"WE CAN'T ESCAPE LIKE
BOB DOLE AND DELORES TUCKER.
SHE ONLY GOTTA LISTEN
TO THE RECORD AND
BE MAD FOR A FEW MINUTES,
BUT THE SHIT SHE'S MAD AT
IS THE SHIT WE LIVING IN."
-TUPAC FROM DEATH WISH!
Are you into Pulp Fiction and Quentin Tarantino?
I wrote a screen play while I was in jail and that's the style. Quentin Tarantino is the closest writer/director to our music. That's what we do. See, he don't mean no harm by showing violence. He's using the violence as entertainment because it's everywhere. Same thing we do. We're living in so much poverty and despair that by rapping about it, kinda making it seem like we controlling it, it makes us fell better about being here. And we gotta be here.
Have you discussed the Time/Warner divestment from Interscope Records with Suge?
It don't matter, we natural born hustlers. That's why I moved to Death Row, to make us the superpower. The Superpower. We can release our own records, distribute our own shit, do our own movies, buy our own planes, have our own casinos, whatever.
What's the name of this album?
All eyez on Me. Because they are. Everybody's watching for me to fall, die, get crippled, get AIDS, something. This album is my favorite album because it's not politically correct. I just got outta jail, I didn't really give a fuck. Mothafuckers had talked so bad about me, I didn't care and just said what I wanted to say and it just liberated me. All that shit gone now. All I kept was the game, I let go of the anger.
How did the relationship with you and Suge Knight begin?
He always used to tell me to come to the Row. But it was too many stars over there and I know how I am. But watching how New York flipped on me...
What are you saying happened?
They think I rushed on Tribe Called Quest's stage [at The Source Awards '94] and that's not what happened. They played my music. I'm going on with my music. What the fuck I look like, Plastic Man? I'ma play my own DAT? But that's not what I was mad at. I was mad 'cause they booing me. I was mad 'cause those Zulu Nation niggas came out saying if he ever do that again, he's gonna get his ass kicked. Well, whip my ass then.
Even though you knew Death Row had many other priorities, what made you go there anyway?
Because the homie [Suge] came to me personally, and I was like, "I can't make you no promises, but if you don't get out, I'll look out for you."I was like,"I'm trying to do my album, help my moms, I got enemies... "He said, Don't worry about it."And I was like,if you get me out Suge, I guarantee I will put Death Row in a position that nobody can take it to. I will take us where no man has ever been before. I'll be a soldier for Death Row. To show loyalty. Because he was being real to me when nobody was being real.
How?
Money wise. Niggas knew I was getting out, nobody wanted to touch me, nobody wanted to fuck with me. Niggas was all on the radio talking about they was coming to visit me, but they wasn't coming to visit me. Only MC Lyte, April Walker, Nefertiti, Jada [Pinkett], that's it.
It's 11p.m. on an oddly brisk night in LA, but Tupac feels only the warmth of camaraderie as his label mates Daz, Kurupt and Nate Dogg silently watch him bob to his own voice blasting through the monitor of the multi-million dollar studio, rainbow mix board lights bouncing off of his sweat glistened skin. Like a child at play, he dips and steps to the sound of his George Clinton/Dr. Dre collaboration cut. What makes denying the fantasy of the young Black G difficult is the sheer genius of style and creativity so many produce out of seemingly northing-whether it be the crack game or the rap game--two not totally dissimilar industries.
"People need to stop judging motherfuckers. We all living in this life to get to the end of it. Don't nobody know how shit's supposed to turn out. Maybe the bums got it right, maybe we supposed to be sleeping on the street resting for the real world whenever this shit is over. Maybe these crazy motherfuckers got it right. Maybe these dope heads got it right, getting doped up and numb 'cause it ain't shit out here to really see. Maybe these young niggas are right when they're acting up, when they're thirteen with guns. Maybe they know if they waste ten more years getting into this educational system they just gonna know how this shit gonna turn out. Maybe this Thug Life shit is for real. Maybe I am right. Maybe Death Row is the only thing stopping these motherfuckers from mashing us completely.
An interview with Tabitha Soren, October 27, 1995
TUPAC: That situation with me is like, what comes around, goes around... karma, I believe in karma. I believe in all of that. I'm not worried about it. They missed. I'm not worried about it unless they come back.
MTV: While serving his sentence for sexual abuse, Tupac's third solo release, "Me Against The World," spent four weeks at number one.
TUPAC: It was a trip. Every time they used to say something bad to me, I'd go, "That's all right. I got the number one record in the country."
MTV: After eight months, Tupac's case was appealed, and Death Row head Suge Knight promptly bailed Tupac out of jail, and took the opportunity to sign him to Death Row Records.
TUPAC (counting a handful of money after being signed to Death Row Records): 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...
MTV: Tupac turned his troubles to a career that was bigger than ever. His double album Death Row debut, "All Eyez On Me," sold more than 5 million copies, scored a number one single, and included tracks with new label mate, Snoop Doggy Dogg, and Dr. Dre. With three years past since Snoop's last solo release, and the departure of Death Row Co-Founder, Dr. Dre, to start his own label, Tupac became Death Row's artistic centerpiece, as well as its biggest mouthpiece. Death Row and Tupac shared a common enemy: the New York-based Bad Boy Entertainment. Tupac had earlier implicated Bad Boy Producer, Sean "Puffy" Combs, and star artist, the Notorious B.I.G., in his 1994 shooting.
TUPAC: Bad Boy Records. That's for Bad Boy Records (he winks and holds up the handful of money from signing with Death Row). I love you all.
MTV: But despite his taunts, Tupac realized danger could be around the corner. Back in New York City for this year's Video Music Awards, just three nights before he was shot in Las Vegas, Tupac surrounded himself with bodyguards and clutched a walkie talkie throughout the evening as a security precaution.
TUPAC: We are businessmen. We are not animals. It's not like we're going to see them and rush them and jump on them. If they see us and they want drama, we're goin' to definitely bring it like only Death Row can bring it...
