give me breath for twenty more years, I see myself changing the world because my thought patterns are so opposite of what is the norm, so I would have to change the world or I have to be changed by the world.

How is it working with Suge and how do you keep the fans close to you? And a lot of your East Coast fans feel like your new allegiance to the West Coast has felt… you know… a lot of them feel like maybe you’re not loyal to the East Coast anymore, and—
That’s so nonsense. Poppycock! Because this is not a new allegiance to the West Coast. I’ve been on the West Coast all this time. It’s just because some people—not all—some people on the East Coast be on their dicks so hard that they never heard me say I’m living on the West Coast!

Right.
It’s just that by me keeping it real, I always said where I came from. I always gave New York their props. On Me Against the World, I took a whole song to give it up. So now, on the next album, when I want to give it up for my home—where I’m at—everybody got a problem? Why didn’t they have no problem when Biggie say “Brooklyn in the house” every ****ing show he do? Why didn’t they have a problem with “Bronx,” and they just did a Sprite commercial with the Bridge and KRS, but why is it not hip-hop when I do it? I mean, goddamn! Why is it suddenly, a nigga tripping when I do it? Why everybody else can have a war, have beef within the music, talk about differences, and “It’s okay, it’s music, it’s hip-hop, it’s groundbreaking.” When I do it, it’s war? And that’s all I’m doing. All I’m doing is saying I’m tired of you talking about where you from. And if that’s what we gonna do now? ‘Cause we was doing it like hip-hop was one nation, and I have proof to say what I was doing. I did more for the East Coast than the East Coast did. I put more guns in East Coast niggas’ hands than East Coast niggas did when they came out here. I put them niggas onto more weed gates and weed spots and safe havens and safe spots than the East Coast did. I put more rappers on than they did! I gave Biggie his first shows! I was the one, I was that bridge that niggas used to walk on to get over here; I explained it. I’m the one that told you. I’m why all these niggas running around with a gangbanger on their payroll now.

The Lost Interview, Part 2

Is there still a beef going on between you and Biggie?
It was never a beef, it’s only a difference of opinion. To me… my homeboy Suge gave me the best advice I could ever get from anybody. He said when people ask if he’s beefing with Bad Boy, with Puffy, he said, “It’s like me going to the playground and picking on little kids.” That’s like me being mad at my little brother because he’s getting cash now; I’m not mad at that. I’m just mad at my little brother when he don’t respect me. And when you don’t respect me, I’m gonna spank your ass. I don’t give a **** how rich you got; on the block, I’m your big brother. I will break your big ass down. And that’s my only point, and I feel as though he wronged me. You got out of hand and you wronged me, you got seduced by the power. Not because he’s an evil person, but because money is evil, if it’s not handled right. If you lose your composure, you could do anything, and fear got stronger than love, and niggas did what they wasn’t supposed to do. They know in their heart! That’s why they in hell now.

Right.
They can’t sleep. That’s why they’re telling all the reporters and all the people, “Why they doing this, they ****ing up hip-hop, blah blah blah,” ‘cause they in hell. They can’t make money, they can’t go anywhere, they can’t look at themselves ‘cause they know the Prodigal Son has returned; I’m alive, the ghost is walking around, you know what I mean? And I’m alive, talking. In jail, I didn’t talk; I made peace. Now, everybody that thinks that I disrespected, I love, I love my East Coast fans. I’m from there. I’m eating New York pizza, I drive New York Jeeps. But I’m saying let’s keep it real for a second. If you half the lover of music that you think you are, study. Go back and study. Study how “Party and Bullshit” was me before I met Biggie; you don’t hear my music in his raps. Study how after I met Biggie, Ready to Die came out, and his whole style changed. Study. Study why I would be mad. Study why I would be mad when half of New York, half of the major New York rappers or their managers or their agents or their somebody was there when I got shot, and nobody could give me no information. Just study that. Study how when Wu-Tang got their chain snatched at Six-Six-Deuce, I not only found who did it, but gave them the message that if they want to see the niggas that did it, they could see ‘em, man-to-man, just you and them, no guns, no nothing, if you feel like that. That’s all I ask for. That’s all I ask for, if you gon’ act like you a gangster or a G or a king of New York, I’ma expect that. And when you don’t come through, I’m gonna want to crush your empire, and that’s what it’s time for.

The Lost Interview, Part 3

So, do you think Puffy was involved in the shooting?
Only they can answer that question. I have my own opinion, but I wouldn’t slander their name like they did mine. I wouldn’t say things that I knew, you know what I mean? I believe so, I do believe so. I have proof—things that I could say that would back up my claim, but this is not for the world to know about, you know what I mean? This is between me and him, and only he knows. So every time he say it didn’t happen or blah, blah, blah, that’s the only thing that makes this become an issue to everybody. You seen what I said in the VIBE article; I basically bowed out and was gon’ go ahead about my life. The next issue… no, it wasn’t even the next issue, ‘cause them cowards waited about four issues to get their story together. Four issues later, half of New York is commenting on me getting shot, and before, they was all like, “We didn’t see nothing,” in the first issue; read it, VIBE viewers! Nobody seen shit. The fourth issue when they came back with a reply, everybody knew what I did, they knew what I said, I was “acting.” Who gets shot five times and acts? Oh, I didn’t get shot five times in their vision; I only got shot once ‘cause they “found the bullet.” The police found it, but now they’re the cops, now they’re doing detective work. They found the bullet? Oh, you found the bullet, huh? So what is this other shit in me then? What was the doctors talking about? Can you explain these other holes in me? How did I get gunpowder all over me? That insulted my intelligence.

So yes, I did say Thug Life was dead. Yes, I bowed out, all of that. But when they said that, they breathed new life in me. And Thug Life not only became a rap group, but it became a way of life for life for me because they disrespected me, my name, my family, what I had been through. They said that I couldn’t be in pain, I could not feel, I could not be hurt in my moment in pain when I was shot five times in jail for a crime I didn’t commit. While every other black person, I mean, whoever, they was ****in’ babies in the ass, or killing *****es and cutting them in fifty pieces; these niggas got support. I go to jail for a crime everybody know I did not commit, get shot five times and I’m getting “raped in jail,” whoomptie, womptie; they just say anything to assassinate my character. What that show me? Remember. Remember this lack of a conscience… when I come out. Remember this lack of mercy… when I come out. Remember this lack of compassion… when I come out. But now I come out, everybody want to calm down and relax and forget what you said? Donnie Simpson was on TV in front of bars like this going, “Who am I? Tupac, hahaha.” But I’m wrong? You feel me? Niggas is hypocrites! You read while I gave my whole soul to you motha****as and said, “Yo, I’m through, I just want to chill, I just want to live life,” and motha****as took shots from every direction. They thought that I’m gay now, he a “**** me in the ass” now. So okay, you want to see some macho shit? I’m the most macho nigga out here. I thought you niggas knew, I’m the most thuggish nigga out here. I have no motha****in’ fear… I have no fear, I have only ambition, and I want mine, and I will do anything to protect and feed my family, and these niggas represent a threat ‘cause I worked too hard on this.

And as far as hip-hop and all of that, I feel as though I’m not the god of hip-hop, but what we do on the West Coast, I sold five million in two months. Biggie been out two years, he’s barely touching two million. This nigga had fifty remixes, a thousand… he got everybody in New York in his videos, and still barely touching two million. I’ve been out two months, my shit sold five million with two videos out. I’m just starting. These niggas can’t touch us. They can’t! They can’t really, it’s funny.

The Lost Interview, Part 4

Do you think the new era of rap is, like, not Thug Life or whatever? Where do you see yourself?
That’s what they want to do. That’s what they want to do because everybody is shell-shocked, and they having trauma. We’ve been having traumatic nights always. I want to get away from it a lot; I tried to get away from it, but you can’t, that’s what they taught me.

Right.
The streets didn’t teach me that Thug Life can never die, the world taught me that. I thought I could retire and move on. When I moved on to the so-called “real world.” the “civilized world,” these motha****as is worse than the niggas on the streets! They was telling, I had little girls writing to me, crying, saying, “You got raped in jail, I’m so sorry.” That shit right there is what will fuel the anger that will never die. I had to write letters to a thousand little kids, explaining to them that I will be dead before a motha****a will rape me, and you know that. So, as far as everybody, there is no mercy in my heart, you know what I mean? I’m not out here on no wild shit like I was before. This is not the same Tupac, believe me. I’m just very pissed off. And don’t think ‘cause you see me at an award show smiling or giving away an award, or because I don’t fight at this time, that don’t mean that I ain’t mad. I’m pissed off. And don’t tell me ain’t nothing wrong and we should all be together and woo-woo-woo, ‘cause y’all niggas ain’t getting no money. You ain’t getting no money ‘cause I made it that way.

Do you have groups coming out that you’re producing?
Yup, the Outlawz.

Oh really?
I murdered Thug Life and gave birth to the Outlawz. I murdered Thug Life, them niggas ain’t act right. I murdered all of them, as far as the music business, and I gave birth to the Outlawz, and they all blood relatives. Now, I got a military—not “mob” like Italians—but mob like we’ve been mob-orientated all our lives. **** that shit they’ve been telling me about, because everybody saying because we choose to be organized now that we are emulating Italians? And we should imitate Italians ‘cause they don’t like us? Motha****as got it twisted, you know what I mean? We got organization because we peep game! And it’s not the mob really that we seen, it’s really the government! They the biggest mob. That’s what we study—governments. Just like me, they say, “This guy is Mr. Duplicity, he’s always saying this good shit to the females, then he say ‘ho’ and this, that.” See, that’s where you’re wrong. First, you tell all them niggas; you telling Too $hort, he never say nice shit, and they telling him he’s a horrible person. I say one bad shit on one side, a good shit on the other side, and I’m Mr. Duplicity? What does the world want? They need to sit their politically correct ass down and figure out what they want ‘cause they bullshit.

Do you read a lot?
All the time. I’m really into books.

What’s your favorite title?
Right now, I’m into Mastering the Art of War, The Art of War, I just found all these new books. Thoughts of a General, How to win an Argument Every Time, The Buying of the President. What’s that book I got? The Russian guy?

Stalin.
Stalin, I got that. Christopher Darden’s book. You’ll Never Work Again in Hollywood, whatever that is that they’re talking about, all the people that slept together, I’ve been reading that, a lot of different things, but mostly shit on what built generals and what made countries. I want to read what Clinton reads ‘cause he does the same shit I do, but don’t get in trouble. All his homeboys commit suicide, he get caught with his pants down in the bathroom, and this nigga is still the President! I got women all marching outside my shows, this nigga is the ****in’ President! I’m 24, he 40, what’s his excuse?

Aside from the fame and the money, what do you think you can offer someone in a relationship?
With a woman, you mean?

Yeah.
I believe that… I always discuss this… I feel like I’m one of the old-fashioned type of guys, where as soon as I find me a woman who doesn’t mind the fact that I want to be in charge and that I believe that, just like the yin-and-yang, there’s a masculine and a feminine, I believe in that in a relationship. I believe that most of our problems as black people and as people in general is that we’ve forgotten our roles. The men have forgotten their roles as men; therefore, the women have forgotten their roles, and that’s where we get all this duplicity in lovemaking and duplicity in sexuality, and it’s ‘cause we’ve forgotten our roles and are willing to settle for less. Not that there are not legitimate people who really do like this style, but a lot of it right are like, “Niggas ain’t shit, so I want some pussy,” you know what I mean? And the niggas is being like, “These black *****es ain’t shit,” or “These white *****es ain’t shit.” For me, I can’t do that. I can’t turn my love off for a woman, no matter if they send me to jail and they talk shit, and they really do piss me off, but I still can’t love a man. I still love women, I still get excited when they come in the room and all that. So I feel as though what I can offer is my viewpoint, who I am, my style, my lifestyle, and that I believe in my heart I’m a man’s man. I’ve made myself, I’m a millionaire by my own hands, you know what I mean? I fight for myself. I’ve been fighting for myself. I’m a struggler, a striver. I take care of my family. I take everything you would want, I do it, you know what I mean? It’s just that I’m real. I’m not politically correct, but I’m a man’s man, and I believe in family values.

What type of woman would it take for you to settle down?
A very, very, very strong woman, and one who is more in love with me than I was, because I have to be more in love with her than she is, and that’s what it is. Every time I fall in love with a woman, I don’t fall in love with the woman she is, I fall in love with the woman that she could be. I haven’t found a woman yet that fits up to my standards, and I’m sure that I don’t fit up to anybody’s standards, but I haven’t found one yet. But I’ve found ones that I think that have the potential to be the rawest woman in the world, you know what I mean? I feel like it’s natural for a man, especially being black, to feel like he’s the king, and he’s looking for his queen, and that’s where I’m at right now. You can’t be a king until you’ve made yourself, until you’ve done something, and I’ve accomplished my goals, my goals I set out to become a man. Now I feel that I’m a man now, I set out goals to make me a king; not a king of anybody else, but me. Nobody else is under my rule but me and my kids, you know what I mean? But I made myself into a king, now I need a queen to be happy so I that can be a teacher and a father. I can’t be that until I find a queen, so I’m stuck in limbo.