Released: July 21, 1998
Songwriter: Sway (US) 2Pac
Producer: The Stealth Music Group
[Interview]
Sway: Yo we back, we back right here with Tupac, you know, just chopping up, chopping up a little bit. We can't let you hear everything, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My man is definitely putting it down. One more thing about Death Row. What’s going on with Dre and how does that affect Death Row as a whole?
2Pac: Dre is doing his own thing. It doesn't effect us. My take on what happened was that Snoop went on trial for murder for his life. Somebody said Dre was in the car. The jury believed that we needed Dre to be able to say he wasn't there..once they would’ve saw that he wasn't there that would've saved Snoop's whole case. They would've saw that the witness was lying. Dre never showed up. He said he was too busy. That's how they told me..When they told me that I was like no matter how dope he is and Dre was one of my heroes in the music industry. If he's not down for his homeboys. I don't wanna be a part of him or around him. Plus I feel that what was done in the dark will come to light. There are secrets that everybody’s gonna find out about and you’ll know what I did it. I swear to god y'all we are living by the rules of the game.
Sway: Now that’s real. Let's talk about other things, like you told us you got a soundtrack you're working on. You got a new movie right? Why don't you talk on it.
2Pac: We got a movie called Gridlock coming out which is a mainstream movie. It’s me coming back into the theaters with Tim Ross from Pulp Fiction. I don't know who it is, but there's a big name female in the movie. I'm the music supervisor for the sound track. It's my first chance ever doing something like this... We got Alanis Morissette and all these other big name alternative groups . It's supposedly people I would never get with. I got them all on the soundtrack just to show what kind of range I got. I'll be putting that type of sound track out and then I'll be putting out a rap sound track. I'm gonna do it like a 2Pac album with me doing a whole bunch of solo songs and Snoop on there doing some songs. This is just to show I have a business mind as well as a creative mind. I can make my way in this business besides rapping.
Sway: That's for real too. Now when you work with Janet, you know, I was wondering if maybe you could hook me up with her number.
2Pac: Dawg, on everything that I love. If anybody finds Janet, tell her I'm looking for her. That's why I said that shit in my song "My Minds Made Up," but give me Janet. I feel like she got shit twisted and people gone made her my enemy. She ain't my enemy. I ain't mad at her. I want her to know that. It ain't even like that. She met me at a time in my life when I was real immature. I was comin' up and going through a lot. Now she probably sees me in a whole different light. Maybe not and maybe she will. I want that opportunity. When I see Janet, I'm gonna try to make right where we made wrong.
Sway: I'll be right there with you bruh. Ayy, no. I'ma ask you another question. Five years from now, what do you see yourself- five or 10 years from now, what do you see yourself doing?
2Pac: I see myself having a job on Death Row, being the A&R person and an artist that drop an album like Paul McCartney every five years. Not that I'm like Paul McCartney but there's no rapper who ever did it so that's why I use him as an example. But I wanna do it at leisure. My music will mean something and I'll drop deeper shit. I'll have my own production company which I'm close to right now. I'm doing my own movies. I have my own restaurant, which I got right now with Alanis or Suge or Snoop. I just wanna expand. I'm starting to put out some calendars for charity. I'm gonna start a little youth league in California so we can start playing some east coast teams..some southern teams. I wanna have like a Pop Warner League except the rappers fund it and they're the head coaches. Have a league where you can get a big trophy with diamonds in it for a nigga to stay drug free and stay in school. That's the only way you can be on the team. We'll have fun and eat pizza and have the finest girls there and throw concerts at the end of the year. That's what I mean by giving back. By using what I got to give back to give back.
Sway: And in closing, you know you got a lot of people, fans that's listening to you right now that don't really get a chance to talk to Tupac up and close and personal like we kicked it today. But if there's anything you want people to know about Tupac, what is it you like to say?
2Pac: Number one, when I dis y'all meaning like when you come up to me and I'm not giving you the type of reaction that you think I should give you, it's not because I'm ungrateful. It's because I'm nervous. I'm paranoid, I just got out of jail. I've been shot, cheated lied and framed and I just don't know how to deal with so many people giving me that much affection. I never had that in my life. So if I do that, don't take it personal. Try to understand it and see it for what it is.
Now I understand what it's truly like to be a fine female who goes to a club and all the guys just rush you before you're ready to be rushed. Everyone is touching you before you're ready to get touched. So now I have a better understanding of what it's like to be a woman. I have a better understanding of fans not making you do things. I'm gonna do it because I love y'all. I do appreciate what you did. But if you make me do it, then I don't wanna do it. I don't care how many albums you brought. My fans to me are people who follow me who are down for me..who understand me and no matter what people say, they know me, because they've followed me through my career.
A lot of people just bought my album. I buy albums all the time. I just buy them to listen to. If you brought my album, you brought it for the music. You didn't buy it so when you see me, I just break down and start eating you out. I don't like that. Don't start extorting me for an autograph. I'm real. I give autographs when I want to. I wanna be in this game for a long time. I don't ever wanna hate the fans That's what these other niggas do. They might give you autographs all the time, but they hate you. They never even look at you like people. I do look at you like people. That's why I feel like I can look you in your eye and say 'Yo I don't feel like doing that right now. I don't feel like signing no autographs. and you should understand. I look at you like a human being. Let's kick it. Let's not take pictures. Let's kick it. Do that. I want some females to do that. Every female wanna come up to me and show me how much they're not attracted tome. Do the opposite cause these ghetto girls, these minority women, they're the only women I can get cause every one else is scared of me. Their parents tell them not to mess with me. Y'all can't fade me. Y'all can't turn on me Don't change on me. Stay down for me 'cause I stay down for you and don't extort me unless you intend to do it forever.
Sway: There it is. Tupac Shakur, kickin' it on set. Right here.
(Right here, right here, right here, right here...)
Sway: Yo we back, we back right here with Tupac, you know, just chopping up, chopping up a little bit. We can't let you hear everything, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My man is definitely putting it down. One more thing about Death Row. What’s going on with Dre and how does that affect Death Row as a whole?
2Pac: Dre is doing his own thing. It doesn't effect us. My take on what happened was that Snoop went on trial for murder for his life. Somebody said Dre was in the car. The jury believed that we needed Dre to be able to say he wasn't there..once they would’ve saw that he wasn't there that would've saved Snoop's whole case. They would've saw that the witness was lying. Dre never showed up. He said he was too busy. That's how they told me..When they told me that I was like no matter how dope he is and Dre was one of my heroes in the music industry. If he's not down for his homeboys. I don't wanna be a part of him or around him. Plus I feel that what was done in the dark will come to light. There are secrets that everybody’s gonna find out about and you’ll know what I did it. I swear to god y'all we are living by the rules of the game.
Sway: Now that’s real. Let's talk about other things, like you told us you got a soundtrack you're working on. You got a new movie right? Why don't you talk on it.
2Pac: We got a movie called Gridlock coming out which is a mainstream movie. It’s me coming back into the theaters with Tim Ross from Pulp Fiction. I don't know who it is, but there's a big name female in the movie. I'm the music supervisor for the sound track. It's my first chance ever doing something like this... We got Alanis Morissette and all these other big name alternative groups . It's supposedly people I would never get with. I got them all on the soundtrack just to show what kind of range I got. I'll be putting that type of sound track out and then I'll be putting out a rap sound track. I'm gonna do it like a 2Pac album with me doing a whole bunch of solo songs and Snoop on there doing some songs. This is just to show I have a business mind as well as a creative mind. I can make my way in this business besides rapping.
Sway: That's for real too. Now when you work with Janet, you know, I was wondering if maybe you could hook me up with her number.
2Pac: Dawg, on everything that I love. If anybody finds Janet, tell her I'm looking for her. That's why I said that shit in my song "My Minds Made Up," but give me Janet. I feel like she got shit twisted and people gone made her my enemy. She ain't my enemy. I ain't mad at her. I want her to know that. It ain't even like that. She met me at a time in my life when I was real immature. I was comin' up and going through a lot. Now she probably sees me in a whole different light. Maybe not and maybe she will. I want that opportunity. When I see Janet, I'm gonna try to make right where we made wrong.
Sway: I'll be right there with you bruh. Ayy, no. I'ma ask you another question. Five years from now, what do you see yourself- five or 10 years from now, what do you see yourself doing?
2Pac: I see myself having a job on Death Row, being the A&R person and an artist that drop an album like Paul McCartney every five years. Not that I'm like Paul McCartney but there's no rapper who ever did it so that's why I use him as an example. But I wanna do it at leisure. My music will mean something and I'll drop deeper shit. I'll have my own production company which I'm close to right now. I'm doing my own movies. I have my own restaurant, which I got right now with Alanis or Suge or Snoop. I just wanna expand. I'm starting to put out some calendars for charity. I'm gonna start a little youth league in California so we can start playing some east coast teams..some southern teams. I wanna have like a Pop Warner League except the rappers fund it and they're the head coaches. Have a league where you can get a big trophy with diamonds in it for a nigga to stay drug free and stay in school. That's the only way you can be on the team. We'll have fun and eat pizza and have the finest girls there and throw concerts at the end of the year. That's what I mean by giving back. By using what I got to give back to give back.
Sway: And in closing, you know you got a lot of people, fans that's listening to you right now that don't really get a chance to talk to Tupac up and close and personal like we kicked it today. But if there's anything you want people to know about Tupac, what is it you like to say?
2Pac: Number one, when I dis y'all meaning like when you come up to me and I'm not giving you the type of reaction that you think I should give you, it's not because I'm ungrateful. It's because I'm nervous. I'm paranoid, I just got out of jail. I've been shot, cheated lied and framed and I just don't know how to deal with so many people giving me that much affection. I never had that in my life. So if I do that, don't take it personal. Try to understand it and see it for what it is.
Now I understand what it's truly like to be a fine female who goes to a club and all the guys just rush you before you're ready to be rushed. Everyone is touching you before you're ready to get touched. So now I have a better understanding of what it's like to be a woman. I have a better understanding of fans not making you do things. I'm gonna do it because I love y'all. I do appreciate what you did. But if you make me do it, then I don't wanna do it. I don't care how many albums you brought. My fans to me are people who follow me who are down for me..who understand me and no matter what people say, they know me, because they've followed me through my career.
A lot of people just bought my album. I buy albums all the time. I just buy them to listen to. If you brought my album, you brought it for the music. You didn't buy it so when you see me, I just break down and start eating you out. I don't like that. Don't start extorting me for an autograph. I'm real. I give autographs when I want to. I wanna be in this game for a long time. I don't ever wanna hate the fans That's what these other niggas do. They might give you autographs all the time, but they hate you. They never even look at you like people. I do look at you like people. That's why I feel like I can look you in your eye and say 'Yo I don't feel like doing that right now. I don't feel like signing no autographs. and you should understand. I look at you like a human being. Let's kick it. Let's not take pictures. Let's kick it. Do that. I want some females to do that. Every female wanna come up to me and show me how much they're not attracted tome. Do the opposite cause these ghetto girls, these minority women, they're the only women I can get cause every one else is scared of me. Their parents tell them not to mess with me. Y'all can't fade me. Y'all can't turn on me Don't change on me. Stay down for me 'cause I stay down for you and don't extort me unless you intend to do it forever.
Sway: There it is. Tupac Shakur, kickin' it on set. Right here.
(Right here, right here, right here, right here...)
In His Own Words
- In His Own Words
- Final Projects (Interview by Sway)
- My Enemies (Interview by Sway)
- Darkness Comes To Light (Interview by Sway)
- Mad Trouble (Davey D)
- What Happened (Interview by Sway)
- Trouble Followed (Davey D)
- No Peace Treaty (Interview by Sway)
- Evolution Of A Thug (Davey D)
- The People Made Me (Interview by Sway)
- Intro (Davey D)
- Stop the Gunfight
- Be the Realist
- The Last Days (Davey D)
- In His Own Words (1998)
- Hit ’Em Up
- Changes
- Keep Ya Head Up
- Hail Mary
- Dear Mama
- California Love
- Ambitionz Az a Ridah
- All Eyez On Me
- Life Goes On
- The Rose That Grew From Concrete
- 2 Of Amerikaz Most Wanted
- I Ain’t Mad At Cha
- Only God Can Judge Me
- Runnin’ (Dying to Live)
- Me Against the World
- I Get Around
- All About U
- So Many Tears
- Do for Love
- Ghetto Gospel
- The Rose That Grew From Concrete (Autobiographical)
- Me and My Girlfriend
- Can’t C Me
- How Do U Want It