2Pac's most iconic interviews, Vol. 1
hip hop's new daily operation | 6.16.20
TheMotto No. 44 : Tupac “2Pac” Shakur was born on this date in the same year I was —1971. 2Pac delivered a huge amount of culture-changing music in his short career but almost equally as compelling were his interactions with media — especially with VIBE. Rick Ross once rapped that he was a photographer’s dream, but the truth is Pac was a journalist’s dream. Compelling as an interview subject, and a quote machine — raw, passionate and charismatically candid as a muthafucka. Living his personal truths in real time, Shakur reeled you in with precision. We all paid attention to each and every word. The below profiles happened during my ego trip and CMJ days, and I’m still sad that I never had the opportunity to interview him. I only met ‘Pac one time, in 1993, at a random music industry gathering. I had on a black promo T-shirt for Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z., his current album. 2Pac walked past me in the hotel lobby, shot me a quick glance and said, Nice shirt. He chuckled and kept it moving.
top billin’:
VIBE Magazine on some love shit.— Mobb Deep’s Havoc
Back in Oakland, at the top of the 1990s, Tupac was a dear friend of my wife’s. Danyel wrote the introduction of the 1997 book, Tupac Shakur, by the editors of VIBE (Three Rivers Press), a best-selling collection of the extensive coverage by the brand. He appeared on the cover multiple times.
You wish him back for one more song, one more standoff with the cops, more jail time, more anything. You wish back the bright spectacle that was Tupac Amaru Shakur’s noisy sad life. Short life. Thug life. Triple life. Afterlife. — Danyel Smith
February 1994. 2Pac’s first VIBE cover (straitjacket so hard!).
⤴️ Powell profiled 2Pac near the time he was first charged with sexual abuse of Ayanna Jackson. It’s a deep dive into Shakur’s whole life though, and his mother, Afeni is quoted. 2Pac talks about Legs, a NYC hustler, a father figure to him, who died of a crack-induced heart attack at 41. “I was real bitter about Legs’ death because I believe a mother can’t give a son ways on how to be a man. Especially not a Black man. It made me bitter seeing all these other niggas with fathers gettin’ answers to questions that I have. Even now I still don’t get ‘em.”
⬇️ April 1995. 2Pac’s second VIBE cover (the half-face is so classic).
The biggest get in a hip hop magazine, ever. Powell met 2Pac at Rikers in January 1995 for a no-holds barred assessment of the events surrounding the Quad Studios shooting. Shakur also declared that “Thug Life” was dead, and that his next album, Me Against The World was his best album yet. It would debut at #1 while he was incarcerated.
February 1996. 2Pac is rollin’ with Death Row. Most consider this the greatest hip hop magazine cover of all-time.
Each man on the all-star roster contributed quotes — including Dr. Dre who would exit the Row shortly after the issue was published. 2Pac came thru strong. “More than a family, Death Row to me is like a machine. The biggest, strongest superpower in the hip hop world. In order to do the things I gotta do, we gotta have that superpower. Now we gotta expand and show exactly what a superpower is…As for me and Suge, right now — as of today — we’re the perfect couple. I can see this is what I’ve been looking for, managementwise. He rides like I ride. With Suge as my manager, I gotta do less. ‘Cause before, niggas wasn’t scared of me. So I brought fear to them. Now I don’t have to do all that to get respect.”
I’m sitting here on the eve of Father's Day. Feeling blessed to have Elliott Sr. I wish ‘Pac would have found that father figure.
what more can I say:
Five years later, and I’m still impressed by Kendrick Lamar for taking an obscure Swedish radio interview with 2Pac and weaving it into the theme of his classic To Pimp A Butterfly (TDE/Interscope). You did that, Dot. Guess who’s birthday’s tomorrow?
@elliottwilson tweets | @elliottwilson IG | follow HRDlist
a danyelliott production
Danyel Smith + Elliott Wilson