Never-heard 1991 Interview with Tupac - Kindness and Rage

[DarkandHellisHot]

Hello! It took me 32 years but I decided to share my 1991 interview with Tupac for the first time. He was just launching his solo career and he talked to me for my rap interview book Break It Down.

Because Tupac was so new at the time, I almost made a big mistake and turned down the interview. Yikes! But his publicist insisted that I would like talking with him -- and I definitely did!

At the time, Tupac was really angry about being beaten up by the Oakland California police after they stopped him for jaywalking. He recited the lyrics of "Trapped" for me because he wanted to show me that this song -- which he wrote a year earlier -- turned into a reality for him. He also talked with me about his relationship with drug dealers, his frustration with Hollywood, his vision that rap could unite young people, and a lot of other things.


If you're interested in hearing it, I've shared the whole interview -- along with comments about Tupac's impact from NYC rapper April Beezer and former Yo! MTV Raps co-host Dr. Dre -- on my podcast I Couldn't Throw It Out. You can listen wherever you get podcasts (except Spotify). Or on our website, where I'm also posting other things I saved from my interview

Show notes:


In 1991, I was way behind with the deadlines for my book about rap music, Break It Down: The Inside Story from the New Leaders of Rap. That's when I got a call from a publicist, telling me I'd regret it if I didn't include 2Pac -- who had just released his first solo album, 2Pacalypse Now. She sent me this promotional photo for the album, which I reprinted in my book and saved for 32 years.

Because our interview was last minute -- and there were no lyrics sheets with his just-released album -- I asked Tupac to share lyrics from his song "Trapped," which he wrote in 1990 about police brutality. The words predicted the future in an eerie way. Tupac told me about his own arrest for jaywalking in Oakland California a few months before we spoke. His experience precisely aligned with the lyrics of the song he wrote a year earlier.

Pac interview starts at 26min11sec