TANYA: Hello, I'm Tanya Hart, and welcome to our show.
My guest today has experienced truly horrendous life
to just be 20 years old.
His family portrait could well be a poster
for America's Most Wanted.
Please welcome a very streetwise young man
who wants to make a difference for all Black people.
- What's up? - Tupac Shakur.
Welcome to our show.
Thank you. I love it.
Boy, you know, I gotta tell you,
I heard about what happened to you
as a young man.
In retrospect, how would you say
that your life has been?
I would say it's been like a test on my faith.
You know what I'm saying? You know how,
I guess his name was Job in the Bible,
who God just did all of this crazy stuff to him
just to make sure his faith was straight.
And that's how it was. It made me--
If I didn't have all of this stuff,
I don't think that my feet would have been so firm.
- TANYA: Yeah. - If God ain't finished with me yet...
TUPAC: ...let Him check me.
MAN: Your socks are high, dude.
BILLY: Yeah, make sure y'all get the socks, man.
PRODUCER: So, Billy, what is your relation to Tupac?
BILLY: I am Tupac's oldest cousin.
I'm eight years older than him, so...
before he became who everybody know him as,
he was like this little dude
who used to follow me everywhere.
And I'd be, like, "Man, you can't go with me, man.
I'm getting ready to go do crime.
You can't come with me to do crime."
But I didn't really feel responsible about his safety
until... Halloween night, 1993.
(distant police sirens wail)
I had just got out of jail,
and I hadn't seen Pac for several years.
My family had a ticket for me to come to Atlanta.
That's where he's performing a show.
- (crowd screaming) - DANTE: Great night.
First thing I see, panties flying.
But the night was too good to be true.
BILLY: Tupac ends up getting into a beef
with the security guards about smoking this weed.
So we cut the show short...
- Fuck you, motherfuckers! - (all shouting angrily)
BILLY: ...and we left with six or seven carloads full of people.
DANTE: "Yo, we at such-and-such. Follow us to the room."
BILLY: We're getting ready to take a left into the hotel,
but we can't 'cause there's a Black man
arguing with two White men.
He pushed him. He'll push him. It looked corny, but Pac still got out.
(car door sensor dinging)
BILLY: At that very moment,
one of the White guys hit the Black dude in the jaw.
And when Pac saw that, he freaked out.
DANTE: The Black dude took off, started running.
BILLY: One of the White guys pulled his gun out on Pac
and told him to run.
And that's when Pac pulled up his shirt:
"This is thug life. I don't run nowhere."
The dude took the gun and bang!
BILLY: Cracks the car window out.
And started running.
Right past me.
So Tupac goes...
"I want my gun. Give me my gun."
BILLY: No.
Nobody wanted to hand it to him.
He goes around and get it hisself.
(car door sensor dinging)
No, no, no, no.
BILLY: They, like, 40 feet away and it's dark.
And Tupac gets down on one knee.
- One knee. - BILLY: He aims.
You're not going to hit the--
Bang, bang, bang!
BILLY: Three shots.
Just like a marksman. Trained.
DANTE: All I remember seeing was fire coming from the gun.
BILLY: He takes his gun, slams it on the ground,
and I picked it up and said, "You missed. You missed. I know you missed."
He said, "Nah. I got him. I got him."
DANTE: So he's sitting there...
- (car door sensor dinging) - (exhaling)
..."Let's go, cuz."
So I'm thinking we about to skirt off.
- (car doors slam) - But we makes the left
to go in the hotel room.
BILLY: Now we at the hotel, and I look outside
and I see police all over the place.
And I could see they're comin' upstairs to the room.
The room is full of people.
Everybody is excited.
They just saw somebody get shot.
But Tupac, he's calm.
DANTE: Cloud of smoke.
(exhaling)
Weed.
BILLY: His face is blank.
DANTE: Not talking about it.
BILLY: He's like in a peaceful trance.
But I can hear the cops outside the door.
Suddenly, he says,
"Yo, wait a minute. I want everybody to hear my new song."
DANTE: Song? We're going to jail. This is over.
The song he played for the very first time...
TUPAC: It's a love song.
DANTE: ...with the police at the door
was "Dear Mama."
- TUPAC: Dear Mama. - "Dear Mama."
Into it. Vibing. Smoking.
- He's grooving now. - Listen, listen.
He has no connection to what he just did.
That was the first time I realized...
- TUPAC: Dear Mama. - ...that that motherfucker was for real.
That he's gonna protect Black people. Period.
TUPAC: Dear Mama.
BILLY: That was how he was raised.
("Dear Mama" by 2Pac playing)
♪ When I was young Me and my mama had beef ♪
♪ 17 years old Kicked out on the streets ♪
♪ Though back at the time ♪
♪ I never thought I'd see her face ♪
♪ Ain't a woman alive ♪
♪ That could take My mama's place ♪
♪ Suspended from school ♪
♪ I'm scared to go home ♪
♪ I was the fool With the big boys ♪
♪ Breaking all the rules ♪
♪ I shed tears With my baby sister ♪
♪ Over the years we was poorer Than the other little kids ♪
♪ And even though we had Different daddies ♪
♪ The same drama ♪
♪ When things went wrong We blamed Mama ♪
♪ I reminisce On the stress I caused ♪
♪ It was hell ♪
♪ Hugging on my mama From a jail cell ♪
♪ And who'd think In elementary ♪
♪ Hey, I'd see The penitentiary? ♪
♪ One day running From the police ♪
♪ That's right ♪
♪ Mama catch me Put a whupping to my backside ♪
♪ And even as a crack fiend ♪
♪ Mama, you always Was a Black queen, Mama ♪
♪ I finally understand For a woman it ain't easy ♪
♪ Trying to raise a man ♪
♪ You always was committed ♪
♪ A poor single mother On welfare ♪
♪ Tell me how you did it ♪
♪ There's no way I can pay you back ♪
♪ But the plan is to show you That I understand ♪
♪ You are appreciated ♪
♪ Don't you know We love you, sweet lady ♪
♪ Dear Mama ♪
♪ Free you from your cage Full of rage ♪
♪ 'Cause this is What a good day is ♪
♪ And even though You're lonely ♪
♪ You're more than the mother You're my homey ♪
♪ There's no way I could pay you back ♪
♪ But my plan is to show you That I understand ♪
♪ Dear Mama ♪
MAN: How does doing this project feel for you,
I guess, 30 years later?
MAN 2: That's pretty surreal,
to do a narrative that you were a part of.
And then to have it be so personal, you know, uh,
I didn't want to do it at first, and then I realized, shit,
I never processed the trauma.
But we have to take ownership of all of our collective journey,
and go, "This is part of us."
So how do we decant this?
Tupac's legacy?
Man, it's... it's really difficult to sum that up.
MIKE: Man, listen. Anywhere I go,
Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan...
"How was Tupac? What was he like?"
Children soldiers from Uganda,
"What was Tupac like?"
Blows my mind.
Tupac was the first rapper to me that could make you cry.
Like, he was just, like, "Oh, my God, that's me."
I've had many people come up to me and say, "Tupac saved my life."
He was a great, great storyteller,
and I think the story that he told most effectively
was his own truth.
Tupac was a Zen master.
He lived in these moments more than any of us,
and if there wasn't something happening,
he was gonna make something happen.
They're teaching his poetry in college.
What are you talking about?
He was a legend in his own time. (laughs)
And he would say that too.
Pac lived three niggas' lives in about eight months.
That's why his life seemed so long.
SNOOP: They say a man ain't a man 'til he's 27.
He's still a baby at 25.
But he just was like a special motherfucker,
and with a spirit that was only grown through his mother.
She was great before he even got here.
The myth builder, a fantasy rider.
Not mindin' his business, he never did.
His mother certainly didn't.
'Cause where did Tupac get the myth-building from, Afeni.
And Feni wanted the story told.
Correctly. That means blemishes and all.
So people can understand that whole thing
of what makes a human being as he
and the human being as she.
So, here we go.
WOMAN: This is the videotape examination
of Tupac Amaru Shakur,
held at the Clinton Correctional Facility,
Dannemora, New York,
at the time indicated on the video screen.
The notary public will now swear the witness.
Sir, would you raise your right hand, please?
- Yes. - WOMAN: Do you swear or affirm
that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
- I do. - WOMAN: Thank you.
AFENI: Well, I think we start--
Let's start with his name.
MAN: Could you please state your full name for the record?
Yes. It's Tupac Amaru Shakur.
AFENI: Tupac Amaru is an Inca name.
The first Tupac Amaru was the last indigenous Inca chief
to be killed and martyred by the Spanish conquistadores
who came to invade the area of South America called Peru.
After that, another Tupac Amaru laid out plans
for the modern state of Peru.
Also killed and martyred by the Spanish people.
Tupac was conceived during the worst part of my life.
I was on trial for my life,
and I chose his name because I wanted my son
to understand that African-Americans
are not the only people that this has happened to.
I'm Afeni Shakur,
and I'm Tupac's mom.
MAN: The grand jury has returned an indictment
charging members of the Black Panther Party
with a conspiracy to destroy elements of society,
which they regarded as part of, and I'm quoting the indictment,
"The power structure."
AFENI: Before I became a parent,
I chose to be in the Black Panther Party.
Tupac stayed in my womb through hell.
And the Black Panther Party helped me, number one,
to respect who my son was
simply because of his birth.
A Black male born in America
in the 1970s.
It was my responsibility to teach Tupac
how to survive his reality.
(airplane whirring)
(upbeat song playing)
♪ Ah, can you feel it, baby? ♪
♪ I can ♪
(school bell ringing)
CHRISTINE: My name is Christine Mendes,
and I'm a senior.
GRAHAM: I'm Graham Davis,
and I'm a junior here at Tamalpais High School.
And I'm loving every minute of it.
My name is Tupac Shakur,
and I attend Tamalpais High School,
and I'm 17 years old.
GIRL 1: Tam is the raddest school ever.
GIRL 2: The best thing about going to Tam
is the Drama department.
GIRL 3: And here, you can dress how you want.
You can be who you want to be.
What do I like the most about this school?
- INTERVIEWER: Yeah. - Um...
TUPAC: Well--Oh, I hope I don't get in trouble
because Tam is really integrated,
but I think there should be a different curriculum
in each and every, like, neighborhood, you know?
Because I'm learning the basics,
but since I'm living in a slum-ish area
and I'm Black, they're not basic for me.
Like German.
When am I going to Germany?
I can't afford to pay my rent in America.
MAN: I pledge allegiance...
ALL: ...to the flag of the United States of America.
TUPAC: We're not being taught to deal with the world as it is.
We're being taught to deal with this fairy land
which we're not even living in anymore.
ALL: ...liberty and justice for all.
TUPAC: That's why my mother taught me
to analyze society and not be quiet.
To... If there's something on my mind, speak it.
Because-- Okay, I got to go to the beginning.
My mother was a Black Panther.
MIKE WALLACE: The Black Panther Party.
The Panthers believed the system was against them.
They were willing to pick up the gun
to protect themselves from what they call
the Pig Power Structure.
WOMAN: They demanded land, housing,
food, clothing, jobs, education, and justice.
But most urgently,
they demanded an end to the police brutality
that they had witnessed in the Black community.
REPORTER: The Panthers were most admired
for their willingness to die for what they believe in.
But second to that, their Free Breakfast for Children Program.
- (explosion) - WALLACE: The Black Panthers
formally disbanded by the early '80s,
killed both by internal squabbling and by COINTELPRO,
the controversial FBI Counter Intelligence Program
focused in part on infiltrating
and sabotaging the Black Panther Party.
WOMAN: It is clear that many Americans
still retain a fearful image of the group,
but it may be too soon to know what history
will write of the Black Panther Party
or to know how their actions have really affected the lives
of thousands of youngsters just like these.
TUPAC: I loved my childhood, but I hated growing up poor.
My mother's totally brilliant.
She could have chose to go to college
and got a degree and been well off.
But we're stone broke.
We're just poor because our ideals always get in the way.
Yeah, let me tell you this about Afeni.
So we correct, nobody don't think
I'm blowing sunshine up her ass.
She got on my nerve.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
Walled me out,
because the thing that I always had to do
all my life is protect my sister.
AFENI: That's my sister.
Her name is Glo.
And everybody around me knows who Glo is.
She's the oldest, and we were always a unit.
♪ I won't harm you With words from my mouth ♪
♪ I love you ♪
♪ I need you to survive ♪
I would never hurt my sister with words from my mouth...
to her, you know.
I talk shit behind her back, cuss her ass out.
You know what I mean? (laughs)
("Me and My Girlfriend" playing)
♪ Look for me, Lost in the whirlwind ♪
♪ '96 Bonnie and Clyde ♪
♪ Me and my girlfriend Doing 85 when we ride ♪
♪ Trapped in this world Of sin ♪
♪ Born as a ghetto child ♪
♪ Raised in this whirlwind, C'mon ♪
GLORIA: Awesome.
Awesome.
Let me tell you something. Awesome.
Coming to New York was awesome.
Feni was maybe 11.
You know, we were both little dark-skinned girls
from North Carolina.
What I remember is the smells.
I had never smelled garlic.
I had never tasted butter, salami.
We had never heard of salami.
New York was exciting.
The--The noise and the, uh... uh...
The rhythm of it.
Both of us were very happy to be in New York,
'cause Feni hated Lumberton.
Lumberton had no rhythm.
My father was a truck driver and he was a drinker.
He had other women.
Stayed gone all the time.
My mother was tired of the arguing.
Went to New York, got a job, and sent for us.
So my memory of my father is a person who was not there.
My mother had a room and an apartment
with an old White lady in The Bronx.
I remember the kids saying,
(sing-songy) "Bald-headed, ain't got no hair."
I never knew that in the South,
but in New York, that's what we heard.
And, "You're dark-skinned" and all of that.
Feni could not be a cheerleader
'cause she didn't have long hair.
And we went to Black schools, segregated schools.
So these were Black people
choosing how the girls should look,
and it wasn't us.
So going to high school,
Feni concentrated on being the smartest at everything.
And she auditioned and she got accepted
into the High School of Performing Arts.
She had a curiosity in her spirit
about what she wanted to be,
but she wasn't comfortable
knowing that she didn't have what the other kids had,
because they were rich White kids from the suburbs somewhere.
So, yeah, it was anger, because my mother can't do this,
my mother can't do that.
And I was comfortable in whatever it was.
You know, I'd be all right. Feni was never that.
She felt things differently and deeper,
because she always wanted to be beyond
what her circumstances were.
Feni was really both a wanderer and a wonderer,
and I don't mean aimlessly.
- SEALE: I am... - CROWD: I am...
- SEALE: ...a revolutionary. - CROWD: ...a revolutionary.
GLORIA: So, yeah, she stepped right into the Black Panther Party.
That was Bobby Seale she saw on 125th Street.
- I am... - CROWD: I am...
...a revolutionary.
GLORIA: And I was scared.
REPORTER 1: Thirty-two-year-old ex-con named Bobby Seale
proclaims his hope for revolution.
GLORIA: All I knew was what I saw on television.
REPORTER 2: The extremists, the revolutionaries,
say the Black people have been left with no alternative
but to gain by violence what they've been denied
by peaceful means.
So the same thing that I admired and loved
for the Black people standing on there with the guns,
now my sister's down with it. Well, that's a different story.
But that's what she was doing,
then that's what I was down with.
REPORTER 2: They offer self-respect,
pride in being Black,
beauty in being Black, and Black people are listening.
AFENI: I was liberated and empowered
by the Black Panther Party,
because young women at that time
wanted to be different,
and young men were perfectly willing
to see women as individuals that they could respect.
That was something that I yearned for.
GLORIA: She brought an array of characters
that I had never thought existed.
Panthers, hustlers,
gay women, gay men.
So if she opened up my world,
imagine her son around this array of characters,
what that was for him.
In the beginning, it's beautiful.
TUPAC: I can't stand racism
in any form, shape, or color.
I feel like if you can't respect yourself,
then you can't respect your race,
then you can't respect another's race.
It just has to do with respect, like my mother taught me.
So, what we want--
What we're doing is starting the Black Panthers again.
And I'm talking to a lot of the ex-members of the Panthers.
And they did a lot of good things in the past.
It's just that...
you know those things they had for the mice
where they go through around the circle
and it has little blocks for it and everything?
Well, society is like that.
They'll let you go as far as you want,
but as soon as you start asking too many questions
and you're ready to change,
boom, their blocker come.
And, for me, minds would come through being a statistic.
MAN: Have you had your deposition
taken before?
TUPAC: On one other occasion, I have, yes.
MAN: Do you understand, then, the deposition process
in that I'm gonna ask you some questions and you, under oath,
are gonna answer my questions, and we'll have it on video?
- Yes, I do. - MAN: Okay.
How'd you get interested in music?
I started off with poetry.
It is my opinion that I was rapping
while I was writing poetry.
But while I was in Marin County,
poets, I saw,
were looked on as, like, wimps.
So I did that personally,
but then I started to change the method of my poetry.
- MAN: Okay, how old were you? - TUPAC: 17.
Seventeen's such a weird age.
Like today, when I had to sign the release form,
I felt so bad 'cause I couldn't sign it myself.
I had to go and get my mother's and all that, but...
18 is... it's just society's way of saying that you're ready.
But 17, like, I think I'm ready now,
as ready as I'm gonna be in this world, but...
So, it's okay, I guess 17 is alright.
RYAN: When Tupac first came out here,
he was totally different than everybody else.
I remember when I first met him, he had on a--
He would wear this jean outfit with, like, ripped jeans and stuff.
Nobody wore ripped clothes in the late '80s.
If that is the East Coast style, I don't know.
It was different to us.
So he stood out like a sore thumb.
But at the same time, he was so charismatic.
Everybody liked Tupac.
INTERVIEWER: What-- Give me a--
You-- Like last year, you were in New York?
- Yeah. - INTERVIEWER: Where?
No, last year, I was in Baltimore.
Year before that, I was in--
I spent three years in Baltimore, my high school years,
going to the School of Performing Arts.
(upbeat music playing)
Then before that, I was in New York.
That's where I grew up.
We moved out of New York because of my mother's choices.
And I came to California to escape that violence
that I escaped New York for, escaped Baltimore for.
Come to Marin City, and there's skinheads violence.
KENDRICK: This is Marin County.
Probably like the fifth-richest county in the United States.
A lot of old money.
Beautiful place.
Nothing but scenery
next to the Golden Gate Bridge.
SINGER: ♪ You make me feel So good ♪
KENDRICK: Marin City is a little hole...
TUPAC: Fuck the police.
KENDRICK: ...right at the bottom of the hill...
TUPAC: Fuck the police.
KENDRICK: ...where they put all the Black people.
SINGER: ♪ Oh, my gosh ♪
We used to say, "One way in, one way out."
SINGER: ♪ Thinking Of a master plan ♪
♪ 'Cause ain't nothing But sweat inside my hand ♪
♪ So I dig into my pocket All my money spent ♪
♪ So I dig deeper But still coming up with lint ♪
RYAN: We lived in the Tall Buildings,
the original project buildings in Marin City.
From my back patio,
I could look out to the Tiburon Bay
and see mansions and yachts.
And I go out my front door,
and I see dope fiends and kids with no shoes,
and they ain't ate all day.
So I was outspoken on political things,
but Tupac was me times ten.
TUPAC: In Marin City, I've seen already death.
I mean, aren't they wondering why death rates are going up,
and suicide, drug abuse?
Aren't they wondering? I mean...
RAY: Pac is beyond conscious.
His hairstyle is conscious, profound, distinct.
And I'm looking at this dude like there's no way
that he's a good rapper dressed like that.
But never judge a book by its cover.
♪ As real as it seems The American dream ♪
♪ Ain't nothing but another Calculated scheme ♪
♪ To get us locked up Shot up and back in chains ♪
♪ To deny us of the future Rob our names ♪
RYAN: Rakim was out at the time. I would tell everybody,
"My buddy is doper than Rakim right now. He's 17 years old."
♪ You kept my history A mystery ♪
♪ But now I see ♪
♪ The American dream Wasn't meant for me ♪
♪ 'Cause Lady Liberty's A hypocrite ♪
♪ She lied to me ♪
♪ Promised me freedom Education, and equality ♪
♪ She never gave me Nothing but slavery ♪
♪ So now look at how dangerous You made me ♪
He's rappin' about stuff that I'm not even beginning to think about.
And I'm blown away.
♪ Calling me a madman ♪
♪ Because I'm strong and bold ♪
♪ With this gun Full of knowledge ♪
♪ Of the lies you told ♪
♪ Promise me emancipation In this new nation ♪
♪ All you ever gave my people Was starvation ♪
♪ Fathers of this country Never cared for me ♪
♪ They kept my ancestors Shackled up in slavery ♪
♪ And Uncle Sam never did A damn thing for me ♪
♪ Except lie about the facts Of my history ♪
RYAN: It's amazing to me because I would look in his rap book.
He'd have pages of poems in between raps.
You know, he'd write a hard rap,
then have a poem about a girl he fell in love with,
with hearts and flowers and eyeballs all on top of it.
I always thought that was weird.
Romantic. I mean, people didn't know
he was a ballet dancer, he was an actor.
Whatever you're talking about, he knew about it.
But he was saying stuff that we wanted to hear,
and we didn't want to hear about women, about us, about his mom.
♪ My mother never let me Forget my history ♪
♪ Hoping I was set free Chains never put on me ♪
♪ Wanted to be More than just free ♪
♪ Had to know the true facts About my history ♪
And he'd be over here, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm, like...
TUPAC: Like yesterday he was cursing,
and I was like, "Don't curse."
And he got mad at me because I told him not to curse.
Mind y'all, I wasn't really trying to hear it.
They call girls the B-word.
- KENDRICK: Yeah, yeah, yeah. - TUPAC: They are getting girls.
And I'm going, "Peace," and, "I think you're beautiful."
And they're going, "Well, I like him because he's masculine."
I'm masculine. I mean...
But then, I was liking this girl in Tam. And I'm extra nice.
You know, extra gentleman.
I'm extra just, like, "Oh, you're beautiful,
and you deserve the best,"
and she told me I was too nice.
I couldn't believe it.
It wouldn't work 'cause I was too nice.
That was the ultimate stab in the back.
So I went through a week of just going,
"Forget it. I'm just gonna be like them."
KENDRICK: He was hurt.
It wasn't so much he changed, you know,
I always say, he made progressions.
He just jumped in the car and started doing
what me and my friends were doing,
which was romanticizing all over the county.
And from then on, he became a player.
But he did something I did not do.
He went into the girls' minds,
and he became what they wanted.
RYAN: That was his gift.
He related to them. He got into character.
And he was real about it.
He showed a part of them that they'd never seen.
And when I say "player," I don't mean somebody who lies to women
or someone who knows the game and fits in appropriately.
It's an addition to the situation,
and he was a great player.
He stole the show.
No matter what crowd we took him around,
I don't care if it was the most gangster dudes in East Oakland,
rich men, or some square cats in Santa Rosa,
Tupac would instantly use the same words they'd use
that fit right in.
And everybody would be drawn to him immediately,
White, Black, no matter who it was,
but being around that environment, he ended up doing things
that he really didn't have to do.
He was struggling financially,
and so he was trying to sell drugs.
I mean, crack was full blown.
But Tupac was such a nice person,
he probably was fronting all his dope out.
RAY: We sucked at selling crack.
We was the worst crack dealers in the history of crack dealers.
He sold crack for, like, I think five days.
I think I sold crack for seven, mostly,
because I couldn't sell my crack, which is weird,
like, I just... don't nobody want it,
like, I don't even know how to, like, who to take it to.
But we knew very quickly
that that was not gonna be our way out.
Because capitalism requires that your empathy level is relatively low,
and his empathy level was a little higher than most people.
He did not believe in hurting, maiming,
or killing Black people.
So if a person's smoking crack
with their daughter or their son,
he's not gonna recover from that.
But one day, comin' out of school,
Leila's standing outside
looking for kids that wanna perform and did that.
LEILA: I'd like to just introduce
everyone who participated.
This is my daughter Shaquan...
- TUPAC: Leila Steinberg. - ...Shiqua...
TUPAC: She was older and she was White,
and she's the one that I used
- to let look at my poetry. - ...Raymond...
She understood a lot of things
that I was doing that other people couldn't understand.
And she's the one that, um...
stayed on me about working hard to do my music.
RAY: Leila is an anomaly,
but at her most pure, she's a educator.
One of our main goals is to educate while we entertain.
RAY: Pac and I knew very early
that this business is brutal.
Like the most criminal-minded, shady people
feasting off theater kids.
Whereas Leila's very conscious
and laid back.
So we was, "Listen, we need you to be a real White lady
in this business for us."
Okay.
WOMAN: Okay.
LEILA: I didn't know anything about the business
when we started.
I never wanted to manage.
Tupac was just convinced
that I could get through any door.
But a part of management is parenting.
And he met me
when his mom was deep in her struggle.
And, I mean, we could talk for hours
about the challenges of being a Panther
and being let down,
but what I knew is that Afeni
was his hero.
TUPAC: Well, I never knew who my father was.
He was a hustler, a street hustler.
I met him, but he died, and that was horrible,
but got over that. My mother is really
my father and mother.
And really strict, almost.
But now, I can see how it paid off.
Because I can talk to my mother about anything,
like, I could say, "Ma, I'm really curious about this drug."
And she will go, "I did it, and this is what happened,
and I don't think you should."
So she's my guide through life.
And she's human, I mean, she has mistakes,
and we get in our tiffs and everything.
But it's good.
LEILA: He was like me.
You know, we hide behind a smile
and fake like we're all right.
(laughs)
He couldn't really expose
how broken he was.
It was me, I admit it.
LEILA: But everything he ever wrote
was a road map to understand a condition.
AFENI: I right now have deep pain
about those years.
At that point, I think the effects of everything,
the trials, the police, whatever.
I don't want to cry about it.
But it was having a bad effect on me.
(Blood speaking)
AFENI: This is when I was smoking crack cocaine.
Yeah.
RAY: I didn't see the fingerprints
of her addiction at that time.
It was an entire generation of us that were latchkey kids.
So our parents were hardworking addicts.
Never completely present.
And we didn't think we were getting
anything out of school.
It's just a place you go during the day,
to keep you busy while they're at work.
RAY: So we learned to raise each other.
While they're at work, that's exactly what it is.
RAY: But when he hustled, the whole point was
to take care of his mother and sister Sekyiwa.
Yeah, I'm... I'm actually been working already, you know,
like, I've been going to school during the day
then I work eight hours at the pizza place, then go home.
And if I'm... Isn't it like, 40-hour week, that's what adults work, right?
And that's what I'm working, 40 hours a week. I'm still poor.
My family's still poor, I'm still living in a poor neighborhood.
RAY: ♪ You know They got me trapped ♪
♪ In this prison of seclusion ♪
♪ Happiness, living On the streets is a delusion ♪
♪ Even a smooth criminal One day must get caught ♪
I wrote the opening line
to a song about how I felt in this environment,
but I was never really comfortable
with being as intimate and open as Pac was.
Mind you, we're living in a world pre-Tupac.
There is no Brenda's Got a Baby.
There is no Keep Ya Head Up.
There is no Dear Mama.
That doesn't exist in hip-hop yet.
So I crumpled it up and I threw it in the garbage can.
And he was, like, "What are you doing with this? Why are you throwing it away?"
I'm like, "Man, I don't want that.
I don't want that on my record.
I don't want to be that personal."
LEILA: Tupac never would've performed
anybody else's song or lyrics,
but they were so close and so connected
that when Tupac got the lyrics out of the trash can,
he was, like, "I feel like I wrote this. This is me."
RAY: He was, like, "Let me do something with this."
TUPAC: ♪ Shot up or shot down With the bullet That he bought ♪
♪ Nine-millimeter kicking ♪
♪ Thinking about What the streets do to me ♪
♪ 'Cause they never talk peace In the Black community ♪
RAY: That was the beginning of what ultimately became 2Pacalypse Now.
♪ All we know is violence ♪
♪ Do the job in silence ♪
♪ Walk the city streets Like a rat pack of tyrants ♪
♪ Too many brothers Daily headed for the big pen ♪
♪ Niggas coming out worse off Than when they went in ♪
♪ Over the years I've done A lot of growing up ♪
♪ Get drunk, throwing up, Cuffed up ♪
♪ Then I said, "I had enough" ♪
♪ There must be another route Way out to money and fame ♪
♪ I changed my name Played a different game ♪
♪ Tired of being trapped In this vicious cycle ♪
♪ If one more cop harasses me I just might go psycho ♪
♪ And when I get 'em ♪
♪ I hit 'em With a bum rush ♪
♪ Only a lunatic would like To see a skull crush ♪
♪ Yo, if you're smart You'll really let me go, G ♪
♪ But keep me cooped up in this Ghetto and catch the Uzi ♪
♪ They got me trapped ♪
AFENI: The situation that I had my children in...
TUPAC: ♪ Trapped ♪
AFENI: ...the way that we were living at that point...
TUPAC: ♪ Trapped ♪
AFENI: ...it affected my children very deeply.
TUPAC: ♪ They got me trapped ♪
AFENI: But because the drugs devastate so completely...
TUPAC: ♪ Trapped ♪
AFENI: ...I had to look at myself.
TUPAC: ♪ Trapped ♪
AFENI: And make changes in my own self.
ATRON: One day, Tupac came up to me and said,
"Can you give my mom a ride to the bus station?
She's about to go to rehab."
And he was just quiet.
Afeni was in the back seat, and she was not herself.
She was feeling terrible, and it was just a sad ride.
AFENI: It's just a hectic turmoil.
On the other hand, personally,
this is not from Tupac's perspective,
from my perspective,
there is no way
that I could've crawled back up
had I not been broken by those drugs first.
That meant that the last five years of my son's life,
he had the benefit of a mother who was completely present.
That was worth everything to me.
JAMAL: When Tupac was a child, he was the life of the party...
always the one creating a game
or a talent show.
And you knew whatever it was,
that he was the center of that energy.
So I recognized that there was something kind of special.
Then they left New York.
And around that same time,
I went back to prison.
And this is the longest time I was gone.
I was gone for close to six years.
And when I came back,
I had this little Honda that had a cassette player.
And I remember someone, who also knew the Shakur family,
got me a cassette.
And I played this tape.
("Never Be Beat" playing)
And so I stopped and I said, "This is Tupac.
This is my godson Tupac."
And he says, "Yeah."
He said, "You know, he's gonna be the next one."
(gun cocks and fires)
We feel that the problem of the Black man in America
is beyond America's ability to solve.
It's a human problem, not an American problem
or a Negro problem.
And as a human problem or a world problem,
we feel that it should be taken out of the jurisdiction
of the United States government
and taken into the United Nations,
because not only are we denied the right
to be a citizen in the United States,
we're denied the right to be a human being.
JAMAL: When I joined the Panther Party,
the thing that attracted me the most was not ideology.
I didn't realize what Black Panther ideology really was.
I came 'cause I was mad,
because they had killed Malcolm X.
MAN: We saw a guy.
He was shooting like a cowboy.
♪ Shot across the room ♪
♪ And now the man No longer lives... ♪
JAMAL: They'd killed Martin Luther King.
We are not giving in.
(gunshots)
(woman screams)
MAN: Martin Luther King dedicated his life
- to love and to justice. - (gunshot)
JAMAL: They had killed the Kennedys.
MAN: Get that gun! Get the gun!
MALCOLM X: The Negro revolution.
JAMAL: They radicalized a whole generation,
and sparks were flying.
MALCOLM X: Revolution is hostile.
Revolution knows no compromise.
JAMAL: And on TV is a story about the Panthers
storming the state capital of Sacramento with guns.
And Bobby Seale reads this manifesto.
Take careful note of the racist California legislature
which is now considering legislation
aimed at keeping the Black people disarmed
and powerless at the very same time
racist police agencies throughout the country
are intensifying the terror, brutality, murder,
- and repression of Black people. - LEILA: This is a country
where some people have the right
to bear arms and some people don't.
We were in the part of the population
that wasn't allowed to bear arms.
So seeing these people
on the steps of the Capitol legally with these guns
was a huge moment.
My two friends and I find the address
to the secret headquarters of the Black Panther Party.
The Harlem Office, 2022 7th Avenue.
If you remember those old-school stores
that had a little indentation.
And I saw this beautiful dark-skinned Black woman
that was different...
Afeni Shakur.
Brown-skinned woman, short afro, the essence of African beauty.
I looked at that sister, like, "Yo, if everybody is like this,
I'm joining this."
And that's straight up, bro.
REPORTER: The most radical
Black civil rights organization in this country's history.
(music player stops)
SHABA: Afeni... well, energetic,
smart, quick wit,
tolerated very little chauvinism.
She was a very strong
independent Black woman.
And it was downright frightening to me,
but intriguing at the same time.
TUPAC: My mother had a high position in the Black Panther Party,
which was like unheard of,
because of course, there was sexism
even in the Panthers.
SHABA: When I got in the office,
it was a feeling of exhilaration.
Mesmerized by Afeni Shakur, to be quite honest with you.
She was explaining what the Black Panther Party was,
you know, the Ten-Point Program.
MIKE WALLACE: The Ten-Point Program
of the Panther Party forms the basis
for almost everything they teach and do.
I'm sitting in the back, and Afeni and Lumumba Shakur
were running a political education class.
We are disciples and students of Malcolm X.
SHABA: Lumumba Shakur was a very interesting individual.
He was doing what I wanted to do in the streets.
He had two wives.
LUMUMBA: Right on, brothers. Power to the people.
Lumumba Shakur, Black Panther Party.
SHABA: He was a king.
- He was entitled to do that. - That's right.
GLORIA: Yeah, Lumumba Shakur.
I met Lumumba Shakur when Afeni said,
"That's my husband."
And then she said,
"I'm gonna be his second wife."
And then I was, like, "What?"
But she had already taken the name Shakur
because of the father.
JAMAL: Lumumba's father was a prominent imam,
head of one of the largest mosques in Philadelphia.
BLOOD: Saladin. He was a merchant.
He had a lot of land in Ghana.
Very mild-mannered guy. And he educated his son.
LUMUMBA: Genocide is being inflicted on our people.
That's why I'm about to be extinct,
and be like the American-Indian in a couple more years.
JAMAL: Lumumba Shakur was a gang leader,
but Lumumba and his brother Zayd Shakur
became revolutionary nationalists,
and they brought with them a lot of revolutionary nationalists,
and they became Panthers.
Lumumba had a beard and a goatee, permanent shades.
He looked like a-- Okay.
He looked like, to me,
a shorter guy than I would have thought she would have.
But he was the most commanding person in the room.
- He had a stutter. - Even the stuttering was fly.
He wasn't cute.
My role model,
my image of what a man should be.
And there were people in the movement who weren't related,
who changed their last name to Shakur.
That's how powerful the name was.
Assata Shakur was one of those people, and Mutulu Shakur.
TUPAC: My stepfather, Mutulu Shakur,
was also like a well-known revolutionary.
SHABA: He's a natural healer, to the extent that
he learned the art of acupuncture
to help communities detox.
Colonial warfare, mental disorder.
As colonized subjects, it's normal to have issues from oppression.
JAMAL: People were fighting depression,
homelessness, drug addiction.
When I came out of Vietnam,
my choice of drug was heroin.
I snort that shit. I loved that shit.
It's like PTSD, man.
JAMAL: Hard drugs were forbidden
in the Black Panther Party.
In fact, they would go into dope spots,
guns drawn, disarm the dealers,
destroy the drugs, flush it down the sewer.
So it was all that wrapped up in one
when the Shakurs were there in that Panther office.
Afeni was already a section leader,
which is a lieutenant in the Black Panther Party
on the frontline with rent strikes
and with school takeovers.
So watching the two of them run a meeting,
one of my friends leans over, he says,
"Panthers is like the Mafia, man.
Once you join, there's no getting out."
And my other friend leans over and he goes,
"You know, you got to kill a White dude to be a Panther."
And I'm, like, "Kill somebody? I'm in the choir."
But I can't be a punk. I was like, "I don't care."
And big afro, skinny Jamal jumps up and goes,
"Choose me, brother. I'll kill a White dude right now."
The whole office gets quiet.
Lumumba calls me up, looks me up and down,
and reaches into the bottom drawer of the desk.
My heart's pounding. I was, like,
"He's gonna give me a big-ass gun. What I'ma do?"
And he hands me a stack of books.
And I said, "Excuse me, brother,
I thought you were gonna arm me."
And he says, "Excuse me, young brother,
I just did."
And Afeni Shakur comes up to me,
and she says, "I've got my eye on you."
Malcolm X.
AFENI: I worship the written word.
JAMAL: Mao Tse-tung.
AFENI: Anything written.
- JAMAL: Frantz Fanon. - AFENI: It's a way for us,
on our own, to get information.
JAMAL: Fidel Castro, History Will Absolve Me.
AFENI: Information.
JAMAL: I never even heard of political power
comes out a barrel of a gun.
That was a quotation from The Little Red Book
by Chairman Mao.
The gun aspect wasn't new to me.
What was new was understanding what that was for.
It was treated as a tool for liberation, not to disrupt,
not to rob, not to maim.
MIKE WALLACE: Whatever else the Panthers may teach,
they do not teach racism.
They do not teach Black supremacy.
They talk about the problems of all the poor.
SEALE: We don't hate nobody because of their color.
We hate oppression.
We hate murder of Black people in our communities.
We hate the gross unemployment that exists in our community.
We hate Black man being taken off into the military service,
to be fighting for racist, decadent Americans
promising us freedom.
In the Civil War, 186,000 Black men
fought in the military service,
and we were promised freedom, and we didn't get it.
In the World War, 350,000 Black men fought,
and we were promised freedom, and we didn't get it.
In World War II, 850,000 Black men fought,
and we were promised freedom, and we didn't get it.
In the Korean Conflict,
we fought there, and we didn't get it.
Now here we go with the damn Vietnam War,
and we still ain't getting nothing
but racist police brutality, et cetera.
JAMAL: Panthers will say racism is a byproduct of capitalism,
recognizing that there are more White people on welfare
than Black folks. And if you can organize,
then you are dealing with true change
and a true rainbow alliance.
We're talking about class warfare.
♪ I couldn't settle For being a statistic ♪
♪ Couldn't survive in this Capitalistic government ♪
♪ Because it was meant To hold us back ♪
♪ Using ignorance, Drugs to sneak attack ♪
♪ In my community, They killed the unity ♪
♪ But when I charged them Tried to claim immunity ♪
♪ I strike America Like a case of heart disease ♪
♪ Panther power is running Through my arteries ♪
♪ Panther power... ♪
LEILA: And in 1989,
Tupac was getting really popular,
and everyone loved Tupac.
♪ Panther power... ♪
LEILA: We were throwing parties.
There'd be 500 people, 2,000 people.
♪ Panther power... ♪
LEILA: Then I had an event Atron was actually at.
And he was, like,
- "Hmm, here's my card." - ATRON: Energy.
The intensity of his eyes and the vibe.
I saw energy.
♪ Try to stop me ♪ Oh, boy you'll be clawed to death ♪
♪ 'Cause I'll be fighting for my freedom With my dying breath ♪
♪ Do you remember? That's what I'm asking you ♪
♪ You think you living free? Don't make me laugh at you ♪
♪ Open your eyes, realize You've been locked in chains ♪
♪ Said you wasn't civilized And stole your name ♪
♪ Some time has passed Seems you all forget ♪
♪ There ain't no liberty For you and me ♪
♪ We ain't free yet Panther power ♪
ATRON: You know, looking back,
he has one of the most unique voices in hip-hop.
But I went out and shopped
Tupac to every company I knew,
and every company I could, and everyone turned us down.
♪ Panther power ♪
He said, "Look, if I don't get a deal,
then I'm gonna go be the chairman of the New Afrikan Panthers."
And I'm, like, "The New Afrikan Panthers? What's this?"
ATRON: Tupac understood his audience.
He was reading music business books
prior to getting a deal, just trying to understand
where things were with the business.
And with Tupac, there was kind of two sides.
A lot of people like to say he was a Gemini.
He was this, but he also
came from a family of Panthers.
So there was a constant tug and pull
of just wanting to be an artist
and having to be this person
who I think
would've ended up being a politician or activist.
But at that time, I didn't have a real relationship
with Tupac as related to his history
of his mother being in the Panthers
and how most of his mentors were in jail.
He never mentioned his mother to me.
His family was leaded.
LEILA: Tupac was born
into a family that required him
to be a leader,
and there was a real plan for Tupac.
He was gonna be, you know,
the chairman of the New Afrikan Panther Party,
which was a continuation
of the Black Panthers.
MAN: Now, how long have you been
national chairman of the New Afrikan Panthers?
TUPAC: I was... (chuckling) matter of fact,
- about, what, a week. - MAN: A week?
TUPAC: We had a central committee meeting.
We had representatives
from Los Angeles and Atlanta
and, uh, Mississippi
and New York, and we just had a vote.
WATANI: Pac was always an artist.
Particularly, he was a wordsmith,
one of the best I knew at that.
And so that was part of Tupac's
and young people's job
was to be griots, or use their art form
to talk about our movement.
TUPAC: It is my duty to be one
of many spokesmen, spokespersons.
And because right now, it is almost impossible
for you not to see how strong rap has gotten,
'cause our youth and some of our adults,
their ear is pinned to rap music right now.
And if you really want to get our message out,
we really need to start using our method,
you know what I'm saying? Even in our history,
poets went from village to village,
and that's how stories of lessons were taught.
But, uh, history repeats itself, and it's time to realize
that everything is not okay in America, you know, to get angry, you know,
and not angry and pick up their gun
but to start opening our minds, you know what I'm saying,
and stop sleeping.
JAMAL: Two of the most valuable lessons I learned in the Black Panther Party
came from Afeni Shakur.
She says, "Freedom is an abstract idea to folk.
To someone who is hungry, it's the meal.
To someone who doesn't have a place to stay,
it's a warm, safe place to sleep.
For the sick, it's medical care
from someone who cares."
One of my first days in the party,
a young mother comes in carrying her little girl,
who was crying and trembling.
She explains that her daughter has sickle cell anemia
and that she had taken her to Harlem Hospital,
and that they said that all she had was a cold,
that it was psychosomatic.
So Lumumba and Afeni marched to Harlem Hospital,
holding this girl.
And Afeni said, "You treat this young sister right now,
or there's gonna be a psychosomatic riot in your emergency room."
But Afeni didn't leave it alone at that.
She formed a relationship
with a couple of the doctors and nurses,
and we would rally together outside the hospital,
demanding that they treat the needs of the people,
whether they had insurance or not.
And then especially Lincoln Hospital
became the place where Panthers and the Young Lords
started doing these takeovers.
"Come get tested, come get treated."
And they wrote the first Patient Bill of Rights,
the foundational document for what we see
in every hospital room now,
where a patient has a right to be treated,
a right to medical care whether they have money or not.
That was the work of Afeni Shakur,
Doc Dawkins, Cleo Silvers,
the Panthers, and the Lords.
GLORIA: I am in awe of my sister.
She either started the shit or got in the shit
that was already started.
WATANI: If she agreed to do something,
it was done, thoroughly.
So, what that made you do being in her company,
either step up or step off.
Her son, same thing.
It's the same type of spirit that they had.
WATANI: Both charismatic, both took charge of a room,
both intelligent, articulate, argumentative,
you know, so there was a lot of Afeni there in Pac.
LEILA: Tupac has the biggest heart
of anyone that I've known.
He was different than anybody.
I mean, he was the Marvin Gaye of rap.
And I thought I was not managing an artist
but a campaign,
because to me, Tupac was always running for office.
It was always about critical mass.
So he was gonna go chair the New Afrikan Panther Party
unless he got a deal immediately
because that would be a faster path
to access what he needed.
And Atron was managing a group in the Bay Area.
TUPAC: Who's that?
LEILA: So he set up a meeting for us to see them.
TUPAC: He's in the bathroom. Let's go see who it is.
Oh, shit. My nigga Shocka laka, laka, laka, laka.
Simply trying to get the fade together here,
- I mean... (indistinct) - (Tupac laughing)
Y'all wanna see me take a shit, too?
- Come on, take a shit. - TUPAC: Uh-oh. This is
Shocka laka, laka, laka, laka...
- taking a shit. - SHOCK G: Taking a shit.
(Tupac laughing)
MAN: Have you ever performed
what, uh, people call "gangsta rap"?
- TUPAC: No. - MAN: Oh.
MAN: Have you heard the term?
- A lot. - MAN: Okay.
- A lot. - MAN: Well, what do you understand
the term to mean?
I understand it to be...
a category that mostly
what I've seen the media
and people outside the rap world classify
as any music other than party music.
- MAN: Okay. Now, Digital Underground... - (funky music plays, stops)
- ...what kind of music did they perform? - (funky music plays, stops)
- They... - MAN: Digital Underground.
Party music. Strictly party music.
ANNOUNCER: Digital Underground!
♪ All right, stop whatcha doin' 'Cause I'm about to ruin ♪
♪ The image and the style That you're used to... ♪
(laughing)
Strictly party music.
MONEY B: Digital Underground
consisted of Shock G,
Chopmaster J, DJ Fuze,
- Money B, and of course... - SCHMOOV: What's up, y'all?
"Schmoov" Eddie Humphrey in the house.
♪ The Humpty Dance ♪
♪ Is your chance To do the hump... ♪
Hold up, though, hold up.
ATRON: Shock G was the mastermind
behind Digital Underground.
Fly, my nigga there. Look at that nigga.
ATRON: He came up with the concept, produced the music, and...
♪ I once got busy ♪
♪ In a Burger King bathroom ♪
...literally a musical genius.
And the only hip-hop producer ever on a Prince record.
- MAN: Which record was it? - I don't remember. (laughs)
♪ Come here, are ya ticklish? ♪
♪ Yeah, I called ya fat Look at me, I'm skinny ♪
Shock, how was that?
I like the first one a little bit better.
MONEY B: This is right when we were finishing "The Humpty Dance."
SHOCK G: I'm at the mixing board.
All the sudden, H and, uh, Leila send this kid to the studio.
"Shock G, what's up? I'm Tupac. Do you want me to rhyme now?"
I was, like, "Damn, this guy's intense."
You know? He didn't wanna chill.
("Static Mix 2" playing)
ATRON: Digital was getting ready to go out on the road,
and I said, "If we don't do something with Pac,
he's gonna leave." Shock said...
SHOCK G: "Damn, well, we don't really need any more rappers.
You know, we could always use a roadie.
We can always use a dancer."
Pac was, like, "Anything.
I just wanna get out of here before I go crazy."
MONEY B: He was stressed. His mom was on crack,
he got a little sister,
and he didn't know where his next meal was coming from.
But he knew he was a star from day one.
This all had happened the same time the earthquake happened.
(rumbling)
And so everyone was going crazy,
and "The Humpty Dance" just came about that way.
(baby wailing)
(" The Humpty Dance" by Digital Underground playing)
♪ Shaking and twitching Kinda like I was smoking ♪
♪ Crazy, whack, funky, People say ♪
♪ "You look like M. C. Hammer On crack, Humpty" ♪
SHOCK G: " The Humpty Dance" threw us around the world immediately.
So being that we were so large,
you can only expect people to play into it.
But it was beyond that with Tupac.
The very first day
of his very first tour, the soundman was fucking up
our music, and Tupac swings on him.
Luckily, Atron was there to catch him.
But damn, he was, like, "I'm gonna show these guys.
I'm gonna knock this motherfucker out for y'all."
♪ Gather round ♪
♪ I'm the new fool in town ♪
♪ And my sound's laid down By the Underground... ♪
SHOCK G: He was very loyal. He wanted to please.
He rolled in, he'd load the bus, he carried the equipment.
And it was never no flak with him.
CHOPMASTER J: Tupac knew the magic words,
because he understood making himself of service.
"Chop, what can I do to help so that I can be put on?"
♪ Oh, do me, baby ♪
SHOCK G: He moved up through the ranks
of Digital Underground quickly.
Earned our respect.
That's why Pac wound up on "Same Song."
♪ Now I clown around When I hang around ♪
♪ With my Underground ♪
♪ Girls use to frown, Say I'm down When I come round ♪
♪ Gas me, and when they pass me They use to diss me ♪
♪ Harass me, but now they Ask me if they can kiss me ♪
♪ Get some fame, people change Wanna live they life high ♪
♪ Same song can't go wrong If I play the nice guy ♪
♪ Claiming fame, Must have changed, Now that we became strong ♪
- ♪ I remain still the same ♪ - ♪ Why Tu? ♪
♪ 'Cause it's the same song ♪
TUPAC: Shock G made sure people saw me
as a member of the group and not the posse, and because he did that,
it gave me a courage and a confidence to really just do what I want.
That's the best thing one human being could do for another one.
SHOCK G: The hardest-working man in hip-hop, hands down.
At the time in '91, we were on tour constantly.
Most of our visual memories of Tupac is with a pen and pad.
His hotel room looked like a bomb went off.
Blunt scrapings on every counter.
He just wasn't thinking about that mundane shit.
Always writing.
ATRON: He wanted to be the best he could be,
he wanted to be number one.
Sometimes in the morning,
Tupac would've read two papers, a book,
listened to two records,
watched a movie by 8:00, 9:00 in the morning,
and probably smoked a half-ounce of weed.
How else do you become number one than studying people at the top?
MONEY B: Hip-hop was changing with N. W. A.
The aggressive, hardcore mentality was more glorified.
But every morning,
Tupac would always be in the back of the tour bus...
in his feelings, like a ritual...
blasting some Mariah Carey.
"Visions of Love."
And he's trying to explain what it means.
And he's, like, "You don't understand, This is Mariah Carey."
ATRON: He listened to all types of music
that were on the charts, and say, "What are they doing?"
What are their lyrics? What is their sound?"
And I know that him and Leila worked on a plan.
Tupac wanted to seduce the children
of White America.
TUPAC: I had a whole energy
that represents not just Black youth,
but White youth, Mexican youth-- youth.
LEILA: He felt strongly that in order to make shifts,
we had to do it together.
It was soft, but let me give him credit.
He had his vulnerable side, or whatever you wanna call it,
and he wasn't afraid to show it.
And we were actually in New York
when a script was given to me
to audition for this movie, Juice.
This is, like, the making-of.
Hey, the making-of.
Now, little do y'all know, it's all a bluff.
I don't know how the script was given to me, 'cause I'm not an actor.
Like, I didn't know how to cry or anything.
I'm shaking, I'm nervous as fuck.
But as I'm reading the script, this character, Bishop,
reminds me of Tupac.
And I was, like, "You should read for this."
So Tupac goes in the room.
And now Tupac is killing it. You can hear claps and shit.
We run from Radames. We run from security guards.
We run from old man Quiles in this fucking bullshit store
when he come with that bullshit gun!
All we do is fucking run!
I feel like I'm on a goddamn track team.
ATRON: He was probably at his happiest place.
MAN: That was the time of his life.
And then I get a call that there's a hot
new artist-friendly label named Interscope
that want to make a deal with us.
He was over-the-moon excited.
But I made him open a bank account.
The police saw him walking across the street
to go get some money out of the bank.
REPORTER: Shakur admitted jaywalking
in downtown Oakland, October 17th,
and also arguing with the officers, even using profanity.
But he said his treatment didn't fit the crime.
I think they used a little bit too much force, because, I mean,
he was already handcuffed, and they were still hitting him.
ATRON: Another change.
This is a point when he became a television activist.
MAN: Could you spell your name for the record
so we know that it's T-U-P-A-C?
TUPAC: Yes. Tupac.
MAN: Family name?
Shakur. S-H-A-K-U-R.
Shakur.
KAREN: Tupac always knew
that his name would draw attention,
but this was the first time
I think he had been physically...
abused that way.
He was irate.
Afeni was in rehab in Connecticut.
He said, "I need for her to get better, 'cause I need her."
I remember him saying specifically that,
"I need for her to get better, 'cause I need her."
RYAN: Yeah, the police messed him up.
He had knots on his head. He got messed up.
That's why he had to cut his hair off.
KAREN: He got alopecia.
And that's when he started shaving his head,
because the hair wasn't coming back in.
So that showed us that there was something going on internally
that he just wasn't talking about.
And Afeni called me,
concerned how was her past gonna affect his future?
AFENI: He came here the son of a radical.
This country does not look kindly on those people.
REPORTER: In Oakland today,
a Black musician filed a $10 million claim
against two White police officers,
saying they assaulted him physically and verbally
after arresting him for jaywalking.
Tupac Shakur is a member of the popular rap group
Digital Underground.
TUPAC: I was walking to Union Bank.
I was going to withdraw money.
I had my bank cards in my hand, my beeper was going off.
I'm running across the street.
The police officer stopped me on the sidewalk
and asked to see my ID.
He sweated me about my name, like,
"I can't believe your mother named you that."
And they were charging me with jaywalking.
So I was riffing and arguing about...
why would they charge me with such a petty crime?
The officers said, "You are not above the law,
and just because you're in a rap group don't make you different.
You have to learn your place."
And they said, "You have to learn
how to treat the police officers of Oakland."
So I kept yelling, "Just give me the citation.
Let me go about my business."
That was a problem.
But after I said that, I was in a choke hold,
which is known as the sleeper.
Officer Boyovich repeatedly slammed my face into the floor
while Rodgers put the cuffs on me.
They was happy after I was unconscious in cuffs on the floor.
AFENI: For every young Black male child,
at some point in his life,
there is 90% possibility
that some person is going to look at that child
and denote to that child
what his station in life will be in this country.
The police beat my son in the streets of Oakland
because his name was Tupac Amaru Shakur
and not Joe Blow.
TUPAC: My spirit was broke,
because after I made consciousness again,
they kept joking about... (coughs) "I can't breathe. I can't breathe."
'Cause I couldn't breathe. The breath was taken from me.
AFENI: What I wanted for my son
is when they did that,
I wanted him to have a place where he found beauty,
integrity and strength within himself.
He could fight back at that.
And I thought that was the most important thing
I could give to my son.
TUPAC: On every single track on my album,
I talk about the injustices of the young Black males.
And in my album, the number one enemy is the police,
the crooked police officer.
And the ironic thing is that it never happened to me.
I was speaking from stories of my peers.
(indistinct chattering)
I missed my video debuting on MTV.
First-time world premiere.
I spent seven hours in jail for getting beat on by police.
And I'm in jail while my video is being premiered.
♪ Hands up, throw me up Against the wall ♪
♪ Didn't do a thing at all ♪
♪ Telling you one day These suckers got to fall ♪
♪ Cuffed up, throw me On the concrete ♪
♪ Coppers try to kill me But they didn't know ♪
♪ This was the wrong street, Bang, bang ♪
♪ Count another casualty ♪
♪ But it's a cop Who's shot for his brutality ♪
♪ Who do you blame? ♪
♪ It's a shame Because the man's slain ♪
♪ He got caught in the chains Of his own game ♪
♪ How can I feel guilty After all the things They did to me? ♪
♪ Sweated me, hunted me Trapped in my own community ♪
♪ One day I'm gonna bust Blow up on this society ♪
♪ Why did you lie to me? ♪
♪ I couldn't find A trace of equality ♪
♪ Work me like a slave While they laid back ♪
♪ Homey don't play that ♪
♪ It's time I let them Suffer the payback ♪
♪ I'm trying To avoid physical contact ♪
♪ I can't hold back, It's time to attack ♪
♪ Jack, they got me trapped ♪
AFENI: Today, no matter what,
I thank God that I gave him.
I remember the last time I tried to spank my son.
And he was too old for me to spank then.
He was about 13 years old.
And I raised my hand to hit him.
And he didn't try to hit me back,
but he blocked the blows.
And from here he looked at me and he said,
"I'm never going to let anybody beat me down."
And you know what?
(chuckles)
Stopped me in my tracks.
TUPAC: ♪ Nightmare That's what I am ♪
♪ America's nightmare ♪
♪ I am what you made me ♪
♪ The hate and the evil That you gave me ♪
♪ I shine as a reminder of what You've done to my people ♪
♪ For 400-plus years ♪
♪ You should be scared ♪
♪ You should be running ♪
♪ You should be Trying to silence me ♪
♪ Ha, but you cannot Escape fate ♪
♪ For it is my turn to come ♪
♪ 2pacalypse ♪
♪ America's nightmare ♪
♪ Come on, come on ♪
♪ I see no changes ♪
♪ Wake up in the morning And I ask myself ♪
♪ "Is life worth living? Should I blast myself?" ♪
♪ I'm tired of being poor Even worse, I'm Black ♪
♪ My stomach hurts So I'm looking for a purse To snatch ♪
♪ Cops give a damn About a Negro ♪
♪ Pull the trigger Kill a nigga, he's a hero ♪
♪ Give the crack to the kids Who the hell cares? ♪
♪ One less hungry mouth On the welfare ♪
♪ First ship them dope And let them deal to brothers ♪
♪ Give them guns, step back Watch them kill each other ♪
♪ "It's time to fight back," That's what Huey said ♪
♪ Two shots in the dark, Now Huey's dead ♪
♪ I got love for my brother But we can never go nowhere ♪
♪ Unless we share With each other ♪
♪ We got to start Making changes ♪
♪ Learn to see me As a brother ♪
♪ Instead of two Distant strangers ♪
♪ And that's how It's supposed to be... ♪