Tupac Quotes

One day, I'll be listening to a bunch of Ray Charles, the next day it's nothing but Red Hot Chili Peppers. The next day it might be Tupac all day.

I've got an extra-specific story about Dr.

Dre. I saw him when I was 9 years old in Compton - him and Tupac. They were shooting the second 'California Love' video. My pops had seen him and ran back to the house and got me, put me on his neck, and we stood there watching Dre and Pac in a Bentley.

Tupac was just so passionate about what he believes in and not afraid to say anything.

I hate the hype. When 50 Cent came out, people were saying that he was the best rapper alive: "Oh, he got shot nine times, he's better than Tupac, he's better than Biggie." That was all hype.

I ain't a thug - how much Tupac in you you got?

Tupac the son of the Black Panther, and Tupac the rider.

Those are the two people inside of me. I was raised off those ideals.

Now, I know that he's taken some flak lately, but no one is prouder to put this birth certificate to rest than The Donald. Now he can get to focusing on the issues that matter. Like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?

Kids these days are kind of going back to Tupac and Snoop Doggy Dogg as examples of people that stand for something.

I didn't get into Tupac [Shakur] until a little later, once I started understanding rap and people's stories. Eminem was the first rapper that I actually started dissecting the lyrics, and once I got attached to his stories, then I started listening to Dr. Dre, then Snoop 'cause they were all under one camp.

Rap to me is a modern blues. But until we really confront the truth, we are going to have a Tupac or Eminem or Biggie Smalls to remind us about it - and thank God.

Tupac gave us validity. Tupac made the kid getting beat up every day realize that it was okay to be smart. Tupac made the knucklehead realize that it was okay to stay home and read a book. A fool at 40, a fool forever.

We don't really know who killed Martin Luther King.

We don't really know who killed Bobby Kennedy. We don't really know who killed John Kennedy. We don't really know who killed Tupac Shakur.

You know, Tupac is very near and dear to my heart. He started my career as an actor.

Tupac and I were just close friends because we had such an insatiable drive and passion for acting and entertainment.

I always want to execute and maximize off of potential, and this is a natural progression. Coming up as a youngster, I always wanted to be a rapper, but I knew that if I did everything right as a rapper, I'd end up as an actor, following the models of Ice Cube, Tupac [Shakur] and Will Smith.

I was obsessed with Tupac - like eat, sleep, breathe Tupac.

During this obsessive love affair, I dressed the part.

When I fell in love with hip-hop, there was a terminology at the time called "battling." All that was just battling with other artists, but after Tupac and those incidents when it spilled into the street and turned into a negative situation, battling turned into a beef. A whole new dynamic.

I knew Snoop Dog didn't start misogyny.

I knew that Tupac Shakur didn't start sexism, and God knows that Dr. Dre didn't start patriarchy. Yet they extended it in vicious form within their own communities. They made vulnerable people more vulnerable.

But then again in the East Coast, I think, Tupac, inspired everybody on the East Coast, everybody down south, everybody in the West Coast you know what sayin'.

I do say things that I think will shock people.

But I don't do things to shock people. I'm not trying to be the next Tupac, but I don't know how long I'm going to be on this planet. So while I'm here, I might as well make the most of it.

Biggie Smalls, Jay-Z, Nas, Eminem, Big L, Tupac. That was, like, my top five, generally.

I have written 5 books that address major figures in our culture: books on Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Tupac Shakur, Marvin Gaye and Bill Cosby. But even in the books that take up major figures, I hope to provoke conversation, insight and understanding about these personalities by providing new, fresh and vital information and analysis about them.

I have written 13 books, full of my ideas about a variety of issues - from black women, to hip-hop culture, to the civil rights struggle. Even when I address such figures as Tupac Shakur and Bill Cosby, my ideas are quite evident.

I've always been a MC that wrote socially and politically aware songs, although I listen to all types of hip-hop. This time around I got tracks that make me say "Tupac Shakur would be proud."

Tupac Shakur is something that, of course I want to make the Tupac movie, I love Tupac, but when that movie was announced, we didn't even have a script yet. It was just being written. People announce things too soon. If you go to any filmmaker - Clint Eastwood, Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese, Ben Affleck, Michael Mann - you go in their offices and there are scripts everywhere and there's about four or five of them you really want to make.

I'm a jazz guy and a Bruce Springsteen guy.

So I wanted something more current, and edgier, and angrier. So I asked my kid to educate me about hip hop; he has an encyclopedic knowledge of it. And he did so. I found it to be much richer than I would've thought. I think some of the poetry in it is really spectacular. I threw rap into the book. I think I mentioned Kendrick Lamar. I'm really into Tupac these days. I love Nas, N.W.A.

I really love to act. I really love to touch the people with my work. It's about giving people what they want to see. I love to see someone who's gonna be real, be truthful to his work and that's what I try to bring every time I step on a set. That's what I did for Tupac movie.

Not only was Tupac an iconic figure in Hip-Hop, he was an iconic artist across the whole world. He transcends to all races. And everybody loved him. It's just his honesty. Good or bad, had to love him.

I'm a huge fan of Tupac. I'm from Chicago and his music helped me kind of get through that phase of my childhood, my teenage years. He was one of the biggest artists of all time and his music got me through just day to day life. He was a key to our generation and culture and he still is, even after his passing.

I know stories of Tupac, but I was really, really young when he passed.

The fact that he was such a thespian, and so passionate about his craft, was shocking to me in a way. I'm shocked to see that here's this man that passed at 25 that we're still talking about, 20 plus years later. That's an eye-opener for me.

As they say, real legends never die. Tupac is huge; he's an inspiration. Arguably, he's probably the biggest, most analyzed and loved artist of all time.

When I started getting into West Coast rap - The Game, then I started studying a lot of Tupac Shakur and watching his interviews.

I was really into hip-hop as a teenager.

I dressed up like Tupac with baggy jeans and a dodgy bandanna around my head. I was pretty confused at that time.

Anybody that really knew Tupac will tell you the same thing.

That he was just a dude that was full of life, full of energy.