MTV News Spends a Day with Tupac at Venice Beach [October 27, 1995}
In 1995, Tupac Shakur and MTV News correspondent Tabitha Soren as they walked down Venice Beach in California.Ā During the 20 minute conversation, Pac gets personal: talking about his Baltimore upbringing, his relationship with his mother and father, starting a community center with Mike Tyson, and more. See also: 1995-10-27 / Tupac Interview With Tabitha Soren (MTV) 0:01 What does Tupac Amaru Shakur mean? 0:41 Moving to the West Coast and dropping out of art school 3:07 Moving out to the West Coast and being broke 3:53 Tupac on his mother, Afeni Shakur and drug addiction 5:16 Childhood and growing up 5:41 Dealing with traumatic experiences 7:42 Going from making pizza to joining Digital Underground 9:14 Tupac gets a tattoo 9:43 Getting introduced to the 'thug mentality' 10:51 Growing up without a father 13:34 Working hard and success 14:27 Justice and finding the person who shot him 16:02 How life would be different if Tupac had a father 16:32 Tupac on being a father 17:46 Being in touch with his feminine side 18:15 Starting a community center with Mike Tyson 19:11 Distancing himself from a 'thug life' mentality 19:39 Being able to live a 'normal' or 'happy' life TRANSCRIBED Tupac: They call this place weirdo beach. I donāt know it aināt that weird to me. MTV: Alright, give me a characterization of your childhood. Tupac: was the total opposite of what I am now. I was quiet, withdrawn, I read a lot, I wrote poetry. MTV: At what point in your early life were your exposed to this quote unquote thug life mentality? Tupac: When I was out there by myself with no where to stay and no money MTV: Which city? Bits of it was in Baltimore. Pieces of it was in Marin City and then the rest came in Oakland. MTV: And what was your first introduction? Tupac: Drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes. Thatās really it. Criminals. They just the only people that cared about me at that point when I had nowhere to go and I was hungry. MTV: But you said your mother always cared about you. Tupac: She did but she was lost at that particular moment. She wasnāt caring about herself at that particular moment. MTV: What was that like? Tupac: I love my mom. She the bomb to me so. MTV: I know she is now but what about then? Tupac: It was hard. It was hard because, you know, she was my hero. MTV: And what did you do when you stopped going to school? Tupac: I only had two jobs ever in my life. One was at Roundtable Pizza, I used to make the pizza but it was good, it was the perfect job, Tabitha, ācause I was hungry and I got to like eat all the toppings of peoples pizza. Thatās where I ate ācause everything is right there. If you imagine I was making pizzas on the side, bringing pizzas home, Iām calling in my own deliveries. MTV: Hello? Tupac: Iām saying weāre on Venice Beach thatās what youāre supposed to do. Iāve been in jail for 11 months, Tabitha. You got let me get a look once or something . MTV: Do you think itās important to tell your fans that itās not cool for you to end up in jail? Tupac: I donāt have any problem telling people itās not cool to go to jail ācause Iāve been there and itās not cool. MTV: So just tell me how you have been feeling with all the stuff thatās been going on in the last couple of weeks. Tupac: Good. Relieved. Happy to be home. Itās a trip when you know that last week you were in jail and I was in this little cell and it was real dirty and not have any hot water and dudes were telling me when to shower and when to eat and all of that and then next week Iām up āMannyāsā with champagne, filet mignon and lobster and shrimp. MTV: Did you feel like your life was ever threatened in jail? Tupac: By the guards not by the inmates. āCause they did just everything they could do to try to break me because I used to talk a lot of shit, you know, coming out of jail. MTV: No, not you. Tupac: I know, I know itās hard to believe, Tabitha, but you just got to picture it. But, uh, you know, they would say things ācause they would call you, uh, jail was the first place where I can go and they just went as soon I got there they went, āThere he goes.ā He goes, āWho?.ā āThere is the rich ****.ā I was like, āOh shit, he said ****, he said ****!ā and everybody was looking and me like, āSo?.ā I was like, āOh my God, this is where Iām gonna be staying. He said ****.ā MTV: Well you got s in one of your records. Tupac: Nigga. Theyāre talking about s. s was the ones on the rope hanging out on the field. Niggas is the ones with gold ropes hanging out at clubs. MTV: Well maybe not everyone is not aware of the differention. Tupac: They donāt have to be. Everyone if your not a nigga and you donāt use that word you donāt have to understand it. Itās not one of those things. MTV: How did you meet the girl in the alleged rape? Tupac: I met her in the club. Some guys introduced me to her. MTV: And she was very forward with you? Tupac: Extremely MTV: And what happened? Tupac: She did some things and⦠MTV: Sexual things? Tupac: Yeah, she did some things there at the club and we got together later that night. I saw her again another time with the guys that introduced me to her, um, everybody was having a good time. Not we didnāt do anything sexual, just having a good time. Me and her went in there, she gave me a massage, came out, went to sleep, woke up. Sheās screaming, āRape, rape.ā I raped her and the next thing I know Iām going to jail. MTV: So in your opinion there was no truth to the sexual abuse charges? Tupac: Not on my part at all. MTV: If you could go back to the night when the sexual abuse occurred is there anything you would do differently? Tupac: Yeah MTV: What? Tupac: I would not have closed my eyes till she was out of the room, until everybody was out of the room. MTV: Iāve grown up with tons of wild stories from lots of legendary rock bands and things they would do with their groupies. Do you feel like there is a double standard for black artists and white artists and how they entertain their groupies? Tupac: Yes it is a double standard because America is scared of a black mans sexuality. and they only see us as groups who could only go, āUgh, ugh,ā and they just canāt imagine us being another way and thatās why it was so easy for people to believe I could do this. MTV: It seemed like there was a time though that you were definitely reveling in the image of being wild and crazy. What got you off that path? Tupac: Five hot bullets. MTV: Tell me what happened at the recording studios in Time Square. Tupac: I got shot five times. I walked in, some dudes walked in and shot me up, um, took some jewelry. MTV: Do you know who shot you? MTV: No? Is that a no or is that a maybe? Tupac: No, I donāt know who shot me. MTV: So does that mean that you also have no idea why they shot you? Tupac: No, I have no idea why they shot me. MTV: Do you think they shot you just to get your jewelry? Tupac: I donāt know. Itās like anybodyās guess. I donāt know. I donāt really like to talk about it. MTV: At any point did you think you were going to die after being shot five times. Tupac: No. No, I didnāt. Immediately I was like, āOh Man.ā I know how itās gonna be when I die itās gonna be no noise you know you wonāt hear people screaming. Iāma fade out. MTV: You were on trial for sex abuse charges at the time of the shooting. Tupac: I was on trial for rape and sodomy and gun possession and forcible kidnapping about 18 charges thatās why I wanted to die at that point. āCause I was like you know I mean Iām tired but I lived and I was like well I canāt check out. MTV: So you felt suicidal? Tupac: Oh, definitely. It wasnāt like I was one day waking up and wanted to commit suicide just all around I felt suicidal but I couldnāt kill myself I just wanted somebody to kill me for me, you know what I mean? MTV: Yet you were still happy you survived the five gunshot wounds. Tupac: Only reason I was happy was I didnāt want them to take me out. You know I want honor man. These suckers that wanna rob you, taking you out, you know what I mean? Thatās cowardly. MTV: Do you feel rehabilitated? Thatās what they try to do in jail. Tupac: Nah jail is not a rehabilitation thing. I feel like Iāve grown and matured I donāt think jail had anything to do with it. MTV: Tell me what youāve been recording in the studio since you got out of jail Tupac: Euphanasia is the name of the album. Itās a double album Iāma release it for Christmas. Itās gonna have Snoop on it, me and him did a song called āAmerikaāz Most Wanted.ā MTV: Do you feel like rappers should be more responsible for their lyrics? Tupac: Um, yes. MTV: What would you define as irresponsible? Tupac: You talk about murder and death and you donāt talk about the pain or you talk about killing and robbing and stealing and you donāt talk about jail and death and betrayal and all things that go with it. MTV: A lot of people would characterize your music as gangsta rap. Do you? Tupac: No MTV: Why not? Tupac: Marlon Brando is not a gangsta actor. Heās an actor. Axel Rose and them are not gangsta rock ānā rollers. Theyāve got rock ānā rollers right? So Iāma rapper. This is what I do. Iām an artist. MTV: Does anything that Bob Dole says make any sense to you as far as rap is concerned? Tupac: Nah, I have no disrespect towards Bob Dole. I know he donāt know what heās talking about. Heās just talking. Some card that somebody gave him heās just reading off that card. But heās cute, you know what I mean? Heās my grandfather. MTV: One of the characterizations made of rappers often is that theyāre very boastful. It seems like right now youāre taking pain to be humble and look at things from a very realistic perspective. Is that accurate? Tupac: Yes, I think being humble is sexy. Thatās my new put Iām pushing humble. MTV: Youāre being humble to get chicks? Tupac: Iām starting to turn you on, Tabitha. As a matter of fact, Iām hoping my humble thing is gonna get to you . MTV: So you got married in prison? Tupac: Yeah MTV: What happened with that? Tupac: It didnāt work. Not because of her or me or jail it just wasnāt the right thing to do at the time. I married her for the wrong reasons. MTV: What were the reasons? Tupac: I cared about her but I married her because I was in jail, I was alone and I didnāt want to be alone. MTV: How would you compare to fame and fortune in 1995 to how you did a couple years ago? Tupac: I believe Iām more responsible, more mature and more focused and I will be more focused and even more responsible and even more mature in time. MTV: It seems like the two sides of Tupac are constantly battling with each other. One minute your spitting at TV cameras, the next youāre talking about Shakespeare. Have you reconciled those two? Tupac: Hopefully. Iād like to think so. I think that Iām really I was a reactionary and now I donāt do that anymore. Same person, just I donāt react. Before I reacted I didnāt like the cameras, Iād spit. MTV: The last time we talked you said that you were best known for your big mouth. What do you feel youāre best known for now? Tupac: Taking five bullets. Surviving. Iām known as a survivor now. I hope so for the jail thing, bullets, and the everything. Controversies and everything. I hope so. And I wanna be in the future known as somebody, you know, I want people be talking about me like, you know, āRemember when he was real bad? Remember when Tupac was real bad?ā You know what I mean? They do that about a lot of actors now. Like John Travolta I read stories and itās like, āRemember when you were wild?ā And all these other people they now are sweethearts. We all should get that chance. I just want my chance. Read the full article












