- [man 1] Wait, hold on - [man 2] No, it's okay.
[man 3] We're rolling.
[man 4] Glo, day two, take one, comma marker.
[Allen] This a random question, Glo, the first one...
[man 3] All right, here we go.
[Allen] Everyone talks about, um,
- how there were two Tupacs. - Yeah.
There's like two different extremes of, like, him,
getting back.
That he had multiple personality disorder, essentially?
Bullshit. He did not have multiple personality nothing.
It was a kid, a young man,
who was-- some days you saw him, he was excited.
Some days you saw him, he was angry.
And some days you saw him,
he was the sweetest thing in the world.
And maybe because, astrologically,
being a Gemini,
I can see the duality of the personality,
but not in terms of being psycho nothing.
He wasn't bipolar.
He was full of anxiety.
- [Allen] Mm-hmm, why? - He was--
Well, his life. Look at his life.
Look what was happening to him.
You know, his life wasn't running smooth.
He wanted to do music.
[Gloria] He moved with the feeling.
[Donald] Feelings unite us.
Thoughts kind of separate us,
but no matter what we may think,
we all feel the same things the same way.
And it kind of is what makes art work.
But showing emotion for a boy is, you know,
we was conditioned from childhood, you know,
big boys don't cry.
And I don't think Tupac had any fear
of expressing his feelings.
For whatever reason,
that barrier just didn't exist for him.
He had a pretty open channel.
♪ I hear Brenda's got a baby ♪
♪ But Brenda's Barely got a brain ♪
♪ A damn shame ♪
♪ The girl can hardly Spell her name ♪
♪ That's not our problem That's up to Brenda's family ♪
♪ Well, let me show you how it Affects our whole community ♪
♪ Now Brenda never really knew Her moms ♪
♪ And her dad was a junkie Puttin' death into his arms ♪
♪ It's sad 'cause I bet Brenda doesn't even know ♪
♪ Just 'cause You're in the ghetto ♪
♪ Doesn't mean you can't grow ♪
♪ But oh, that's a thought My own revelation ♪
♪ Do whatever it takes To resist the temptation ♪
♪ Brenda got herself A boyfriend ♪
♪ Her boyfriend was her cousin Now let's watch the joy end ♪
♪ She tried To hide her pregnancy ♪
♪ From her family ♪
♪ Who really Didn't care to see ♪
♪ Or give a damn if she ♪
♪ Went out and had a church Of kids ♪
♪ As long as When the check came ♪
♪ They got first dibs ♪
[Karen] Tupac was living in the valley off of Coldwater.
And when Afeni got out of rehab,
there was happiness, a lot of emotion, and relief
because he knew his mother was on the road to recovery.
And that made him really happy.
And he wanted her to be a part...
of his success.
♪ Now Brenda's belly's Getting bigger ♪
♪ But no one seems to notice Any change in her figure ♪
♪ She's 12 years old And she's having a baby ♪
♪ In love with the molester Who's sexing her crazy ♪
[interviewer 2] Let's talk a little bit about
the song that's hitting real big right now.
"Brenda's Got a Baby." Oh, God.
"Brenda's Got a Baby" is based on a true story,
and it started out big...
[reporter] A bizarre story of child abandonment,
incest, and attempted suicide.
A newborn was thrown into the garbage of Brooklyn yesterday.
The mother was just 12 years old.
And today, the father, her cousin,
was arrested after he tried to kill himself.
♪ He left her and she had The baby solo ♪
♪ She had it On the bathroom floor ♪
♪ And didn't know so ♪
♪ She didn't know what To throw away ♪
♪ And what to keep ♪
♪ She wrapped the baby up ♪
♪ And threw him In the trash heap ♪
Everything about that song was new,
because at that time,
either you were making a party song
or aggressive gangster music.
But Pac read the story and he was so moved by it,
he wrote the song.
♪ I guess she thought She'd get away ♪
♪ Wouldn't hear the cries ♪
♪ She didn't realize ♪
♪ How much the little baby Had her eyes ♪
♪ Now the baby's In the trash heap bawlin' ♪
♪ Mama can't help her ♪
♪ But it hurts To hear her calling ♪
[Phillips] The infant boy was found
in the building's trash compactor yesterday.
This maintenance worker was just about
to turn the compactor on.
♪ Brenda wants to run away ♪
♪ Mama say "You making me lose pay ♪
♪ And social workers here Every day" ♪
[reporter] Hospital officials say
they will turn the infant over
to the Bureau of Child Welfare.
[Tupac] It was like a week-long series.
The mother has been charged with juvenile delinquency
[Tupac] And I was like, "That's so wild,
the media was pimping that little,
small, poor, helpless girl."
And no changes was made.
She was nothing more than a story to them.
And it was getting smaller and smaller.
♪ Now Brenda's gotta make Her own way ♪
♪ Can't go to her family They won't let her stay ♪
♪ No money, no babysitter She couldn't keep a job ♪
♪ She tried to sell crack But end up gettin' robbed ♪
So now, same story they reported on, I'm reporting on.
♪ So she sees sex As a way of leaving hell ♪
♪ It's paying the rent So she really can't complain ♪
♪ Prostitute found, slain ♪
♪ And Brenda's her name She's got a baby ♪
[Berman] You don't know where the journey's gonna take you
when you begin with an artist.
And I remember with Tupac,
with "Brenda's Got a Baby," it all changed.
[Tupac] My publicist sent a gang of letters to my house.
People writing me, "Keep your head up."
Or, "My mother smoke crack, I just need a big brother."
Or, "My cousin in that situation,
we don't know what to do, should she get an abortion?"
And a lot of it, is you see a lot of evil things
and it's like, I wanna get involved in everything
and my publicist and my manager's like, "You can't..."
[Gloria] Genius comes with a price.
I want to be everywhere. I want to go everywhere.
I want to expand and blow up.
[Berman] The urgency for things to move.
If it was hard for us,
I can only imagine how hard it was for him.
What I'm trying to encourage is for people to make a change.
- He had so much to say. - [Tupac] 'Cause we can do that.
[Berman] So much to do.
We got brains. We can reeducate.
- [woman] And he was hopped up. - [Tupac] I mean, I think
that's what my moms was talkin' about
what makes you a man, responsibility.
[woman] The album was doing good.
"2pacalypse Now" Powerful, powerful stuff.
[woman] Juice is coming out. He was hot.
[reporter] The new movie comes out this Friday.
[Gloria] He knew he nailed Juice.
...and I like that reaction from the crowd.
[Gloria] And all of a sudden, we got money.
[Tupac] Juice is respect, power.
How far will you go to get it?
[Karen] People in the film business
saw his talent as an actor,
but he wasn't prepared...
- [gunshot] - [screaming]
...for the reaction at the theaters.
[man] Freeze, motherfucker!
Turn around hit the wall!
[reporter] Juice opened around the country
to the sound of gunfire
inside and outside a number of theaters where it played.
[Karen] I got so many calls.
[woman] "What's he thinking about the violence in the theaters?"
[Karen] He doesn't have anything to do
with the violence happening in the theaters.
[reporter] Police say much of the violence was random,
although most of it involved moviegoers.
[Karen] He said, "They want to talk to me."
No! You don't talk to everybody who wants to talk to you.
But Pac didn't listen all the time.
[Tupac] What we're doing is using our brain
to get out of the ghetto, any way we can.
So, we tell these stories. And they tend to be violent,
because our world tends to be filled with violence.
[Karen] He wanted to get the attention he needed
for the goals that he wants to reach.
So, if this is reality, the next question becomes...
How do we change it?
[Karen] And he wanted attention for that assault case.
[Tupac] ...these are "learn to be a nigga" scars.
- [interviewer] Who did that? - [Tupac] Oakland Police Department.
- [interviewer] You're suing them? - [Tupac] Ten mil.
What else can I do? 'Cause you know how that go.
Rodney King is still fighting for his,
and they got it on tape.
You know what I'm saying? They got it on tape!
[Karen] The Rodney King thing had a tremendous effect on him.
[man] That's fucked up how they doing a nigga.
Look how they doing him.
[Snoop Dogg] Nigga, fuck that! Show me help, nigga.
A Black man being done wrong by police officers,
which happen to be White,
we don't just film shit and let a nigga get killed.
Fuck all that!
What's happening? What it do?
That's Tupac. That's the cloth that he was cut from.
♪ They claim that I'm violent ♪
♪ Just 'cause I refuse To be silent ♪
♪ These hypocrites Are havin' fits ♪
♪ 'Cause I'm not buyin' it ♪
♪ Defyin' it ♪
♪ Envious because I will Rebel against any oppressor ♪
♪ And this is known As self-defense ♪
[reporter] 2pacalypse Now,
a rap album that has some songs
about Blacks who kill cops.
♪ I told 'em fight back Attack on society ♪
♪ If this is violence ♪
♪ Then violent's What I gotta be ♪
You have a list of titles
First one, "I Don't Give a F." "Crooked Ass Nigga."
♪ If you investigate ♪
♪ You'll find out Where it's coming from ♪
♪ Look through our history America's the violent one ♪
[reporter] Many of the titles suggest
violence, sex, drug use.
- Let's pick... violent. - [reporter] ...and profanity.
♪ In every jeep and every car Brothers stomp this ♪
♪ I'm never ignorant Getting goals accomplished ♪
[reporter 1] The album was playing in a stolen car
when Texas Trooper Bill Davidson stopped it.
[reporter 2] He was a family man.
♪ He had the nerve To say I had a curfew ♪
♪ Get out the car Or I'll hurt you ♪
A cop from the country was shot dead
by a teenager from the inner city.
[reporter 3] Nineteen-year-old, Ronald Howard...
♪ Before I knew it ♪
♪ I was beatin' the cop Senseless ♪
♪ The other cop dropped his gun He was defenseless ♪
[lawyer] He believes the music he was listening to, from Tupac,
probably did influence him
and caused him to shoot that trooper.
♪ Now I'm against this Cop who was racist ♪
♪ Givin' him a taste of Trading Places ♪
[reporter 1] Did the music make him do it?
[reporter 2] It proved to be the perfect campaign issue
for Dan Quayle yesterday.
♪ This is a lesson to the Rednecks and crooked cops ♪
♪ You fuck with real niggas Get 'ya fuckin' ass dropped ♪
There is absolutely no reason for a record like this
- to be published. - It is sick.
♪ You wanna sweat me Never get me to be silent ♪
♪ Givin' them a reason ♪
♪ A reason to claim That I'm violent ♪
[gunshots]
♪ Just because we play What the people want ♪
♪ Fuck a damn cop ♪
♪ Just because we play What the people... ♪
♪ Violence ♪
[Tupac] Fuck a damn cop, you understand?
Some of it is cuts. We got a cut that goes,
F-F-Fuck a damn cop.
[gunshot]
[Allen] When did you first come to learn of Tupac, as an artist?
Uh, wow...
I don't even know if it was "Brenda's Got a Baby," it was--
I think it was the first one.
My impression of him was
he was gangsta as a motherfucker, first of all.
'Cause he would say shit other rappers wasn't saying.
But he was known for shit happening with him.
[Allen] What do you think that was with Tupac,
where he would run into fire like that?
What was he looking for?
Mainly, he was looking for understanding.
[lawyer] You are here under a court-ordered deposition
for the case of Linda Davidson and the estate of Bill Davidson
who are suing Time Warner, you, and other record companies.
Now, what knowledge do you have about this lawsuit?
Uh, I know that
an officer was killed in the line of duty,
by a-- a young male who's on death row currently.
His defense to save himself from the chair was that
my music somehow induced him to commit this crime.
And the widow of the slain officer and his children
are suing everybody involved.
[host] "The music made me do it."
That's what Ronald Ray Howard claimed.
Now, the officer's widow is suing Tupac
and his record company for $100 million.
What do the people claim, though?
'Cause there were some lyrics in the song about cop-dusting
- or something like that, right? - [Tupac] Well, actually,
the story that they were talking about
is called "Soulja's Story."
And it wasn't about killing cops at all.
That's just what the media took,
'cause they're gonna take what they want.
It was about somebody who was so scared of police brutality
that he panicked when they pulled him over...
...and it shows how his life fell apart.
At the end of the story, he died.
♪ Caught a bullet in my head ♪
♪ The screams never left My mind ♪
♪ My brother Caught a bullet too ♪
♪ But I think he gonna Pull through ♪
♪ 'Cause he deserves to ♪
♪ This fast life ain't everything they told you ♪
♪ They never get much older ♪
♪ Following the tracks Of a soulja ♪
But they didn't say that.
They didn't talk about that. They just took what they want.
[woman] The media generally has portrayed Tupac
in basically a negative light.
Your song, "I Don't Give an F--"
I start the song out sitting in a paddy wagon,
and the cops are bragging about beating up another brother.
[woman] What that shows is what the media on any day
is able to show you about anyone's life.
In reality, people live their life on a day-to-day basis.
So, I feel like my job is to tell the story, the whole story,
and I can't censor, or whatever you say,
censor it or making it right.
It's still censoring it, you know.
We all gotta have the knowledge of what's going on,
and that's what I'm trying to do.
Okay, so you don't advocate cop killing?
Not at all. I don't advocate violence in any way.
My music deals with self-defense.
I'm curious whether the song he was listening to
had anything to do with cop killing, or...
- No. Not-- I'm-- - Not at all?
I just said I don't write songs about cop killing.
[woman] But it did have the lyrics--
[man] Don't six of the songs
- mention cop killing? - [Tupac] No.
- [man] They don't? - [woman] Oh, that's not true.
Nope. All my songs talk about
police brutality and self-defense.
Now, that's something different.
[audience cheers]
[man] If we're gonna talk about police, this man over here
is in a really rough area,
and he puts his life on the line every day.
[Tupac] I got so much respect for him for that,
but look, we have to live in the same neighborhoods
without bulletproof vests, without backup,
without walkie-talkies, without guns,
without tear gas, without pepper spray, without batons.
So, now we have to fix the problem.
[man] Pac knew that media is a machine
that you either work with it, or against it.
So he worked with it.
These people don't see it every day--
But what I would like to see is for children in our country
to have a better future than what you guys have.
And that's not gonna happen when he's repressing his generation
and his people by saying they have no hope.
What do you know about my people?
- I know a lot about your people. - What do you know about my--
[audience shouts and boos]
[Tupac] Just because you give charity,
give money to wipe the guilt away
does not mean you know about the young Black males
and females in today's society.
What would you say is the answer to that? Violence?
No, it's making music. It's what I'm doing now.
It sparks dialogue, and that's how laws get made.
That's how change get made.
♪ I see no changes All I see is racist faces ♪
♪ Misplaced hate makes Disgrace to races ♪
♪ We under, I wonder What it takes to make this ♪
♪ One better place Let's erase the wasted ♪
♪ Take the evil out the people They'll be actin' right ♪
♪ 'Cause both Black and White Are smokin' crack tonight ♪
♪ And the only time we chill Is when we kill each other ♪
♪ It takes skill to be real Time to heal each other ♪
Guys, get serious, all BS aside,
it all comes down to, we got to survive here in this country,
'cause I'm not going back to Africa.
I mean, if this is truly a melting pot,
then we really need to be like that.
White folks, Black folks, Korean folks,
Mexican folks, Puerto Ricans, we gotta understand each other.
[Snoop Dogg] He was teaching us to understand each other
and to communicate, making more of an impact
on the people coming behind us.
He got that from the Panther Party.
[man] The person that I'm gonna talk about next
is a second-generation revolutionary.
[Snoop Dogg] He couldn't bring gangbanger to hip-hop.
What he could bring was a military mind
and being war-ready.
[man] His mother was one of the New York Panther 21,
- Afeni Shakur. - [Snoop Dogg] And to know
what you're talking about when you're speaking.
I talked to you earlier about Dr. Mutulu Shakur,
one of my young brothers in congress.
A person who I've known all his life, brother Tupac Shakur.
[Karen] Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.
First, I want to say peace to my mother.
That's where I saw the Black Panther part of him
[Tupac] 'Cause I wouldn't have been here
if it wasn't for my mother.
And I looked on the front of this thing and it said,
"Start from within to rebuild our original greatness," right?
Okay, well, that's what my mother did.
During the time when women were scared to speak up,
but a Black Panther, she spoke at Harvard, Yale, everywhere,
and now, it ain't time to cool out and banquets and all that.
It's still on, just like it was on when you was young
and you wanna say, "Fuck that."
Just like you said "fuck that" back then.
[Karen] Pac was speaking,
and a woman next to him leaned over and said,
"Watch your language, please." And Pac said...
I apologize, I apologize, but check this out.
You can't be no more offended by my cursing
than what's really going on.
[Karen] The room went silent, because he was right.
The thing about Tupac is, it didn't matter who it was,
you couldn't tell him anything.
How come now I'm 20 years old and ready to start some shit up,
everybody telling me to calm down?
When you tell him to calm down, that was the trigger word.
Well, fuck that!
[Leila] He was fighting with the elders.
[Tupac] If we keep looking for who got the most colors on
and who got the baddest dashiki, we still gonna get--
excuse my language, fucked!
Because we coming up in a totally different world.
This is not the same world that you had.
He didn't wanna be another KRS-One and Chuck D,
and Martin Luther King preaching to the converted.
In our strive to be enlightened,
we forgot about all our brothers in the street.
About all our dope dealers, our pushers, and our pimps,
and that's who's teaching the new generation.
- [woman] That's right. - 'Cause y'all not doing it.
[Shock G] Pac knew most of the desolate out there
don't even read.
The cats he was trying to reach
don't know nothing about African-American history.
[Tupac] We didn't get any of that history
from all of those souljas that we lost.
We did not grow up with our parents.
We grew up BC: Before Crack.
That should say it all.
So, I take all of this lightly.
What I want you to take seriously,
is what we have to do for the youth.
The young Black males are the future of us,
and the young Black sisters are the future of us.
It's gonna be what you put into it.
If you don't put shit into it, don't get mad when we blow up.
Changes. In '92, it's time for us as a people
to start making some changes.
Let's change the way we eat,
let's change the way we live,
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see, the old way wasn't working,
so it's on us to do what we gotta do to survive.
[theme song playing] We continue with Tupac Shakur.
And let's talk a little bit
about what do you think your parents
were trying to accomplish with the movement?
I think that my mother-- like a lot of people,
like a lot of 'em, like Fred Hampton, Mark Clark,
uh, Harriet Tubman, they felt like
they were laying tracks for the generation to come.
What happened to her? Why was she in jail?
Because, like-- you know, there's racism.
So, when the Panthers hit, the government panicked.
[Berman] 1968.
The Panthers had expanded from
that original office in Oakland, California,
to about 30 different cities.
[Mike Wallace] Panther headquarters is in Berkeley, California.
The Panthers moved here after their headquarters in Oakland
were shot up by two policeman who had been drinking on duty.
[reporter] The Oakland Police, well known for its brutality,
never misses the chance to harass the Black Panthers
and even to shoot them.
Attacks began early on in the Black Panther Party.
First, Huey Newton gets into
what the Oakland Police says was a shootout.
[reporter] The facts: Nine shots, one dead policeman.
Another wounded, and Newton shot.
[Jamal] And then, Bobby Hutton,
the first to join the Panthers in Oakland,
was shot in the back and killed at age 17.
[reporter] He was running without arms,
having left the basement where he and Eldridge Cleaver
had taken refuge after a gun battle
involving 50 policemen, shooting a thousand rounds.
[Jamal] And then it became more clear our lives were in danger.
[Marlon Brando] We just came from Bobby Hutton's funeral...
and I'm gonna do as much as I can
to inform White people
of what they don't know.
That I myself as a White man
have got a long way to go and a lot to learn.
I haven't suffered the way you've suffered.
And somehow, that has to be translated
to the White community now.
Then, my godfather, Geronimo Pratt...
[reporter] Geronimo Pratt.
...had a top-rank position with the Panthers
on the West Coast.
[Watani] Geronimo was a war hero.
[reporter] Silver Star, Bronze Star. Purple Heart.
And he trained the Black Panther Party
with his military skills, not only in California,
but all over the country.
♪ Come with me ♪
♪ Hail Mary Nigga, run quick, see ♪
♪ What do we have here now? ♪
♪ Do you wanna ride or die? ♪
♪ La di-di-da La, la, la, la ♪
[Jamal] 1969, the Year of the Panther.
This is the year that we win.
[Shaba] I was really excited.
I said, "I'm gonna get my gun today, yay!"
[Jamal] More books to read...
because the greatest, most lethal weapon
is a free and armed Black mind.
So, the FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover,
the most powerful person in Washington,
testifies before Congress.
[Harry Reasoner] "... of the Black extremist group,
the Black Panthers represent
the greatest internal threat to the nation."
And with that, he got the funding he needed
and the permission to do anything he wanted to do
to destroy the Black Panther Party.
- ♪ La di-di-da la la la la ♪ - [Tupac] COINTELPRO.
♪ I ain't a killer But don't push me ♪
♪ Revenge is like The sweetest joy ♪
♪ Next to gettin' pussy ♪
[Shaba] COINTELPRO was an acronym
for the Counter Intelligence Program.
It was first used against the Communist Party.
After Malcolm X was assassinated,
Hoover needed to make sure
there would not be a new Black messiah.
Martin Luther King was a target.
Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, Max Stanford.
The Black Panther Party was a target.
♪ Picture paragraphs unloaded ♪
♪ Wise words bein' quoted ♪
♪ Peeped the weakness in This rap game and sewed it ♪
[anchor] Three hundred Los Angeles policemen
are involved in a raging gun battle for nearly five hours.
Special Sniper Squad borrowed armored vehicles from the Army,
employing the modern weapons of warfare used in Vietnam.
[Jamal] A lot of the shootouts and raids
on the Panthers were engineered by the FBI.
[anchor] They have a search warrant for this apartment.
[Tupac] They raided every Panther's house,
especially the ones they felt like
could do the most damage as an orator.
The most famous example of that is the murder of Fred Hampton.
[man] Fred Hampton.
[woman] Fred Hampton was a young man.
[Jamal] 21 years old.
[woman] The Defense Minister
or the Illinois Black Panther Party.
- I just want to tell you... - [Jamal] A man of peace.
...that when Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton
got together in 1966, they got together as peacemakers,
- not as peace-breakers. - [Jamal] But an FBI informer
drew the floor plans to Hampton's apartment
and he gave that to the Chicago Police Department.
[man] For 12 minutes,
there was gun firing in that apartment,
yet the federal grand jury concludes
that only one possible shot
could've come from a Panther weapon.
[distant police sirens]
[reporter] A 20-year-old chairman
of the Illinois Black Panther Party,
Fred Hampton, was shot and killed
in a pre-dawn shootout in his West Side apartment.
[woman] Fred Hampton was killed December 4th, 1969.
[reporter] Another party member,
22-year-old Mark Clark of Peoria,
also died in the shootout.
[Jamal] The Year of the Panther.
Ironically, more Panthers got killed
and went to prison that year than any other year.
[anchor] While there is no evidence to support the theory
of a government plot to smash the party,
local police have responded, in some cases
with intelligence provided
by the FBI's task force on the Panthers
by raiding virtually every local headquarter.
Files confiscated, even burned.
[Jamal] It was the year of the L. A. shootout
that offices were bombed,
that they had brothers on the streets naked
like they were runaway slaves.
Literally, 12 weeks after that New Year's issue,
I was in prison facing 360-plus years,
along with Afeni Shakur, Lumumba Shakur.
[anchor] A grand jury has returned an indictment
charging members of the Black Panther Party
with a conspiracy to bomb New York department stores,
Macy's, Alexander's, Korvettes...
[Afeni] April 2nd of '69,
I was awakened by someone holding fire to the people.
[Tupac] Like, 5:00 in the morning,
the police put a match to my mother's door and said...
[Afeni] Fire. Open the door. Get out. Fire!
So, my mother opened the door and they burst in,
put a shotgun to her belly,
a gun to her head and said, "Don't move..."
[Afeni speaking]
...you're under arrest.
[Afeni] They went to everybody's house.
And everybody had a story including Jamal.
In my case, a tactical patrol unit
kicked in the door of my grandmother's house,
20 cops rushed in. So, my last words to Grandma
as they were taking me out in handcuffs was,
"Call the Panther office."
[man] Information we received that some 10 or 12 members
of the Black Panther Party in New York have been arrested,
with pigs busting down doors while they're sleeping.
[Shaba] I recall driving in, FBI...
[imitating siren]
I can't think of anything they didn't have.
Machine guns, shotguns, ...357 Magnums, and rifles.
[reporter] I can't speak too highly of the detectives,
200 of whom are rounding up the defendants.
If we'd have run, they would probably shot each other
because it was just simply too much weaponry.
The element of danger was great to the men involved.
[reporter] Did they encounter any resistance?
[police chief] No, they haven't.
[reporter] Chief, what types of weapons were seized?
Arms, revolvers, rifles, masks, et cetera.
[reporter] Did they have bow and arrows, and spears?
We were told that. We had the report.
[Gloria] When I learned about the arrests,
somebody called and said, "Turn on the TV."
[Jamal] It was headline news that 21 Panthers
were gonna unleash simultaneous attacks
against New York City.
[man] Indictment also charges attempted murder, arson...
[Gloria] I was horrified, but the charges were irrelevant
because I knew they weren't true.
It was the $100,000 bail.
No way she was getting out of jail.
[Tanya Hart] What does it do to a young man
when all of your heroes have been to jail?
- Are you bitter? - Yeah. I am.
I am angry because-- I'm angry for my mother
because she gave up a lot of her life for this.
I'm angry for Fred Hampton's family
because they lost a straight-up soulja.
[Afeni] Fred Hampton was killed while I was in prison.
And what touched Tupac about Fred Hampton
is his words:
"You can jail a revolutionary,
but you can't jail the revolution."
"You can kill a revolutionary,
but you cannot kill the revolution."
My mother knew that freedom wouldn't come in her lifetime.
Just like I know, that it won't come in mines.
But it's a matter of either we stay like this,
or somebody sacrifices.
Somebody lay a track so we don't stay
in a 360-degree, deadly circle.
So, that's how I gotta live, and that's how I have to die.
And that's how my music has to be,
and my acting, and my producing, and my interviews.
Everything has to be for the love of Black people.
God bless you. You're a very special young man.
- [Tupac] I appreciate that. - [Tanya Hart] Okay.
Yeah.
He enjoyed that film.
He liked working with Janet Jackson.
Because he was like, "Wow, look at her celebrity,"
and he just couldn't believe
she would even act with somebody like him.
[Allen] "Somebody like him"?
[Karen] Not a big movie star. You know, a rapper.
[interviewer] I really enjoyed this picture.
Uh, you play a guy named Lucky. Tell me about him.
Lucky is a responsible father
trying to deal with some pain from the past,
and trying to get through daily survival
in South Central Los Angeles.
[gunshot]
[interviewer] Now, he grows up in a tough neighborhood
with a lot of temptations to move away from his ambitions.
You had the same kind of experience.
So is this a role that you feel very much at home with?
[Tupac] Yes, anytime it's a role
for a young Black male that deals with pain,
that's my role, I'm made for that role.
Leave them crayons there, I'll get 'em later.
[Tupac] What we don't see a lot of in films
is a Black man and a Black woman together.
You know, that's the happy ending.
So, that's what is I think is gonna be new
and hopeful about this film.
[Karen] He enjoyed making that film,
and Afeni came out to Los Angeles.
[man] So, Tupac's like, "I want my mother to be my PR person."
And I'm like, "What does she know about PR?"
"It doesn't matter, I want her to be my PR person."
[Karen] Afeni was an extremely intelligent woman.
I had a lot of respect for her
because I knew the history of the fact
that she acted as her own attorney,
and had all these charges against her.
She had never been to law school,
and she never, ever got the credit
that she deserved for that trial.
In New York today, pretrial hearings opened
for 13 of 22 Black Panthers
indicted on charges of conspiracy
to bomb police stations, department stores,
subway stations, a commuter railway,
and a city botanical garden.
[Gloria] The Panther 21 trial was the longest trial
in the state of New York, and the most expensive trial.
[anchor] The tone of the pretrial hearing
was established early by the demonstrators outside
circling the criminal court building
which houses the state's Supreme Court chambers.
Ironically, the crowd...
[Jamal] So, the beginning months of the trial
were pretrial hearings,
which started ten months after the arrests.
We were all in prison,
and we were separated.
I was on Rikers Island,
Lumumba and the others were in the Tombs.
Afeni and Joan were at the Women's House of Detention.
[Afeni] I hate prison.
I hate going to prison.
I hate the sound of the first door when it closes.
[Gloria] The first time I went to see Afeni
was the first time I had ever been in a jail.
She was defiant.
[Afeni] When all these bars that intrude within my sight,
these shivering lines that test my physical might.
She did not cry because she was in jail.
She fought because she was in jail.
[Afeni] Do they not know who I am, or from where I came?
[Gloria] She didn't consider herself a victim.
[Afeni] I'm not to be burdened by such barbaric games.
[Gloria] Because she was in jail because of her belief.
[Afeni] My soul is not mine. I cannot give it away.
My ears will never wash away what I will say.
[Gloria] Lumumba Shakur was the lead defendant.
[Shaba] Yeah, they were in love.
But Lumumba was the chief architect of the 21,
according to an indictment,
so he had a lot of shit on his plate.
And I'm not gonna say she overwhelmed him,
but she kept his ass on his toes.
- [Jamal] It was an explosive relationship. - Yeah.
Loving, and tense
all at the same time.
And during that time, we come back and forth to court
so that we could prepare for trial.
We knew that we were not going to receive justice,
but we also understood that we weren't special.
Because of that big loophole in the 13th Amendment
that slavery would be abolished everywhere
except in prison.
Prisons make money.
So men and women all across this country,
the Black community, the Brown,
White, the Yellow, queer community
were arrested under false pretenses
with bails that were not bails at all.
That they were ransoms.
So, whatever happened to us was part of a bigger fight,
and we wanted to educate the masses.
Now, Afeni, would phrase things in a way
that you hadn't heard before.
So, she thought the best way to do that for herself
was to speak for herself.
[Afeni] I already know that I'm going to jail forever
and the only thing I have is that I have to speak my piece.
Carol Lefcourt, she's a wonderful person.
But this is my life. She can't speak my piece.
We were petrified,
because we knew that she weren't a lawyer.
And it was Lumumba who said,
"I don't know if that's a good idea,
because, Afeni, you can get emotional."
[Shaba] So, it was a spirited conversation to say the least.
[Jamal] And then, Charles McKinney,
our most respected attorney,
said this might not be a bad idea.
Because a defendant didn't have the freedom
to address the jury directly.
But Afeni, representing herself, could talk directly to the judge
and most importantly, talk directly to the jury.
And we then saw this trial as...
a political education class.
[Afeni] I have a revolutionary story that I must tell,
and my hands refuse to be beaten by this tormented cell.
And when she got up there, bro, everybody was like, "Oh, shit."
[Afeni] There's a force in here...
"I'm on Afeni's team."
[Afeni] A whole new Black colony.
[Jamal] Whenever she spoke, it was like poetry.
[Afeni] A motivated force,
ready to make liberation a living reality.
[Jamal] And then after 11 months,
we raised the first $100,000
and voted that Afeni should be the first person out.
[Afeni] I can hear their voices
clamoring through these forgotten wrongs.
[Jamal] Afeni could dispel this myth
that we were just angry, murderous Black men.
[Afeni] Freedom now, right here on Earth.
To hell with laws.
[anchor] We've just heard a poem written by Afeni Shakur
- after her release from jail. - [Gloria] She was the star,
and everybody trying to get to her.
Her son, same thing.
♪ Back to get wreck ♪
♪ All respect to those Who break their neck ♪
♪ To keep their hoes in check ♪
♪ 'Cause, oh, they sweat A brother majorly ♪
♪ And I don't know why Your girl keeps paging me ♪
- ♪ I get around ♪ - [Shock G] "I Get Around"
was Tupac's first solo, bona fide hit record.
The funnest day of my life.
It was this mansion in Malibu with a lot of women.
It was like we had a party,
and we shot the video during our breaks.
♪ She tells me she needs me Cries when she leaves me ♪
♪ And every time she sees me She squeeze me ♪
♪ Lady, take it easy ♪
♪ Hate to say I'm sleazy But tease me ♪
♪ I don't want it If it's that easy ♪
[Money-B] Pac had his own room, so every time we had a break,
he had a different woman going up with him.
♪ I get around ♪
[Shock G] His natural magnetism
was beyond celebrity status.
Girls loved Pac from day one.
I'm talking about even before he was famous.
Just carrying equipment, Pac was pulling 'em.
So, now you got girls throwing themselves at you.
Forget about it.
Come on, we're only human. We're only human.
♪ Fingertips on their hips As I dip ♪
♪ Gotta get a tight grip ♪
♪ Don't slip, loose lips sink ships ♪
- ♪ It's a trip ♪ - [Gloria] He wanted to be liked.
He would call me up, "Guess who I did it to?" Who?
♪ Conversations on the phone Till the break of dawn ♪
[Gloria] Afeni didn't want to hear that. You know? It's her son.
Now he's not the son so much, he's the man.
♪ But when you learn You can't tie me down ♪
♪ Baby doll, check it out I get around ♪
[Shock G] From my personal point of view,
I saw Tupac adapting to fame well.
But what none of us paid attention to
was when someone gets success like that,
there's a certain level of jealousy.
[man] We had no concept
of understanding the problems of success,
or what people perceive as success.
[Leila] Tupac had been gone touring.
We were having Marin City Festival.
He was so excited. "I'm coming home."
But there were people in the crowd.
They were jealous. A fight broke out.
A whole mob of people started chasing Pac
and the people he came with.
[Watani] There was a shot fired in the air,
and the kid by the name of Qa'id
got killed across the street from the park.
That changed Tupac.
[Leila] I don't know what exactly happened.
I just know no one's ever the same after that.
It severed relationships in the community.
It was heartbreaking for all of us.
We're all responsible.
[man] I don't know who had the gun,
but I know Tupac didn't.
But everyone was saying because he was the name,
it was his fault this kid died.
[Leila] It was really hard on Pac,
right when he was just trying to get positioned.
[Tupac] Young Qa'id.
[Leila] That's one of the hardest points
in Pac's journey that never went away.
[Tupac] Remember that name.
[man] That changed how he dealt with people.
[Tupac] 'Cause you motherfuckers will go to your grave
with that name on your brain.
'Cause jealousy and recklessness
is not...
something to die for.
[Watani] The '90s was incredibly dangerous...
[Tupac] Too many families affected by a wrongful death.
[Watani] ...especially for Black males,
[Tupac] This system and this country has tore apart
my family and our families.
You can't have a Black family and be together.
[Watani] It's not even that you in a gang or not in a gang.
There was drug addiction, alcoholism, violence.
[Tupac] How many more funerals do we gotta go to?
And how many more scenes of the crime
do we gotta watch them chalk out
Black figures on the concrete before we realize
the only way for us to ever get out of this predicament
is to struggle to survive?
[Watani] And a lot of our people died.
[Tupac] It' ain't nothing but killing happening right now.
I think the Black-on-Black violence,
when we kill each other, it make us
not really give a fuck about Blackness, you know?
And also, the police violence against us,
that's making us crazy.
That's what's making us kill each other,
'cause we scared to shoot the motherfuckers
that's doing it to us.
Gangs ain't nothing but tribes, you know?
And the police ain't nothing but a gang.
The National Guard is a gang. The Army is a gang.
We learned all this gun shit from the government, you know?
How are they gonna show us that and think we can't pick up?
So, I'm picking up. Feel me?
[Jamal] The difference between the Bay Area and L. A.
is night and day.
There's a huge criminal element throughout L. A. County.
[Tupac] I was scared of L. A. to whereas
I didn't know nothing about the gang thing.
This ignorance, not knowing where not to go.
But the ghetto is the ghetto, you know?
[Snoop Dogg] He was solo. Renegade. He made hit records.
And he was out there on his own.
[Tupac] ...Mutulu, Geronimo.
All the political prisoners.
His mentors were in jail.
My folks in penitentiaries
for screaming "African liberation".
I'm talking about straight motherfucking G's,
but they in jail now.
[reporter] A march to free the Panther 21
and all political prisoners will be held on Central Park
and have its speakers, Afeni Shakur...
[Gloria] When Afeni came out on bail,
she believed in freeing her comrades,
but it wasn't like she was jubilant.
[Mike Wallace] New York's Harlem is the biggest Black ghetto
in the country,
but the Panther chapter here is so weak
that it's an embarrassment to the party.
The Panthers have been, essentially, leaderless here.
There were day-to-day struggles to keep a Panther office open.
[Mike Wallace] Their programs are at a standstill.
No free medical program,
no free clothing program.
[Jamal] And with very little sleep,
Afeni would do all of those jobs.
♪ I wake up Early in the morning ♪
♪ My state so military Suckas fantasizing ♪
♪ Pictures of a young brother Buried ♪
[reporter] Afeni Shakur is one of the two Panther 21 members
now out on bail.
[Jamal] The next person out was Cetewayo Tabor,
and then it was Dhoruba Bin Wahad.
Both of them brilliant speakers and organizers.
And then Joan Bird.
She was the other woman in the Panther 21.
And I had been adjudicated youthful offender
I was severed from the case, and released.
We started traveling,
getting more support for the case.
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale
called it creating a colossal event.
[Gloria] She drew a crowd.
It was the people doing "Free the Panther 21"
and "Fuck the Pigs." Oh, God, I like that.
[Jamal] Centre Street, it would be shut down.
Black folks, White folks, students, tourists,
'cause they knew sparks were gonna fly.
[Chet Huntley] The Panthers started shouting
and the judge called a recess.
[Jamal] Judge Murtagh was all about decorum.
We booed, cheered, jeered and screamed,
"You're a lying, racist, fascist pig," every day.
This afternoon there was more disorder
and another early recess.
Power to the people!
[Jamal] We weren't gonna politely be lynched.
However, there was starting to be tension between
national leadership and local leadership.
[reporter] Founder Huey Newton
is in a California prison for manslaughter.
Chairman Bobby Seale faces trial for murder.
Eldridge Cleaver has fled into exile.
Basically, there was conflict going back and forth
with the West Coast and the East Coast about money.
[Afeni] What happened is that, we had raised a bunch of million dollars. Big bucks.
What the party did is take that money and use it for cases every place else.
They did not use it for the bail, for the New York Panther 21,
when we had given our words.
And Huey was out and insane.
[reporter] Newton's last trial
and manslaughter conviction were overturned.
He is back on the street.
[Jamal] So, as the trial day nears closer,
Afeni and I found ourselves in the middle of that tension.
And the members of the Panther 21
who were still inside, led by Lumumba,
did not feel we were doing enough
to get other people out.
What we didn't know was that
this was exactly the strategy of the government.
In any war, the way you weaken an opponent
is to make the enemy fight a war in many different fronts.
And Pac and I used to have this conversation about COINTELPRO
as a reminder for him,
because hip-hop was becoming
such a powerful economic, and political force.
[Tupac] But in Black communities especially,
we have, like, broken families, with no father, no big brothers.
And so the music becomes the father.
You-- you grow up and you get the lesson
that you would've got from your daddy,
and it's like you're paying $10 for a whole lifestyle of game.
That's why these White kids can dress and act like niggas,
'cause all they got to do is go get ten tapes, Hood 101.
[reporter] Rap is essentially a Black art form,
and surprisingly, 70% of rap music
is bought by White young people.
[man] For the government, there is nothing worse
than a revolutionary having a voice like
cinema and records. Can you imagine,
your mom is the DA or the judge,
and they're sending cats that look like Tupac to jail all day.
And then their kid has his poster on their wall?
"Like, take that down and put Bruce Springsteen back up."
[Karen] I saw people had no clue
what "thug" meant across his stomach.
It started with "50 niggaz."
[man] Fifty niggaz: "Never Ignorant,
Getting Goals Accomplished."
Fifty thousand. Fifty million.
And it was a movement that was gonna bring
everybody all over the ghettos, together.
[Tupac] We're gonna send this one out to the old school.
All these motherfuckers in the Bronx
and Brooklyn, and Staten Island, Queens,
and all the motherfuckers that laid it down.
[EDI] It was just about unity.
He just wanted to broaden the horizon of all of hip-hop.
♪ I remember Mr. Magic Flash, Grandmaster Caz ♪
♪ LL, Raising Hell But that didn't last ♪
♪ Eric B & Rakim was... ♪
[EDI] At the time, the East Coast
was established as far as hip-hop.
They wrote the rules.
What you could say, how you could say it.
That shit drove Pac crazy. Like, "Fuck that!
This is real hip-hop, too, on the West Coast."
That's why he was so on us in the early stages of our career
of embracing other hip-hop and other types of music.
So it started with "50 Niggaz," then it went on to "Thug Life."
And Mutulu was in prison,
but he would call, making sure it had structure to it, a goal.
[Shaba] Mutulu called all the time.
Mutulu is who put Watani with us.
[Karen] Watani was a gift from God.
In addition to being elder, he was a security specialist.
He understood what was going on beyond what any of us saw.
And he was a connection to Mutulu.
[Watani] Mutulu was a person Tupac knew as a father.
But the feds actually tried to not allow that relationship.
When I say the feds, I'm talking about the Bureau of Prisons,
to try to stop communication between Tupac and Mutulu.
You know, 'cause behind the walls
he's looked up on the way Tupac was on the street: leaders.
Even inside of prison, he stopped gang violence,
racial violence, he was their peacemaker.
It was from that that Mutulu began to organize
with other shot callers and wrote the "Thug Life" code.
[Tupac] This Thug Life code, we have a code put in order
to the violence on the streets.
The OG's in the East Coast and the West Coast
and the penitentiaries. Like, we're gonna be against
drive-bys, kidnappings,
attacks on people that are not involved.
And people who perpetrate that,
they have to deal with the consequences and go to jail,
'cause that's who's gonna enforce this code
and the Thug Life that's on the street.
It's like we cleaning up the dirt.
I can't change what-- the dirt that's here,
but I can put all this dirt in one corner.
And I will give my whole life to this plan
I have for Thug Life.
[Watani] Tupac was our spokesperson for the code,
but at times he would struggle with that.
And so that was a balancing act he was dealing with.
He feels like he has to perform
to be this image that everybody want him to be.
[Tupac] You have all over the country, big-time OG criminals
telling me they want me to lead their movement.
I mean, I'm gonna have a small identity crisis here.
[lawyer] Okay, so let's go back to the questions.
Have you been in any other jails or prisons,
other than the present?
[Tupac] Yes. I'm not sure of the word,
but it was for a fist fight with another individual.
- [lawyer] Okay, so assault and battery? - No.
[man] You were convicted of civil assault
for engaging in a fight with some entertainers:
the Hughes twins.
How did you not get hurt more seriously?
I was wondering if you guys were gonna interview you...
- [Allen] Yeah, here we go again. - [Karen] Yup.
Oh, I'm not the first person to ask that question?
[Allen] Don't you think that's like breaking the line?
- [man 2] You broke the line. - [Allen] Okay.
You're not uncomfortable with me doing the story?
Why would I be?
[Allen] Just don't think I don't hear this shit.
That nigga Tupac beat up is telling the story.
For the record, Tupac didn't beat me up.
- Ten other motherfuckers-- - [laughs]
He had ten motherfuckers--
Nigga Allen, you as crazy as a motherfucker!
That nigga said, "For the record,
that nigga didn't beat me up.
He had ten other motherfuckers beat me up."
That's when niggas had posses.
[Allen] Go ahead. Let me take the hot seat r
[man 1] Go ahead, watch it. Go ahead.
This is easy being on this side.
[laughs]
[man 2] Allen Hughes, take one.
[producer] So, what I wanna know is...
He's got a pen. He's got the pen out already.
[producer] So, how does all of that feel for you,
coming around,
knowing that 30 years ago, you met all these people.
Now, here everyone is, back again?
- How does that feel? - That's pretty surreal.
It's surreal to go and do a journey,
a narrative that you were a part of,
and then to have it be so personal, you know,
when I was deciding to do this thing...
I didn't want to do it at first.
Uh, and-- 'Cause I think
I was fearful of what we're doing right now.
[producer] So, tell me, you did which videos?
We did-- The first video we did was "Trapped."
Then we did "Brenda's Got a Baby."
And there's this moment in the video
where there's a long lens camera, like this camera,
and it's swimming over his features.
And I'm looking through the lens,
and I saw that structure and that energy.
And I go, "God, this dude's a rock star."
I mean, it was right then.
And you can just catch the aura,
and it's telling multitudes of stories.
And the problem I think we have is people go,
"Well, what's the theme of this?"
Sometimes those sub-themes
are more important than "the" theme.
Harry Connick ain't got nothing on me. Check it.
♪ Oh, stay with me ♪
- [Allen] We were close friends. - ♪ How could I be sure? ♪
[Allen] But me and my brother,
we didn't really want to shoot a third video,
"When my Homies Call."
[reporter] Gentlemen, you're working with Tupac now,
- for the third time? - Third time.
[Allen] At that point, we were having some difficulties.
Heard that. I gotta pay attention.
They told me, like, four fucking times.
Look this way. Look this way. I don't pay attention
That's my problem now.
That's why my mother threw me out when I was 13.
- [Albert] Okay, Tupac? - Yeah?
[Allen] At that point, he was becoming
more erratic for some reason.
- I couldn't figure it out. - [Albert] Let's do it again.
[Tupac] Right now, I'm doing these videos.
I'm doing these movies. I'm making a gang of money.
I'm helping my people. But everybody wants to know,
"Well, why do you got an attitude?"
"What's wrong?" "What's the matter?"
And it's like, if somebody put their foot on your neck
for so many years-- for me, it's been 20 years.
I can't take the 400-year struggle.
I can identify, but I can only take up the 20 years.
That's how long I've been here, struggling.
Twenty years.
And if somebody put their foot on your neck for 20 years,
when you finally do get from under that foot--
'cause they like-- they let-- they like-- Now, they like,
"Well, we gave you some money.
I mean, you did a movie. Will you calm down?"
I still got the scars, you know?
I mean, I still feel it. When I go to sleep,
I still feel them cops on me. You know what I'm saying?
The cops who beat me, I still feel that.
If I hear helicopters and sirens,
I still panic, you know? And that's not cool.
You know what I'm saying? That's real.
[EDI] I understood that he was going through things.
Everything that happened changed him a little bit.
Starting with being inside his mom's stomach in jail.
From all of that to the time he fucking got his ass whipped
by the Oakland PD.
And he sued them.
It was always something.
Dan Quayle, in national TV,
the Vice President of the United States,
saying "Your music doesn't have a place in society."
Very little gaps of serenity for that guy.
[Watani] At the same time,
I had people looking out for him, you know.
We put Lil' Monster and Bone,
both representing the Crips and Bloods,
on his security detail.
[Shock G] For those of us who loved Pac
before he was a celebrity, there was a lot of stress
that went with trying to protect him,
'cause it was hard.
We didn't know what was going on and what his plans were.
We see now, but at that time, we're all trying to protect him.
Their relationship with that nigga was-- was complicated.
Ask me some deep shit.
[Snoop Dogg] If he loved you, he loved you hard.
If he was mad at you, he was mad at you
like a motherfucker.
Ask me about the Hughes Brothers.
[Allen] What happened was New Line Cinema said,
"You have to get a platinum recording artist
in order for us to green-light my movie."
Tupac's like, "I'll do a supporting role, but..."
I was supposed to be in Menace II Society, right?
I went and everything.
They got the deal because of your boy.
You know, they was my niggas.
They used to do all these videos for me.
[Allen] He was gonna play Sharif,
the Muslim character.
And he basically said,
"In order for me to be a non-violent Muslim
at this point in my career, we had to rewrite the role
and show how I got there."
I refuse to play parts that don't exist.
I will be a young nigga, but I'll be a real young nigga.
You know what I'm saying? That's gonna make me
different than all of these niggas that's taken parts.
[Allen] In hindsight, Tupac had a valid point.
But our relationship was so decayed,
I was like, "We're not doing that."
[Tupac] I said, "You acting like a bitch."
He said, "You acting like a bitch."
I said, "Well, Goddamn. If I'm a bitch, smack a bitch."
[Allen] Long story short...
What's that say? "Heartless."
And I beat his punk ass up.
Now I can't help it if some niggas on the scene
beat his ass for running.
And I can't help it if they were screaming
"Thug Life" as they did it.
[Allen] If it was me and Tupac, it would've been different.
It was a danger in ten guys...
[Snoop Dogg] That's the Thug Life niggas.
Them niggas was real Crip gang members.
But they spared y'all, though. They didn't do the finish-off.
You talk about Raging Bull.
I looked like Jake LaMotta by the end of that.
I remember the headlines.
And I remember him talking trash about him.
When I catch the Hughes Brothers,
I'm gonna bust you in your mouth for good.
[Karen] But it bothered him.
[Allen] I was pissed for a long time.
Even though out of all the meaningful times
that we spent together,
that altercation was probably like five minutes.
[reporter] How do you feel coming to court today?
Don't block my way and don't hit my lawyer.
[reporter] Tupac, do you think this is a bum rap?
[Allen] And I feel unlocking going on,
'cause I'm just starting to recollect.
No, actually...
Damn.
I should've understood what he was saying.
[Watani] But he wasn't really listening to people.
So I decided to move him here
to Atlanta, Georgia.
[Watani] Atlanta, Georgia.
This became the hub. This became our base.
So, Afeni moved here then Glo moved here after that.
And Tupac took well to it.
It was a little slow for him, but he embraced Atlanta.
[reporter] I caught up with the popular rapper
in his friend's bookstore.
We started our conversation by talking about
why he feels he can impact today's youth with his work.
[Tupac] I have something to offer the business
that hasn't been shown before.
You know, I have a whole energy
that represents not just Black youth,
but White youth, Mexican youth. Youth.
[Afeni] After I started working with my son,
that was the first relationship we had since I was using.
Watching my mother just go through changes and everything,
it's like, my mother's my partner, she a soulja.
You know, she a soulja like I'm a soulja.
You know, and I watched to peep the game that she went through.
[Gloria] When he bought that house for Afeni,
we thought it was a mansion.
Because that was the first time
anybody in me and Afeni's family
had a home and owned it outright.
And anytime Tupac sent 'Feni shopping with a budget,
we were happy.
We didn't never have that freedom to do that.
So, she bought everything.
We was rich. We thought we were.
And he would say dumb stuff to us like,
"Don't act like you ain't never had nothing."
Well, we hadn't.
Tupac introduced us to a lifestyle
that we would've never known.
[man] Afeni always wanted land.
And this was hers.
And she was real proud about it.
She had a shooting range outside.
So, we used to play with guns out here.
And she had a lot of guns.
Pac did, too.
♪ Early one Sunday morning ♪
♪ Breakfast was on the table ♪
[man] I'm a felon.
I don't have nothing to do with no pistols.
But, mmm, the sound,
the numbness of the hand
when it shoot right through your arms
when you just lettin' it out.
♪ Filled with the Long of glory ♪
♪ We learned the Holy story ♪
[Afeni] Tupac had told me in the beginning of my recovery
how much I hurt him,
and he had not talked about it anymore
because he still had anger about it.
And he worked that anger through his system.
She saw her son shoot up a Mercedes-Benz.
[man] Some people like sex, some like shootin' pistols.
Some people like doing both
because we release all the inside anger.
Tupac would go in the backyard and shoot the grass.
[man] Tupac Shakur!
Give him your hands, brothers and sisters!
[Tupac] First of all,
y'all gonna think something wrong with me
'cause I'm losing it. If I curse, forgive me.
But we curse. So, they told me to watch my language. Fuck that.
He did tell y'all about my mama and the Panthers,
but let me tell you where I ended up.
My mama was a crack addict.
I ended up in Baltimore welfare
with no lights on in high school.
[woman] He started to talk about his anger publicly.
[Tupac] I got disdain for a lot of motherfuckers
'cause I'm gonna tell you,
when my mama started cracking and I was by myself,
this brother right here, Watani Stiner,
was the only person in this movement
that took care of me.
[man] Gary, Indiana. Black Expo. He was hyped.
So, it ain't no motherfucking struggle
if you don't take care of your babies.
Not just yours, but the other souljas', you know?
What about these souljas in jail? Where their kids at?
Don't none of you motherfuckers give a fuck about them!
Little Latasha got a bullet in her motherfucking back,
and ain't any one of y'all do a motherfucking thing!
[Watani] Indiana was where Mike Tyson
caught his rape case.
[Tyson] Life beat me into submission.
[Watani] So, I took Pac to go visit Mike.
[Tyson] And when he came in that prison, everybody,
Black, White, gangster, "Yo, what's up!"
[Tupac] And when I saw "Thug Life," I mean that shit.
'Cause these White folks see us as thugs.
I don't care what y'all think.
And he stood on the table. I said, "Get down."
Everybody just looking at what's going on. He's--
Please, come down now.
I don't care if you think you a lawyer,
if you a man, if you a African-American.
We thugs and niggas to these motherfuckers.
He was really special.
I walk around with Latasha in me.
I walk around with Fred Hampton and Bobby Hutton in me.
And when these motherfuckers press my button
and I blow up, it ain't me.
He was too intelligent to act the way he conducted himself.
How the fuck can a nigga put on a police uniform in 1993?
Fuck that! When the shit jump off,
if you still got that on, your ass is out!
'Cause niggas is armed in 1993.
Did you see what happened on April 29th, on the news?
'Cause they was fucking shit up in L. A.
[anchor] Four current and former Los Angeles police officers
were acquitted today of all but one criminal charge
in the beating of motorist Rodney King.
[Tupac] All my life, I never thought it could happen,
but I've seen it for myself. I was there.
Niggas had their motherfucking dawgs up, and it was all good.
[anchor] Two thousand National Guard troops
have been deployed following violent outbursts
in parts of Los Angeles
following acquittals for four...
[Tupac] We are marching on the anniversaries
of when we marched 25 years ago.
What are you meant to do?
Now, I swear to God, you gonna find me
strapped like a motherfucker getting ready to shoot.
[Billy] Pac always talked about
how he was gonna protect us any way he could.
[Tupac] All that shit that went on in the '60s
ain't gonna happen in this motherfucker.
But if I go by myself and I die
and you motherfuckers bury me, I swear before God,
I will haunt every single one of you punk-ass motherfuckers.
Do you feel me?
[Billy] But there was this doubt in my head.
Are you gonna do something if something happens?
- [Tupac] Fuck the police! - Guys like us,
we turn our delusions into reality.
[Billy] So, Halloween night 1993...
Bang! Bang!
♪ Oh, Sadie... ♪
[Billy] Three shots.
♪ Don't you know we love you Sweet Sadie ♪
[Billy] ...just like a marksman, trained.
♪ Place no one above you Sweet Sadie ♪
[Billy] The mythology is one thing,
but what I saw was the truth.
♪ Seems so funny ♪
♪ No money will turn Your life... ♪
Tupac...
shot some police in the ass.
♪ Oh, it's what she wanted From me ♪
[reporter] The rap star, Tupac Shakur,
is free on bond tonight
after his arrest this weekend in Atlanta.
The 22-year-old singer and actor
was charged with shooting two off-duty police officers.
The wounds were not serious.
[Blood] When Tupac got arrested, Afeni came to pick him up on bail.
He pushed tape in.
And he told her, "This is for you.
♪ Pour out some liquor And I reminisce ♪
♪ 'Cause through the drama I can always depend On my mama ♪
[Blood] "Dear Mama".
♪ And when it seems That I'm hopeless ♪
♪ You say the words That can get me back in focus ♪
♪ When I was sick As a little kid ♪
♪ To keep me happy There's no limit ♪
♪ To the things you did ♪
Fucked her up.
♪ And all my Childhood memories ♪
♪ Are full of all The sweet things ♪
♪ You did for me ♪
She was emotional.
♪ And even though I act crazy ♪
♪ I gotta thank the Lord That you made me ♪
'Cause you know, "Dear Mama" is a take from The Spinners, "Sadie".
Right?
I mean, Goddamn.
[Afeni] When Tupac first played "Dear Mama" for me,
it made me cry because I realized
that my son had forgiven me.
♪ Everything will be All right if you hold on ♪
♪ It's a struggle every day Gotta roll on ♪
[Afeni] It means a lot to me
that my son wrote a song to us.
♪ ...that I understand You are appreciated ♪
[Afeni] 'Cause it's not just to me.
And I cried because I realized
it was him saying to me,
"I got the whole thing."
[laughs]
♪ You are appreciated ♪
♪ Ain't nobody tell us It was fair ♪
♪ No love for my daddy ♪
♪ Because the coward Wasn't there ♪
♪ He passed away And I didn't cry ♪
♪ 'Cause my anger wouldn't Let me feel for a stranger ♪
♪ They say I'm wrong And I'm heartless ♪
♪ But all along I was lookin' For a father ♪
♪ He was gone ♪
♪ I hung around With the thugs ♪
♪ And even though They sold drugs ♪
♪ They showed A young brother love ♪
♪ I moved out And started really hangin' ♪
♪ I needed money on my own So I started slangin' ♪
♪ I ain't guilty ♪
♪ 'Cause even though I sell rocks ♪
♪ It feels good Puttin' money in your mailbox ♪
♪ And I love paying rent When the rent's due ♪
♪ I hope 'ya got the diamond Bracelets that I sent to you ♪
♪ 'Cause when I was low You was there for me ♪
♪ You never left me alone Because you cared for me ♪
♪ I could see you comin' home After work late ♪
♪ You're in the kitchen Tryin' to fix us a hot plate ♪
♪ Just workin' with the scraps You was given ♪
♪ And Mama made miracles Every Thanksgivin' ♪
♪ But the road got rough You're alone ♪
♪ Tryin' to raise two bad kids On your own ♪
♪ And there's no way I can pay you back ♪
♪ But my plan is to show you That I understand ♪