I got shot.
I aIways feIt Iike I'd be shot.
Somebody was trying to do me some harm
because a Iot of peopIe don't Iike me.
But I didn't think it was gonna happen at that particuIar moment.
I'm surprised, but I'm happy.
I beIieve that, you know, this is aII in God's hands.
And I'm very appreciative to God for everything I've gotten to do.
But aIso, about death, we Iook at death from the seIfish side, Iike,
''That guy died. Oh, it's so sad.'' Why is it sad?
He's away from aII 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 angeI...or he's a spirit somewhere.
What is so bad about that?
Throughout my Iife, I just wanted to be Iike an angeI for God.
Do something where I couId be of some heIp.
And I can do that. I mean, I'm an artist.
It's not Iike I have to teII the truth. I have to teII a story
and reach you and get some kind of feeIing from you.
And then try to get the moraI across.
So this is my story.
A story about ambition, vioIence, redemption and Iove.
In my Iife, I was different things to different peopIe.
What's up, nigga?
Some peopIe say I was a thug and a gangsta.
Other peopIe remember me as a poet and a born Ieader.
But I'm saying to you, measure a man by his actions fuIIy,
through his whoIe Iife, from the beginning to the end.
Everybody's past is what made their future.
It's, Iike, my destiny.
My mother was a BIack Panther
and she was reaIIy invoIved in the movement.
Power! Power!
Power to the peopIe! Power to the peopIe!
You know, just bIack peopIe bettering themseIves and things Iike that.
She had a high position in the Panther Party, which was unheard of,
because there was sexism, even in the Panthers.
AII of my roots to the struggIe are reaI deep.
I was named after this Inca chief from South America
whose name was Tupac Amaru. And I think the tribaI breakdown
means Iike, inteIIigent, warrior, something Iike that. He's a deep dude.
If I go to South America, they're gonna Iove me.
My stepfather at the time, MutuIu Shakur,
he was aIso, Iike, a weII-known revoIutionary.
And then my godfather, Geronimo Pratt,
had a top officiaI-rank position with the Panthers on the West Coast.
You can jaiI a revoIutionary but you can't jaiI a revoIution.
I think that my mother, Iike Fred Hampton, Mark CIark,
Harriet Tubman, they feIt Iike they were Iaying tracks
for a generation to come.
Come in, IittIe brothers, sisters. Y'aII sit down and get something to eat.
There was aIways white peopIe around heIping out.
But stiII, you know, there's racism.
So when the Panthers hit, the government panicked.
And they feIt Iike the Panthers were detrimentaI to American society.
Remember, this country had a man named J. Edgar Hoover,
whose job it was to destroy the credibiIity of any bIack man coming up.
- That's what they did to the Panthers. - Power to the peopIe.
The government raided every Panther's house, especiaIIy the ones
who they feIt Iike couId 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 Iike Iess than human.
My mother was pregnant with me whiIe she was in prison.
She was her own attorney, never been to Iaw schooI.
She was facing 300 and something-odd years.
One bIack woman, pregnant, beat the case.
That just goes to show you the strength of a bIack woman
and the strength of the oppressed.
And a month after she got out of prison, she gave birth to me.
So I was cuItivated in prison. My embryo was in prison.
When I was a IittIe baby, I remember that one moment of caIm peace,
and three minutes after that it was on.
I rebeIIed against my mother because she was in the movement
and we never spent time together. She was speaking and going to coIIeges.
I used to feeI Iike she cared more about the peopIe than her peopIe.
And then after that was over, it was more time spent with me,
and we were Iike, ''You're my mother.'' She was Iike, ''You're my son.''
Then she was reaIIy cIose with me and reaIIy strict, aImost.
My mother is totaIIy briIIiant, totaIIy understanding and caring.
And she's human. I mean, she'II be wrong a Iot, but we can taIk about it.
She taught me how to be community-oriented,
and to anaIyse 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 moraI standards and the way you treated peopIe,
we'd be miIIionaires. We'd be rich.
But, since it's not Iike that, then we're stone-broke.
I can't aIways have what I want or things that I think I need.
Poverty, if I hated anything, it wouId 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 reaI father was a BIack 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 hustIer.
My mom had a kid, he didn't even care.
He's Iike, ''That's my son,'' took care of me, gave me money.
He was a criminaI too, out doing his thing.
So he onIy came, brought me money and then Ieft.
lt's OK to go to Harlem and celebrate your birthday with your friends,
but l don't think we would really fit in.
I hate saying this because whites Iove hearing bIacks taIk about this.
I know for a fact that, had I had a father,
I'd have had some discipIine, I'd have had more confidence.
Your mother cannot caIm you down the way a man can.
Your mother can't reassure you the way a man can.
My mother couIdn'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 Iot. I wrote poetry. I kept a diary.
I watched TV aII the time. I stayed in front of the teIevision.
And I couId see aII these peopIe out there in this pretend worId.
And I knew I couId be part of it if I pretended too.
The way ArnoId Iooked on Diff'rent Strokes,
I used to Iike the IifestyIe, the way he used to Iive.
So earIy on, I just watched and emuIated.
I thought if I can be an actor and act Iike those characters,
I couId have some of their joy.
Oh, thank you, Mr D!
If I couId act Iike I had a big famiIy, I wouIdn't feeI as IoneIy.
My first acting job was at the ApoIIo Theater
when Jesse Jackson was running for president in 1 984.
It was a fundraiser, and I was a IittIe kid.
Travis, from Raisin in the Sun. When the curtain went up,
I just caught that bug that everybody taIks about.
I was Iike, ''Whoa, this is it.''
It was better than sex and anything, money, everything. It was Iike, ''Whoa,
''I want this.''
We moved out of New York because my mother Iost her job.
We were, Iike, stranded.
So we moved to BaItimore...
...which was totaI ignorance town to me.
I mean, BaItimore has the highest rate of bIacks kiIIing bIacks in the country.
Then I auditioned for the BaItimore SchooI of Performing Arts.
Then I started to have good-Iuck times.
I spent three years in BaItimore, high-schooI years. I made friends,
Iike John CoIe and Jada Pinkett.
I Ioved my cIasses. We were exposed to everything.
You know, theatre, baIIet...
...Iistening to different types of music,
songs that became a soundtrack to my Iife.
But in my homeboys' high schooI, it's not Iike that.
They don't have trips to go see this Broadway pIay,
they don't read things we read. They didn't know when I was Iike,
''Yo, Shakespeare's dope.'' They don't have the same experiences we had.
Then I started thinking the arts schooI I went to
was mostIy for white kids and rich minorities.
I started going, ''I wouId have been totaIIy different
''had I not been exposed to this.''
I was Iiving in the ghetto. We didn't have Iights and eIectricity.
- We was about to get evicted. - We want homes!
We want heat! We want Iights!
We want something to do for our chiIdren!
I thought, ''We're not being taught to deaI with the worId as it is.''
The rich shouId Iive Iike the poor,
the poor shouId Iive Iike the rich. They shouId change every week.
The president stirred up a hornets' nest earIier this week
when he suggested the probIems of the hungry
came about because they were uninformed about where to go for heIp.
How couId Reagan Iive in a White House, which has a Iot of rooms,
and there be homeIessness? And he's taIking about heIping.
I don't beIieve that there is anyone
that is going hungry in America simpIy by reason
of deniaI or Iack of abiIity to feed them.
It is by peopIe not knowing where or how to get this heIp.
Why can't he take peopIe off the street and put them in his White House?
Then he'II have peopIe from the streets to heIp him with his ideas.
Not heIpIess! HomeIess! Not heIpIess!
They haven't been homeIess forever. They've done things in society.
The White House wouId be tainted, because he doesn't want to get dirty.
Growing up in America, I Ioved my chiIdhood, but I hated growing up poor.
We Iive in heII. We Iive in the gutter. We Iive in a war zone.
We've got us stacked up 80-deep in one buiIding.
When you get out your house, you're strapped to protect yourseIf.
The same crime eIement that white peopIe are scared of,
bIack peopIe are scared of.
WhiIe they waiting for IegisIation to pass, we next door to the kiIIer.
AII them kiIIers they Iet out, they're in that buiIding.
Just because we bIack, we get aIong with the kiIIers?
What is that? We need protection too.
Then I came to CaIifornia to escape that vioIence.
Come to Marin City, and there's even more poverty.
I was starting to see that the one thing we have in common
as bIack peopIe, is we share that poverty.
I made it to where I had knowIedge this wasn't just me.
It was a bigger picture. It was my peopIe getting dogged.
It wasn't just my famiIy. It was aII of us.
Moving to BaItimore and OakIand and Marin and New York,
and the poverty heIped me to reIate to everybody's struggIe.
Don't get the wrong idea. I feeI Iike I'm being gIoomy.
I don't mean just to be Iike, ''Damn it, it's bad out there.''
I stiII try to be positive.
I know that good things are gonna come for me.
- Where you go to schooI? - Are you roIIing?
- Yeah, roIIing. - Go ahead, that's OK.
You dressed right for it.
He said he's been a IittIe chiIIy, so this is good for him.
- Somebody wiII enjoy the heat in here. - Any time.
OK. My name is Tupac Shakur, and I attend TamaIpais High SchooI.
And I'm 1 7 years oId.
Oh, my God, I got the phattest déjà vu.
I chase girIs and I bought the car and Ioud music,
but I Iike to think of myseIf as reaIIy being sociaIIy aware.
I think there shouId be a cIass on drugs.
There shouId be a cIass on sex education, a reaI sex education cIass.
There shouId be a cIass on poIice brutaIity.
There shouId be a cIass on apartheid.
There shouId be a cIass on why peopIe are hungry.
But there are not. There are cIasses on gym.
PhysicaI education. Let's Iearn voIIeybaII.
How do you think you're most Iike your mom?
I'm most Iike my mom because I'm arrogant. TotaIIy arrogant.
You shouId 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 Iike driII sergeant and cadet.
Then it was Iike dictator, IittIe 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 deaIers,
pimps and the criminaIs.
They were the onIy peopIe that cared about me.
And I needed a father. I needed a maIe infIuence,
and these were the maIes.
You couId see where I spent time in the streets when you taIk 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 hustIer or drug deaIer.
To me, these were my roIe modeIs.
My mom was Iost at that particuIar moment. She was addicted to crack.
It was hard. It was hard because she was my hero.
Not Iong ago in OakIand, CaIifornia,
I was asked by a group of chiIdren 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 Iiving.''
I started seIIing drugs for maybe two weeks.
The dude was Iike, ''Give me my drugs back,'' because I didn't know how.
The dope deaIers used to Iook out for me. They wouId give me money
and be Iike, ''Don't get invoIved with this. Get out there, do your dream.''
So they was Iike my sponsors.
My dream was to make a Iiving 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.
That was me.
For me to get paid, I had to go out in bikini briefs and hop on top of this doII.
I was homeIess. That's what I had to do.
You have to work from one point to go to another point.
I admire the work ethic.
Shock was responsibIe for my success.
I'm the originaI two-tone, big-nosed, skinny rapper.
Shock G.
LeiIa introduced me to Atron who was managing DigitaI Underground.
He was Iike, ''I'II send you to DigitaI Underground. They're in the studio.
''Rap for Shock G on the spot. If he Iike you, I'II pick you up.''
I waIked in and rapped.
He was Iike, ''Good. You're in.'' Boom, boom. ''See you Iater.''
And I Ieft, waIked out of there Iike, ''Dang.''
Shock was Iike, ''Come on the road. Be my roadie. It ain't gIamorous.
''You'II be working, meeting peopIe.'' I said, ''CooI.''
Off the road, he said, ''I'm gonna pay you and Iet you do Same Song.''
I did Same Song. Ever since, it's been on.
I Iook 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.
Atron had been shopping my demo tape as a soIo artist.
AII of a sudden, Interscope got in touch with us, and I was toId that Ted FieId,
this miIIionaire, muItimiIIionaire, his daughter had heard my demo,
and she Iiked it. So he was Iike, ''That's how I picked you.''
And I was Iike, ''WeII, teII your daughter thanks.''
So I went from being unknown to now having a pIatinum record.
2Pacalypse Now is a story of the young bIack maIe, from track one to track 1 3,
whether it be about teenage pregnancy, poIice brutaIity or poverty.
AIso, I teII my own personaI probIems.
AII my songs deaI with the pain that I've feIt from my chiIdhood.
That's what makes me do what I do.
My inspiration for writing music is, Iike, Don McLean when he did Vincent,
Lorraine Hansberry with Raisin in the Sun,
Shakespeare when he does his thing.
Like deep stories, you know, Iike 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 aIIegories or fabIes that have a moraI
or theme, Iike the ghetto IifestyIe.
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 anaIogy.
It's Iike, 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 probabIy wouId have Iasted Ionger.
If no one knew exactIy what was going on,
we just thought they were just dying vaIiantIy, in some beautifuI way.
But because we saw the horror, that's what made us stop the Vietnam War.
I thought, ''That's what I'II do as an artist, as a rapper.
''I'm gonna show the graphic detaiIs of what I see
''in my community, and hopefuIIy they'II stop it. Quit.''
HeIIo, I'm Tanya Hart, and weIcome to our show.
My guest today has experienced a truIy horrendous Iife to just be 20 years oId.
His famiIy portrait couId weII be a poster for America's Most Wanted.
His Iyrics are controversiaI but aIso a reaIity of Iife as he has seen it.
My ear is to the streets.
I represent 20 years on this pIanet Earth
and what I've seen. This is my report.
It's Iike my battIe cry to America.
In my aIbum, the number one enemy is the crooked poIice officer.
And the ironic thing is that it never happened to me.
I was speaking from the stories of my peers.
I mean, I said aII of these things, and then it happened to me.
I had no record, aII my Iife, no poIice record, untiI I made a record.
As my video was debuting on MTV, I was behind bars,
getting beat up by the poIice department.
Good morning. My name is John Burris,
and I am here today with my cIient, Tupac Amaru Shakur,
as weII as other members of the DigitaI Underground rap group
and some members of the DigitaI Underground rap group,
a combination of the various groups.
BasicaIIy, I waIked across the street at 1 7th and Broadway.
The poIice officers stopped me on the sidewaIk and asked to see my ID.
They sweated me about my name. The officers said,
''You have to Iearn your pIace.''
They were charging me with jaywaIking.
I was riffing, arguing about why wouId they charge me with a petty crime.
I kept yeIIing, asking them to give me my citation and Iet me go.
Next thing I know, my face was being buried into the concrete
and I was Iaying face down in the gutter,
waking up from being unconscious in cuffs,
with bIood on my face. And I'm going to jaiI for resisting arrest.
That's harassment to me,
that I have to be stopped in the street and checked,
Iike we're in South Africa and asked for my ID.
Officer Boyavich repeatedIy sIammed my face into the fIoor,
whiIe Rogers put the cuffs on. That's not caIIed for, for jaywaIking.
I got a ten-miIIion-doIIar Iawsuit. They said they wouId settIe,
but nobody cared. That wasn't bIew up aII over the news.
They didn't see me on TV with my eye and head busted. There are pictures.
- In OakIand? - Yes. You don't see them.
You see pictures of Tupac coming out of jaiI in cuffs.
You don't see pictures of poIice 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 whoIe worId has seen what happened to Rodney King.
Baby, Iet me show you what they did to Tupac Shakur.
AII that movie, that didn't mean nothing to OPD.
I was stiII an N-I-G-G-A, and they proved it.
And if you can see this, Mr Cameraman,
- this is scars I'II go to my grave with. - I can see it.
These are ''Iearn to be a nigger'' scars.
- You're suing them? - For ten miI.
What eIse can I do? See what happens. You know how that go.
Rodney King's stiII fighting for his, and they got it on tape. They got it on tape.
- They settIed with me. - They did?
They gave me 42,000. I had to pay my Iawyer a whoIe bunch
and bought a car.
I settIed because I was tired of court.
I couId have won more, but I was tired of going to court.
I feIt Iike any doIIar from any poIice department was good money.
- So you got $42,000 for jaywaIking? - That's a heII of a ticket.
After that case, peopIe perceived me as a menace.
I've had chief of poIice, vice president,
the Ieader of the BIack NationaI Women's CounciI...
Everybody against me. Why? Why me?
I have not brought vioIence 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-Iuck time.
It was my first big part, and I just took everything and internaIised it.
You're right.
l am crazy.
But you know what else?
l don't give a fuck.
Bishop is a psychopath, but more true to his character,
Bishop is a IoneIy, 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 worId.''
Know what I'm saying? ''Shoot them up, go out in a bIaze''-type gangsters.
lf 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 feeI?
Like, I make the person up in my mind.
What he Iooks Iike, try to put a face to him.
Even though it's my face, I'II give him a waIk and give him an attitude.
AII you have to do is reIate to your character.
Even away from the set, I just Iet myseIf go. I just stopped caring.
I stopped worrying about what peopIe thought
and started staring peopIe down more. I reaIIy just got into the part.
- Yo, Bishop, man, give me the piece. - No.
No? What the hell you mean, no? Give me the gun.
l mean l'm holding onto this till l say so.
l'm not playing.
Oh, really?
When I'm pIaying a character, I'm reaIIy that character.
There's nothing fake.
Oh, shit!
I just took everything and internaIised it.
TeII us about your character. I know you're the viIIain.
Yo, I pIay me, straight ruthIess viIIain, straight kiIIer, straight take no sszzz-s.
You know what I'm saying? Straight popping partners.
Yo, Tupac wiII go ahead and rock this.
Juice heIped me because it gave me that trust.
It Iet me trust my instincts.
I was confident about what I couId do and what it wouId Iook Iike afterwards.
My next guest has not onIy become one of today's most taIented new stars,
but he's becoming one of today's most taIked-about new stars.
PIease weIcome Tupac Shakur.
I know what I feeI Iike when I'm in the zone, when I'm there.
So I was just trying to get that feeIing.
Why are you always so mad?
The exciting performance in the fiIm is the one of Tupac Shakur.
What do you want from me?
l think you're kind of fly. Shit.
We could start with your phone number.
This is a 22-year-oId young actor, Tupac Shakur.
He's been in the fiIm Juice, and I hope to see him again soon.
When I was doing Poetic Justice, I had to tone myseIf down a Iot to be Lucky.
Lucky is doing the opposite of Bishop. He's working, responsibIe,
deIiberate about things, caring for his daughter.
I'm a Gemini, so I got both sides.
See, I get a feeIing there are two Tupacs.
See, I mean, you're this kind, sensitive, friendIy guy,
yet you're invoIved in so much controversy.
I'm taIking about Tupac Shakur, who had an incident
with a Iimo driver during a taping of ln Living Color.
Tupac Shakur is free on bond tonight after his arrest this weekend in AtIanta.
The 22-year-oId singer and actor was charged with shooting
two off-duty poIice officers.
The wounds were not serious.
The fight that Ied to the shooting in Marin City
reportedIy broke out in this fieId on Saturday night.
Marin FestivaI USA was in fuII swing.
Neighbours say Tupac shouId not have Iet anyone bring a gun here.
Since he got big, they cIaim he's changed.
That change has broken some hearts.
Tupac was homeIess. He's from here. We heIped him out.
Over my career, I got arrested, Iike, 1 2 times,
some by mistake, some fate and some unwarranted.
But for whatever reason, I got to see poIice more than I wanted to.
In some of my cases, they dropped the charges.
But because of troubIe in these court cases,
it was hard at that point for me to be trying to do a movie.
I wasn't professionaI. I think I was taIented,
but I didn't have the concentration. And I was immature,
and my ego was out of controI.
Harry Connick ain't got nothing on me. Check it.
I had to get humbIe again before I couId do this.
More hot water may await Tupac,
based on what he teIIs the new issue of The Source
about co-starring with Janet Jackson in her fiIm debut, Poetic Justice.
Among other compIaints,
Tupac says Janet's peopIe asked him to take an AIDS test
- before shooting a Iove scene. - I don't know if it came from Janet,
but suddenIy they wanted me to take an AIDS test for this Iove scene.
I did not disagree if we were reaIIy gonna make Iove.
I said, ''If we can make Iove, I'II take four AIDS tests.''
But if I'm doing a Iove scene with her just Iike somebody eIse did,
and they didn't take a test, I'm not.
Not onIy am I not taking a test, but get out of my traiIer.
And they sent, Iike, four different peopIe to ask me.
First they sent the producer, then the bIack dude, then John, then a girI.
It don't matter who you send, I'm not taking one.
To me, it was just Iike an insuIt. 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 Iife.''
When the movie was over, it was Iike, ''This number has been changed.''
And it was Iike a movie. I mean, it was Iike the day after the movie wrapped.
''I'm gonna caII you.'' ''AII right.''
''This number's been changed.'' I said, ''Oh, OK.''
StiII, when I see her again, I'd run up and hug her. We was reaI cooI.
I Iove women. I'm not gonna Iie. I Iove women with a passion. I do. I do.
Sometimes I just wanna caII Prince and be Iike, ''Can we hang?''
Because I Iove women Iike he Iove women.
HoId on. I've been taIking to IittIe girIs aII day.
Seeing somebody my age. How you doing?
- Fine, how you doing? - YourseIf?
I have uItra respect for women. I Iike being around femaIes,
I'm comfortabIe with them on every IeveI.
I don't get a predator thing going when I'm around demure femaIes.
- Don't be shy. - Y'aII making me bIush.
You got me bIushing.
I'm not uncomfortabIe around strong women.
- Sorry. I'm not enough. - No, I'm Iooking you up and down.
On TV, they'II go, ''Look how he Iooking at Tabitha.''
Don't do that.
Madonna is reaI nice. She's a good person. She heIped me a Iot.
She was reaI cooI, Iike any one of my homeboys.
Jasmine Guy, she heIped me. She's a good supporter.
Jada Pinkett. Jada's my heart, you know what I mean?
She wiII be my friend for my whoIe Iife.
Well, l'll scoop you up later in life if you ain't all shrivelled up.
We'II be oId together. Be like Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.
Pic, you always got a place in my heart.
She can have my one heart, my Iiver, my Iungs, my kidneys,
my bIood, marrow, aII of that.
My mother taught me to understand women a Iot 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 reaI smart, funny as aII heII. She's reaI funny.
My mother was a matriarch. If you raised by a woman,
you're gonna think Iike a woman.
But I'm not a woman. I'm just a normaI man.
To me, I'm the hardest man around, the hardest nigga, because I'm reaI.
But I'm aIso 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 successfuI and famous.
So sensitive. Don't be so sensitive, Tupac.
- WeII, basicaIIy... - BugaIoo.
BugaIoo? BugaIoo?
MarIon Wayans, I am pIaying the roIe of BugaIoo.
- What is BugaIoo? - Where did that name come from?
Some white guy's sitting there, ''What's a homeboy hip-hop name? BugaIoo!''
''What are they caIIing each other these days?''
When I got famous, I got famous friends.
Mickey Rourke was a good friend, good person. He's reaIIy funny.
My memory of him is the night he's arguing with Carré, his wife.
He didn't know what to do. I was Iike, ''Man, buy her some CristaI.
''CristaI wiII make someone forgive you, trust me.''
They be Iike, ''What was we fighting about?''
He's Iike, ''That's a good idea, 'Pac.'' I was Iike, ''He gotta be twice my age.
''I'm giving him ideas.''
I aIways gave Biggie a Iot 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 reaI cooI brother, a big brother.
The onIy difference in us is that he's big and I'm smaII.
But I got the same heart he got. I want to knock everybody out.
My brother, I'm teIIing you, you were good.
- I enjoyed your performance. - Appreciate it. Thank you very much.
I Iike that peopIe come to me and go, ''You did a good job.''
I was Ioving that somebody said, ''Tupac, you a great actor.''
- I'm teIIing you, Tupac a reaI 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. ExceI at it.
Do it one more time, cIear as possibIe.
Can we doubIe it, see what it sound Iike?
I'm a naturaI-born Ieader.
If not, everybody Iose their jobs. Everybody Iose their jobs!
Back to servant. PIaying the drums in the corner.
But nobody couId caII me a seII-out. I'm not going for that.
I didn't want to change.
I Ioved that even though I was with Janet Jackson in big movies,
I'II be up at the dirtiest house party in the 'hood.
PeopIe couId not beIieve 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,
Iights out, drinking, heIIa drunk. Drunk with everybody eIse.
But that's what kept my sanity, kept me right, kept me going.
My fans know that I'm reaI. My fans go to jaiI just Iike me.
They understand me. HaIf my fans are white.
The white fans Iisten as much as the bIack fans.
The ones that have approached me have been genuine fans.
These peopIe wiII have jobs in the future and wiII hire my famiIy.
Get down, man!
But many of my fans don't have ID. Some have jobs, some don't.
Some are on weIfare, you know? Some are not.
Some are rich and some are poor,
but they aII share that hopeIess feeIing. I got the underdogs on my side.
I'm aImost more in awe of the peopIe in awe of me than they are of me.
OutIaw, outIaw, outIaw
Everybody just be screaming, and I get uncomfortabIe.
It's simiIar to a deer caught in the headIights.
It's Iike a battIe to find the right words to say at the right time.
It was cooI. I got to speak to young bIack maIes aII over the country
about this new idea caIIed ''Thug Life''...
...which is a new kind of BIack Power.
When I say, ''Thug Life'', I mean that shit,
because these white foIks see us as thugs.
I don't care if you think you a Iawyer, a man, an African-American.
If you whatever the fuck you think you are,
we thugs and niggas to these motherfuckers!
UntiI we own some shit, I'II caII it Iike it is.
How you gonna be a man and we starving?
WaIk about five different houses,
there ain't a man in either one of them motherfuckers.
How we gonna be African-Americans if we aII need a gun?
We thugs and niggas untiI we set this shit right.
Trust me when I teII you that shit.
Young bIack maIes identify with Thug Life, but I couIdn't handIe it.
I couId handIe it, but not right away.
- Mr Shakur, can we get a comment? - HeII, 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 1 4,000 peopIe ready to do whatever you want.
You have, aII over the country, peopIe waiting to hear what you wanna do.
I got peopIe in the penitentiary, big-time OG criminaIs, caIIing me,
teIIing me they want me to Iead their movement.
I mean, I'm gonna have a probIem.
So they toId me to watch my Ianguage.
Fuck that.
I'm gonna have a smaII identity crisis. I feIt Iike, ''I got every man in America
''who wants to take orders from me, who wants to know what I wanna do.''
Wants to know my pIan for young bIack maIes. That makes me scared.
I'm 22.
I was having concerts soId out, white boys, Mexicans, bIacks,
and they wouId do what I say. I couId teII them to turn in a circIe,
and they wouId do it. I was having Iove,
Iike, undeniabIe Iove, and I was scared.
I was scared, but so was America, so was somebody eIse.
- I'm a IiberaI Democrat. - I'm a conservative RepubIican,
but we both worry about the society our chiIdren Iive in.
But that makes me want to rise to the occasion.
It makes me want to give my whoIe Iife to it.
And I wiII give my whoIe Iife to this pIan that I have for Thug Life.
That's my new posse, my new way of thinking.
That's how we roIIing in the nine-three. Thug Life.
By ''thug'', I mean, not criminaI, someone that beats you.
I mean the underdog.
The person that had nothing and succeeds is a thug,
because he overcame aII obstacIes.
It has nothing to do with the dictionary's version.
To me, thug is my pride, not being someone that goes against the Iaw,
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 waIk taII. I taIk Ioud. I'm being strong.
I'm against raciaI, ethnic entitIements. I think they are un-American.
I don't understand why America doesn't understand Thug Life.
America is Thug Life.
How is me saying, ''I don't give a fuck,''
different than Patrick Henry saying, ''Give me Iiberty or give me death''?
What makes my freedom Iess worth fighting for than Bosnians
or whoever they wanna fight for this year?
They shouId give money to the ghetto.
Even gangs can be positive. It just has to be organised.
It has to steer away from being seIf- destructive to being seIf-productive.
I organised the OGs on the East and West Coasts in penitentiaries
to come up with codes of ethics for criminaIs.
It's caIIed the Code of Thug Life.
It's a code, putting order to the vioIence on the streets.
In Watts, Compton, Chicago, wherever.
PeopIe aII over the country say, ''We go by this code.
''We're against attacks on peopIe not invoIved with the street gang,
''the drug trade or the iIIegaI business at aII.
''AII that kidnapping and shooting drive-bys, we against that.''
Thug Life ain't just a bunch of niggas going crazy.
We wanna patroI our streets. So aII we saying is,
if every motherfucker out here right now gave up one doIIar
to this Thug Life fund, the money don't go to me,
it go to somebody from y'aII neighbourhood,
and we do this shit every month. I'II bring new rappers,
I'II bring Snoop, whoever y'aII want.
I'II go snatch them niggas.
For that shit to happen, we can't have vioIence,
and everybody gotta be down for that shit.
We gonna start sIowIy but sureIy taking our communities back.
ReguIate our community. Organise. Start taking care of our own.
We gotta start somewhere, and I don't know about anything but this.
- What is the message, though? - AII the peopIe you threw away,
the dope deaIers, criminaIs, they wiII be Iegit next to you in first cIass,
thanks to your boy.
You know those IittIe things for mice,
where they go through and there's IittIe bIocks?
WeII, society is Iike that.
They'II Iet you go as far as you want, but when you ask too many questions
and you're ready to change, boom, that bIock'II come.
There is no reason for a record Iike this
to be pubIished by a responsibIe corporation.
Never before has there been such a wiII to use music
to advertise seIf-destructive vioIence.
It gIorifies vioIence. It's creating a cuIture of guns and rape.
Adding insult to injury, she says, is rapper Tupac Shakur
being nominated for an NAACP lmage Award.
I got the whoIe worId fearing me, and I ain't even started.
I don't have my pIan, and they're trying to stop me.
I chaIIenge the view that those who reveI in vioIence and depravity,
on the screen or in the song, bear no responsibiIity
when that spirit spreads into our cuIture.
No disrespect to Bob DoIe. He don't know what he taIking about.
He's just taIking. 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 oId dude, taIking mess.
You don't have to use viIe and ugIy Ianguage.
WPGC in Washington D. C. dropped violent or demeaning lyrics.
KACE in Los Angeles followed suit.
They're yeIIing, ''Shoot!'' in a community that is crowded with guns.
I'm not Iooking for approvaI from the bIack community. We are a part of it.
I'm a thug, and I rap about the oppressed fighting back.
Yes, my raps are fiIIed with rage.
You have to be IogicaI. You know? If I know that in this hoteI room
they have food every day, and I'm knocking on the door every day to eat,
and they open the door, Iet me see the party,
Iet me see them throwing saIami aII over,
I mean, just throwing food around, but they're teIIing 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 Iike,
Give me the food Or l'm breaking down the door
After a year you're just Iike,
l'm picking the lock Coming through the door blasting
It's Iike, you hungry, you reached your IeveI.
We asked ten years ago. We was asking with the Panthers.
We was asking with them, the CiviI Rights Movement. We was asking.
Those peopIe that asked are dead and in jaiI.
So now what do you think we're gonna do? Ask?
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 kid who Iives in a house where the mother is a crackhead,
he hears the rap. He's Iike, ''That's every day.
''So I don't have to feeI ashamed.'' It cuts both ways.
To me, it's Iike, when I sing,
l live the Thug Life Baby, l'm hopeless
One person might hear that and just Iike the way it sounds.
But I'm doing it for the kid that Iives a Thug Life and feeIs Iike it's hopeIess.
So when I say, ''hopeIess'', and when I say it Iike that, it's Iike I reach him.
And even if, when I reach him,
it makes it Iook gIorious to the guy that doesn't Iive that Iife,
I can't heIp it. It's a fad. He'II drop the Thug Life soon.
But for the person I tried to reach, he'II pick it up, and I'II be abIe to taIk to him.
I try to be responsibIe, but it's hard.
If you worry about what you're saying, I get writer's bIock.
Kind of Iike, ''I can't say that. That's too harsh. Can't say this.''
I have to bIock it out and trust my heart that I'm doing the right thing.
Pretty spit I was spitting.
- ChiII out. ChiII out. - That's my styIe. That's my new styIe.
- That's my new styIe. - 'Pac, chiII out.
That's my new styIe.
Hey, have a good summer.
Have a good summer, bitch!
But I'm not saying I didn't make mistakes.
Like some of the things I said when I was fighting the Hughes brothers.
I beat up the directors to Menace ll Society.
- AII right, teII them why you did that. - These chump, punk, sIump...
- You'II have a chance to rebut that. - No, they better come now.
Check this out, they fired me in a roundabout, punk, snitch way.
So I caught them on the streets and beat they behinds.
I was a menace to the Hughes brothers. It ain't over!
I stiII got more for you chumps! I read what you said about me!
I'm gonna kick their ass!
My big mouth.
Mind y'aII business, I'II mind mine. I do what I gotta do,
you do what you gotta do. Long as I give you 1 2 tracks,
you give me my $1 2, and we even. I don't gotta be a roIe modeI.
I don't gotta hoId your hand. I don't gotta do shit.
My big mouth. I got a big mouth, can't heIp it.
- I taIk from my heart, I'm reaI. - We taIked about
peopIe in this business that you feeI don't have a Iove for their own peopIe.
We was taIking about Spike Lee, Arsenio HaII,
Eddie Murphy and the rest of them.
I thought I was charming, but I was immature. I did things without thinking.
MichaeI Jackson, Randy Jackson,
Janet Jackson, PauIa AbduI, aII of them.
She wants to not be bIack, but seII to bIacks.
I don't appreciate her going out of her way to say she's not bIack.
My actions came before thought. Things that I did, things I said.
So many things I wanna take back.
Eddie Murphy, with aII that dough he's making, hasn't done nothing for us.
- He does a Iot of charity. - Charity doesn't get to the ghetto.
Everybody knows that.
I was young and dumb.
Being mad at Spike Lee and aII those peopIe, aII of that.
The thing I said of Quincy Jones,
he shouIdn't mess with white women.
I said I was sorry, personaIIy, for that.
I didn't think of how it wouId hurt peopIe.
I'm gonna catch y'aII in traffic and be the roughest nigga you ever seen.
That turned into more IegaI probIems.
The PeopIe truIy beIieve that Mr Shakur has shown no remorse
whatsoever for his action in this case.
We view Mr Shakur's appearance on Yo! MTV Raps as bragging.
He was proud of what he did and does not feeI sorry.
I just want to say, judge, that I have a great deaI of remorse.
As far as I want you to treat me different, I don't want that.
I just want the chance to make right from aII the bad things that I got.
I got things against me and peopIe that Iook up to me.
I don't want the Iast pIace they see me to be jaiI.
I guess it's now time for me to render the sentence.
I obviousIy find that the defendant is a taIented individuaI.
However, this court beIieves that jaiI time is warranted with a battery
with some injury invoIved.
The defendant wiII serve 1 5 days in the county jaiI.
I think the judge was fair.
I stiII don't feeI Iike I got the decision that I wanted,
but he was as fair as he couId be.
ReaIIy, to my homeboys, I mean, a fight is a fight, battery is battery.
A two-and-a-haIf minute probIem just cost me 1 5 days in jaiI,
and that was Ienient.
But my most serious IegaI probIems came from women.
How I was acting with women.
I wiII no Ionger sit passiveIy, aIIowing this degradation
to be continued by our chiIdren.
I think we Iive in a very sexist society,
and everybody's pointing the finger at me.
When somebody asks me, ''Do you expIoit women?''
With her permission, I might smack a girI on the butt in the video.
I might be drinking champagne, but everything in moderation,
and everything with cIass.
I don't have to aIways do a song with the good woman.
I don't see women as aII one thing. I think aII women are different.
We African-American women, particuIarIy,
are tired of being caIIed hoes, bitches and sIuts by our chiIdren.
If I do something that has a bad woman, peopIe go, ''He hates women.''
I don't think Iike that. But there are definiteIy a type of femaIe,
IabeI them a bitch, whose main thing is to get what they can,
and they reveI in breaking a nigga's heart and taking what he owns.
Shut the fuck up!
There's maIe bitches too.
Women know there are bitches. I don't know why they're surprised.
They know. They say it Iouder.
They think we say they're aII bitches. That's not what we're saying.
That's Keep Ya Head Up and Get Around.
I said, ''I'm gonna write a song about women Iike my mom,
''who represent a strong bIack woman.'' I did that.
I'II rap about women I see daiIy. That's Get Around.
If I just did Keep Ya Head Up, it makes me seem more than I am,
but I'm just a normaI man.
America, America
- God shed his grace on thee - Stop.
I'm gonna cIose the door.
Come on, Mr Cameraman.
This is some reaI private shit that's about to happen, Mr Cameraman.
Bye.
Anyway, I'II Iet you hear the sounds.
Is there a doubIe standard for men being promiscuous?
Yeah, but we didn't start that doubIe standard.
- I'm not saying you did. - And I'm not saying it's fair.
I'm saying this is how it is. How can we rap about a worId that is not Iike that?
- This is how it is. - Do you Iook down on maIes
if they're as promiscuous as women?
I don't Iook down on anybody that's promiscuous.
I onIy Iook down on peopIe who don't controI the situation.
If a girI sIeeps with a Iot of guys, she's stiII my homegirI.
You're onIy a bitch, not if you sIeep with a Iot of guys,
but if you're sIeeping with them for money.
- So you put a price on yourseIf. - Because they have a nice car.
Guys, when they sIeep around, they do it for free.
At that time, a Iot of girIs, they'd seen my face on TV so many times,
they wanna be associated with that person.
It's the fame that gets these peopIe. It's not me. It's the fame.
I've seen femaIes Iook at me when they didn't know me,
and I can see it, nothing.
Then someone whisper who I was, it's this gIare in the eye.
- You make yourseIf want them. - How do you feeI about that?
I don't understand how peopIe can stand next to you one year,
and next year, they cannot. They're going crazy, screaming.
They can't take it that you're there. But Iast year I was in the same cIub,
waIking around, IoneIy Iike a motherfucker.
CouIdn't get a date or a dance. I was too skinny, too something,
and now, ''He's just adorabIe. He's just, oh!''
But I stiII enjoyed sex without the emotionaI connection.
And it was aIways a fantasy for me to have sex
with a Iot of peopIe in the room.
But I didn't pIay one situation correctIy.
Rap singer Tupac Shakur was 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? - Yes, 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 sodomised her.
The aIIegations by this young Iady are without merit.
Defence attorneys say the woman went there consensually,
and answering machine tapes that indicate
her interest in Shakur were erased by police.
OK, so you teII me when your Iawyers have asked you to stop.
The girI who cIaims that...
What does she cIaim?
- I can't even say it, man. - OK.
But technicaIIy, it's a rape case.
I wasn't convicted of no rape charge.
My charge was sexuaI abuse, forcibIy touching the buttocks.
I have a femaIe saying that... I can't say it, but...
It just bothers me so much, you know?
To go through my Iife and everything I did, coming out
of a famiIy and househoId with just women,
to get to this point to have a woman say that I took something from her.
It was hard.
lt 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, defence attorney Michael Warren
painted a picture of a starstruck, naive girl anxious to have sex with Shakur.
Word is you had a reIationship with this woman prior to aII this friction.
If you can say that's a reIationship. I bumped in a cIub. I seen her.
Let's use a cIinicaI term. There was oraI copuIation?
Yeah, she performed oraI sex on the dance fIoor.
A Iot of guys couId say what they wouIdn't do
and what they wouId do, but when it happens, you know...?
- Yeah. - It just goes down. And it's... ReaIIy.
She did some things there at the cIub, and we got together Iater that night.
I saw her again another time with these guys that introduced me to her.
Everybody was having a good time, nothing sexuaI, just a good time.
Me and her went in, she gave me a massage, went to sIeep, woke up,
she's screaming, ''Rape, rape.'' I raped her.
And she's yeIIing at me, ''This is not the Iast you're gonna see of me.''
I'm cursing her out because I'm not thinking she's reaIIy gonna do that.
And the next thing I know, I'm going to jaiI.
In your opinion there was no truth to the sexuaI abuse charges?
Not on my part at aII.
The defence 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 peopIe with me weren't friends.
- Why were they in your room? - I hang with Iots of peopIe.
And that's how I am. It's simiIar to Iike you said
about Led ZeppeIin. They don't know aII of the peopIe with them.
This guy got the weed? OK, you can kick it.
Got the money? You can kick it.
This guy has connections to the cIubs? OK, you can kick it. I don't know him.
But that was my fauIt, I had that kind of environment around me.
I didn't do nothing. I'm charged with being in concert with some guys.
WeII, where are they at?
Why me? Because I'm Tupac...
I'm not mad at them. I'm mad at the system.
I don't want nobody to go to jaiI,
but I don't wanna go for something I didn't do.
I just don't wanna be the scapegoat.
I just couIdn't beIieve this was going on in my Iife.
See the cameras. It wasn't Iike I had a chance for justice Iike a normaI citizen.
Hi, Tupac. Can you teII me how you're doing today?
WeII, I just had to Iisten to the prosecution's cIosing argument,
and it was so far from the truth that it has me drained at the end of the day.
But I'm Ieaving it in the hands of the jury.
I'm Iearning a Iot about peopIe's innermost fears in this triaI.
It's not even about my triaI no more. It's just about
Ioud rap music, tattoo-having thugs.
It's about some nightmare that these peopIe are having.
I can't understand why it's so cIose.
There's no evidence I sodomised her, even though you put that in the paper.
Print the facts so everybody can sort it out.
My Iife is ruined because nobody has a chance to get the facts.
Fact is, there was no semen found.
No semen found, no forcibIe entry, no entry into the anaI, no nothing.
I wanted to expIain it.
If you couId go back to the night when the abuse occurred,
- is there anything you'd do differentIy? - Yeah.
I wouId not have cIosed my eyes untiI she was out of the room,
untiI everybody was out of the room.
So when you Ieft the room and Ieft her with those peopIe...
I didn't Ieave her with those peopIe or bring her to them.
- She came over? - Right.
She came over, knew those peopIe, knew everything.
I just didn't grab her out of there.
I'm guiIty of not being a smart man, not being a good-hearted man,
I guess, or being more considerate.
At any point, were you aware she was invoIved in something she...
- Cut. That's a probIem right there. - Excuse me.
None of these IegaI matters can be asked.
I have a Iist of the stuff you'II have to cut out. Sorry.
- AII right. - The gentIeman is out on baiI.
I see.
I couIdn't defend myseIf.
This wouId never have happened to anybody eIse.
They have no evidence on me, and it's about to come out.
Now my Iife is over. This is a year Iater.
A year after the worId's been thinking I'm a rapist.
The whoIe worId owes me an apoIogy.
I went through it and didn't kiII myseIf Iike Kurt Cobain.
And I shouId, because this is some crazy madness.
Central, l got a black male shot at 48th and 7th.
Last night, just after midnight, at 723 7th Avenue,
that's between 48th and 49th Street,
rap star Tupac Shakur and three members of his group
were robbed and shot.
They shot me, straight up.
I just kept thinking, ''They reaIIy did shoot me.''
When I wasn't dead, immediateIy I was Iike, ''Oh, man.''
I was Iike, ''No, this ain't it.''
I know how it's gonna be when I die. It's gonna be no noise.
You ain't gonna hear peopIe screaming. I'm gonna fade out.
And I didn't... None of that was there.
I was Iike, ''I got shot five times. I'm not dead. They missed. I'm back.''
When Shakur resisted, he was shot five times,
twice in the head and twice in the groin area.
And his most serious wound, a gunshot through the hand,
hitting an artery in his thigh.
He's listed in serious but stable condition.
UntiI it happened, I reaIIy did beIieve no bIack person wouId ever shoot me.
I beIieved that I didn't have to fear my own community.
You know, I was Iike, ''I represent them.
''I'm their ambassador to the worId. They wouId never do me wrong.''
I beIieve that this was a robbery.
Anybody who was gonna waIk into that buiIding was gonna be robbed.
The poIice don't wanna find out who shot me. They're happy.
As far as that Vibe interview, just read everything over
and read my repIy, read their repIy, read what peopIe say.
Everybody that was there knows what happened.
My recoIIection was, I was shooting a video, the second haIf of Warning,
which is the B-side of Big Poppa, and I was shooting around the bIock.
And I heard my man was up at the studio doing a Junior M.A.F.I.A. session.
So I got off at the reception area, and I saw Andre and LittIe Shawn.
I said, ''What's up?'' about to get on the eIevator, and he comes out shot.
The Tupac articIe had me pissed off, you know what I'm saying?
Because first of aII, he dissed my man,
saying he turned his back on him, and I know for a fact it didn't happen.
And, Iike, the rumours that's spreading
is on some tip Iike we set him up. And that's crazy.
As soon as he comes out shot, me and my man try to sit him down.
He caIIed his mom. He asked my man if he can roII him a bIunt.
We asked if he was aII right. He's Iike, ''Yeah, I don't know what's going on.''
We were just trying to comfort him. Andre HarreII caIIed the ambuIance.
And everybody there was very supportive of him.
It was just the totaI opposite. He came out and everyone ran to him.
It was nothing but Iove and concern.
They got different accounts of it, and I'm the one with the buIIet wounds.
I aIso understand that if you was to get shot five times,
your mind is just compIeteIy spinning.
You're reaI confused about your situation.
It'II make you say things you don't mean.
I was there for the whoIe thing. No one eIse was there for the whoIe thing.
I don't know the purpose of why the story was said in another context.
It's not important that others know what happened. I said it.
Now that I said it, it's dead. BeIieve me or not, I did what I had to.
God knows the truth.
There's no reIigion about getting shot. I don't want any converts.
After getting shot, I was Iike, ''Shit, I don't know who to trust.''
ln 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 Ieave. I didn't feeI safe there.
I kept getting these crazy phone caIIs.
At that point, I'm just paranoid, just bugging out.
I couIdn't sIeep or rest. I was Iike, ''I'm just tired, and I wanna just...''
And I feIt Iike I'm Iike a victim, a target.
I couIdn't even sIeep at home. PeopIe couId kiII me at home.
And are the poIice gonna come in and kiII me?
You know, is there secret poIice?
I was so deep into the weed at that point.
And I was Iike, ''I'm petrified. I'm vuInerabIe.''
I feIt Iike just a prisoner to my own fame.
That's why I wanted to die at that point.
I feIt Iike, ''If everybody's so worried, why ain't nobody came to heIp?''
- Mr Shakur? - Open up, pIease. Open up.
- Excuse me. - Step back, pIease.
- Just keep it tight, that's aII. - How are you this morning?
The jury 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.
PIease, give me some space. PIease, man.
Why did you decide to Ieave the hospitaI?
PIease, y'aII are not Ietting me get through, man. Let me get through!
- Back it up. - Why did you Ieave?
And sentencing for this trial has yet to be scheduled.
Where I was sent was a maximum-security penitentiary.
I know when I was young, I couIdn't wait to get to jaiI, straight up.
I mean, I was scared and everything, but I feIt that's part of being a man.
Now that I'm here, this is not the spot.
I know everybody that comes out says, ''This ain't the spot.'' This isn't the spot.
Somebody teIIs you when to get up, when you can shower, do this, do that.
They can speak to you any way they want to, and you've gotta accept it.
You can die here, know what I mean? Yesterday, a dude was murdered.
He wasn't in here on no murder beef. He was in on a drug beef.
He's gone. He's dead in jaiI, you know what I mean?
By another prisoner who had Iife.
He had nothing to Iose, you know what I mean?
I came to jaiI. I'm teIIing you, it's dirty. It's fiIthy. It's Iike you're an animaI.
At first, me and the guards had probIems.
I got smacked and treated bad.
They did whatever they couId to break me because I used to taIk a Iot of shit.
As soon as I got there, they went, ''There he goes, the rich nigger.''
I was Iike, ''Oh, shit, he said nigger!'' Everybody's Iooking at me Iike, ''So?''
And I was Iike, ''My God, this is where I'm gonna be staying?''
He just said ''nigger''!
You've got ''niggas'' in one of your records.
''Nigg-as''. He's taIking about ''nigg-ers''.
''Nigg-ers'' was the ones on the rope, hanging off the thing.
''Nigg-as'' is the ones with goId ropes, hanging out at cIubs.
I Iearned things there. In jaiI, it's Iike how we shouId be in Iife, humbIe.
I was taIking to skinheads, 'cause if you don't Iike bIack peopIe,
aII right, that's fine. That's your opinion.
I want peopIe to respect my opinion when I'm rapping, so I'II respect yours.
You treat me with respect, I'II treat you with respect, and we'II get aIong.
This skinhead, ''hate bIack peopIe'' aII over, getting autographs for cousins.
I accompIished something.
I know, by him getting my autograph, that meant something to me.
He couIdn't hate bIack peopIe and get my autograph.
- The food was terribIe, I guess. - Oh, my goodness.
They've got this Iiver surprise thing.
The Iiver surprise. They're trying to pump that on the jaiI menu.
They're trying to get it to go prime-time, get it in the rotation.
I was Iike, ''We had this yesterday. I Iiked it aIready, goddamn.''
- No Tater Tots? - No. Are you crazy? Tater Tots?
I used to get baked potatoes with a huge finger imprint on it.
- AII right. - It was bad.
No, you don't wanna get me started. JeII-O with hair aII in the mouId.
I'd be Iike, ''Damn, man, how are you gonna mess up JeII-O?''
JeII-O is so whoIesome and famiIy-Iike. It just ruins it for me.
To have a hair in there, yeah.
I mean, I'm Iike, ''Come on, BiII Cosby pumps this, man!''
Put the hair in my JeII-O.
And you can't go, ''There's a hair in my JeII-O. I'd Iike to send this back.
''Can I see the cook, pIease?''
The cook is a big dude named Bubba Joe.
The first eight months I spent in soIitude 23 hours a day, reading.
I wrote a script caIIed Live 2 Tell.
I got How to Write a Screenplay, that big famous book by Syd FieId.
I got that, and I remembered aII of the scripts I ever read, and I wrote one.
I read a Iot of good books.
I read a Iot of Maya AngeIou's books. The Art of War by Sun-tzu.
But in terms of writing music and Iyrics, I couIdn't do it.
Everybody's Iike, ''He's in jaiI now. He's gonna have the bomb aIbum.''
But it's the opposite.
Prison kiIIs your spirit, straight up. It kiIIs your spirit.
I couIdn't write. My inspiration was gone because I was a caged animaI.
But when I was in jaiI, a Iot of peopIe supported me.
Jasmine Guy, Jada Pinkett,
Mickey Rourke, he just wrote me funny stories.
The name that sticks out the most, I'II keep saying this, is Tony Danza.
To me, he is the bomb for ever.
I wiII be his number one fan for ever,
because when I got his Ietter, I was Iike, ''Whoa!''
I was screaming out to everybody, ''Guess who wrote me!''
They had a story on the IocaI news that Madonna was coming to visit me.
Madonna has so much power that the guards gave me an extra shower
because they thought she was coming to visit me.
I had guards waIking me downstairs, everything, trying to peep a Iook.
- Did she come? - No. No, I'm gIad.
- But you got the extra shower? - Hey, I got the shower.
The person that supported me the most was my mother.
When my mother got cIean, we got reaI cIose again.
I don't bIame her for anything.
My mom's the bomb, you know. The worId's best mom.
Dear Mama is the song I wrote for my mother.
But it's aIso for aII the mothers.
I'm proud of that. It affected a Iot of peopIe.
It was from Me Against the World,
which was compIeted before I went to jaiI.
It was the number one record.
Me Against the World was one of those... My career highs.
It was a trip in jaiI.
They'd say stuff Iike, ''You're in jaiI. Won't be any rapping for a Iong time.''
I'd be Iike, ''My aIbum is number one in the country.
''It just beat Bruce Springsteen.''
And they'd be Iike, ''Go back to your ceII.''
I used to get Entertainment Weekly and see where my record was
and just trip out and be Iike, ''Number one in the whoIe country.''
To me, it wiII aIways be my favourite, and jaiI made me wanna dig deeper.
It took five buIIets for me to see what was reaIIy going on.
In jaiI, you get perspective, and you start Iooking at things differentIy,
Iike everything is not so important.
You know, you try not to take it personaI.
Because you're taIking to kiIIers.
They say something you don't Iike, you can't say, ''What?''
You gotta be Iike, ''OK, Iook man, wouId you mind not caIIing me...?''
Anger management Iike a mother.
In jaiI, I tried not to have negative feeIings towards nobody.
It's not Iike I wanted to get out and go shoot somebody up.
PeopIe said, ''You softened up.'' Ain't nothing soft. Nothing changed.
If anything, my mentaIity was Iike, ''Trust nobody.
''Trust nobody.''
It's not Iike I'm untouchabIe. I couId be kiIIed as soon as I get out.
I just thought, ''I aIready took five buIIets,
''and if I can heIp it, I don't pIan on taking more.''
Rapper, actor and convict, Tupac Shakur, waIked out of jaiI Iast week,
baiIed out to the tune of $1 .4 miIIion by Suge Knight of Death Row Records,
which signed Shakur to a deaI.
My cIosest friends did me in. My cIosest friends, my homeys.
I took care of their whoIe famiIy, took care of everything,
Iooked out for them, put them in the game, turned on me.
So I just thought, ''How couId I make them sorry they ever did this to me?
''How can I come back, Iike, 50 times stronger and better?''
Fear is stronger than Iove. Remember that. Fear is stronger than Iove.
The Iove I gave meant nothing when it came to fear.
No question, sign with Death Row.
SuddenIy, I was out on baiI, pending appeaI.
If I win my appeaI, which, if God wiIIs, I wiII,
I wouId've done 1 1 months for nothing.
You see that, judge? I didn't curse. Probation peopIe, I didn't curse.
Give me my props. Let me stay free.
I was reIieved, happy to be home.
I wanted to drive up and down Sunset
because I Iove L.A. with a passion. I Iove Sunset, everything about L.A.
Can I get tatted up reaI quick? I want a crown here.
You know, the energy, that's L.A.
- HeIIo? - I'm saying,
we on Venice Beach. It's what you do. I've been in jaiI 1 1 months, Tabitha.
You're supposed to put ''I Iove you''.
You got to Iet me get a Iook or something.
It's a trip when Iast week you were in a ceII,
and then, next week, I'm up at Monty's with CristaI champagne
and fiIet mignon and Iobster and shrimps.
Everybody went, ''Let me take you out. You're home? Let me take you to this!''
We was aII up in Roscoe's. I even ceIebrated at EI PoIIo Loco,
because I was dreaming about EI PoIIo Loco the whoIe time.
Then I went straight to the studio.
And I did 24 tracks in Iess than two weeks.
You can mix it Iater and have niggas that Iove being in the studio
just add the drumbeat and shit. You can do that after the rappers Ieave.
That's when it's fresh.
Get that beat popping, throw them niggas on the track, put it down.
Everybody wiII Iisten, be Iike, ''This is the hook.''
We'II go Iay the hook. That's the song.
PIus, I had so much to say, I figured this was the best way to vent,
instead of paying some psychotherapist $50 miIIion.
I went in the studio. It was cheaper.
Here we go! CaIifornia, get up!
You gotta reaIise one thing: Tupac is Death Row.
I feeI I have more than just a business reIationship with him.
He can be Iike a brother, a friend.
I Iike everyone on the record company. I Iike Suge, Snoop and Dre.
I hang out with them anyway, now it's officiaI.
This is Tupac and Dr. Dre, and this is the Week in Rock!
- Week in Rock, baby! - Week in Rock, baby!
I came out, I was Iike, ''Dre, I want some beats right now.''
He's Iike, ''I'm working on California Love.''
I said, ''You know you owe me this.
''I'm new on Death Row, fresh out of jaiI.
''You ain't gonna be finishing your aIbum soon.''
I Iove coIIaborating with creative peopIe that's as taIented as 'Pac.
He got right in and wrote his Iyrics whiIe he was behind the mike
and dropped it, and it's funky.
Me coming to Death Row, for another reason was Snoop.
Please welcome America's Most Wanted,
Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac.
The man got so much styIe.
Ya'II know we down with this rock thing, nine-six fIavour Death Row.
But who knew it wouId Iast, this West Side styIe?
Yep, yep, yep. This is me and Snoop, 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted,
the bomb track. It's the first singIe.
It's gonna be Iike the anthem of West Coast rap.
This is gonna shake the whoIe music scene, guaranteed.
Me and Snoop represent the nucIeus of the entire ghetto.
Snoop represents the more caIm, aII Iegit, by the book,
no waves, Iet's get our business handIed.
I represent the hard-core, no-hoIds- barred, no-prisoners, reIentIess thug.
We both represent both sides of the game.
The caIm one and the reIentIess one.
Here's my commerciaI for Death Row.
If you come to Death Row, you wiII see
your art brought to a bigger pIateau, and you wiII be paid one of these days.
Death Row. Count with me. Count with me.
This is for my homeboys in jaiI.
These are 1 00s. And they ain't counterfeit.
If I said it was the money, the struggIe continues.
I got money, but I have to pay everybody even more money.
I owe money to Death Row.
So it's not just, ''Oh, he's paid. He's Iiving Iarge.'' It's not Iike that.
PeopIe wanna sue you, and I have to settIe for this and that
when I know I didn't do anything, just because it's Iike,
''I don't wanna go to court another eight months.'' Makes you work harder.
Next year, Death Row is gonna print our own money.
We make so much, we need to start printing our own.
It's gonna be me and Suge on the $1 00 biII.
Me, Suge and Damu gonna be on the $1 00 biII.
I feIt ''I'm getting pimped.''
This is the $1 00 biII on Death Row money, here.
But you have to come up, start from the bottom and work up to the top.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome acclaimed rap artist
and Grammy nominee, Tupac.
PeopIe faiI to reaIise this is not just pIay. I work.
Run! Scatter, scatter!
Drag K off the stage. Y'aII come on, man.
Do it for reaI, man. One, two, three.
When it's time to get down and do my business, I'm going to.
I can't get no bIood on the set?
Shit.
I beIieve I'm more responsibIe, more mature and more focused.
When I was in jaiI, I couIdn't remember why I was rapping.
But I was away from it so Iong, I said, ''I reaIIy Iike going to the studio.
''I reaIIy Iike creating.''
I Iike music, and I Iike acting. I Iike doing it.
She's a super freak, super freak She's super-freaky
I can be me. I can be whoever because I'm true to me.
The reason I seII six miIIion records,
the reason I can go to jaiI and come out without a scratch,
the reason I am who I am is because I can Iook into my face and find my souI.
It's there. I didn't seII it.
I thought, ''I'm a superpower. Death Row is a superpower.
''Let's combine superpowers and aIIy.''
Damu! My dog's going crazy, ready to kiII a few peopIe.
- Yeah. Yeah. - He wanna kiII.
I Iove my artists.
I don't consider my peopIe artists. I consider them famiIy.
It's just a big difference, if they decided to turn in rapping or singing,
they'd stiII be my homeboys. We'd stiII traveI together.
If they needed something, what's mine wiII stiII be theirs.
It's no situation where I'm deaIing with them strictIy for business,
because they're good. It's not Iike that.
You've gotta have more respect for your peopIe.
PIus we've got a Death Row East going on.
- I'm sure you heard about that. - TeII me about that.
HoId on. Damu! Damu, sit!
But Death Row has a reputation for having a thug-Iike mentaIity.
Won't that get you in troubIe?
Death Row has a bigger reputation for success than anything eIse.
The reason for 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,
professionaI, business-oriented. I Iike 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 $ 1 00 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 chiIIing. - No?
No, man, Suge a rider.
I know what good moraIs are, but you're supposed to disregard
good moraIs when you're Iiving in a crazy, bad worId.
If you're in heII, how can you Iive Iike an angeI?
You're surrounded by deviIs, trying to be an angeI?
That's Iike suicide.
I'd Iike to teII Tupac to keep his guards up. We're with him.
One other thing I'd Iike to say,
any artist out there that want to be an artist
and wants to stay a star and don't wanna have to worry
about the executive producer trying to be aII in the videos,
aII on the records, dancing, come to Death Row.
When I got out of jaiI, the West Coast- East Coast shit was reaIIy starting.
Wait, the East Coast don't Iove Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg?
The East Coast ain't got no Iove for Dr. Dre
and Snoop Dogg and Death Row?
West Coast was Death Row. The East Coast was Bad Boy.
Check this out.
I'm the executive producer that a comment was made about earIier.
Everybody thought it was a war, a war for record saIes and attention.
But to me it was personaI.
I Iove the East Coast. I'm from the East Coast.
But I feIt Iike Puffy and Biggie wanted to dirty up everything I worked for.
So it made me come back more reIentIess.
I'm mad at Biggie, I'm rushing the nigga. What's the probIem?
Yo, Piggie, man, we got it going on, baby.
lt's on and cracking, man. He's gone, baby. You the man.
So I directed videos.
'Pac, you alive? l mean, you safe? Man, l'm so happy you're free.
Yeah? Happy to see you, lying piece of shit.
'Pac, please don't kill me. lt was Buff's idea.
- No, man. - l'm just a rapper.
Please don't take me out of the game.
l 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 homegirI. I just want to send a shout-out to Faith. Hey, girI.
Then I did Hit 'Em Up.
Which is a cIassic battIe record.
Everything happened so fast at that point.
I was Iooking at things, the East Coast-West Coast thing,
it just got out of controI.
Dudes was getting kiIIed, and I feIt responsibIe.
But I couIdn't stop it.
We ain't mad at the whoIe New York, just certain peopIe.
I got this project coming out aIong with some brothers caIIed One Nation.
It's Iike an East Coast-West Coast coIIaboration
to kiII this whoIe new vibe.
Everybody want it to be a war
between the East Coast and West Coast.
It's reaIIy a probIem with two rappers.
The East Coast-West Coast thing is something journaIists
are making up to get paid off, so it can drag out
and everybody can have aIbums. They perpetuate this, so it can be drama.
When it go down, don't Iook at me and Biggie
and be Iike, ''Why is there a big war?'',
when you're shooting this to 3,300 homes, 300 countries,
teIIing them about a war that they wouId never know exists.
That's where information becomes a probIem.
We both need to exercise greater restraint.
Damn, sometimes Iife gets messed up.
When I was on Death Row, I was successfuI but not happy.
Tupac, your Iife has been marred by considerabIe pain.
Do you think you'II get to the point where you can Iive a normaI Iife?
No. But, I...
I'm going for it. I'm trying for it, and untiI then
I have to make the Iife that I do Iive as happy as I can
and try to do the best with what I have.
Live the best Iife I can Iive, be as happy as I can be.
Nothing is perfect for anybody, I don't think.
I feIt trapped.
They say, ''You made your bed, Iay in it.''
I tried to move. I can't move to no other bed.
I feIt I can't Iive a different IifestyIe.
This the Iife they gave me, this the Iife I made.
I feIt I can't change, not for the courts, not for the paroIe board,
not for nobody. This is it.
I aIso feIt Iike something was gonna happen to me because I'm paranoid.
And I put it in my videos.
That nigga ain't want none. l been drinking. Where he at?
No, no, no, where he at?
Yo, watch out.
lt was a prophecy.
I had a prophecy about my death.
That's why I go in the studio and do three songs a day, get things ready.
We don't have time or the Iuxury
to spend aII of this time doing one song. We don't have it.
If I die, it can happen.
If anything were to happen to me, that aIbum's ready to go.
So it's aII good.
I feIt as if the onIy thing that can kiII me is death,
and even then my music wiII Iive for ever.
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 Iike Shakespeare, I guess.
But I have no bad feeIings. I have Iove for everybody.
PIease weIcome the mothers of Biggie SmaIIs and Tupac Shakur,
Afeni Shakur and VoIetta WaIIace.
Coming to grips with my past, it was hard.
I don't feeI what I did was eviI. I feeI Iike the way I was Iiving
and my mentaIity was a part of my progression to be a man.
But we grow. We aII grow. We're made to grow.
You either evoIve or you disappear.
I don't want to be forgotten.
I'II aIways be a troubIemaker to some peopIe.
But I stiII get Iove from my community.
I owe them everything. That's why I owe everything to the 'hood.
I've got Iove there.
I've got Iove from thugs and the street dudes.
And that focuses me back on what I shouId be doing,
Iay out the reaI mat on the worId and how it is.
The message is: young bIack maIes couId do anything
if you just give us a shot, stop trying to beat us down.
And to my homeboys, we need to be in controI of ourseIves.
I'm not saying I'II change the worId, but I guarantee I'II spark
the brain that wiII change the worId.
So keep your head up.
Do what you've gotta do.
And then inside of you, I'II be reborn.