2Pac - Ed Gordon Full Interview 1994 1080p60 HD

Tupac Shakur is a study of contradiction the million-selling rapper is praised by many for his socially relevant raps like keep your head up a salute to black women who aren't getting support from black men on the other hand he's criticized for his gangster image he's a budding young actor who has been praised by movie critics as someone with real acting talent yet with all this going for him many say he's risking at all you see Shakur is also a young man in trouble with the law he faces numerous charges across the country among his legal woes he served time in jail for assaulting a movie director that fired him from a project he's apologized for that one he's been involved in a shooting incident with an off-duty police officer and in October he faces trial on charges of sodomy I caught up with the popular rapper in his friends bookstore in Atlanta we started our conversation by talking about why he feels he can impact today's youth with his work 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 why you use Mexican youth you know I'm saying that that um that change right before you go for being 18 and unresponsible so when you go to being like 21 22 and the whole worlds on your shoulders I believe strongly that of my audience empathize with me because I showed that side I showed that emotion raw uncut good and bad and so I think I can bring that more frontal more directed into the screenplays more album's producing managing you know I'm saying if I can um figure out just how to control it I can I can use it a lot of different levels in fact it is that raw uncut energy that your core brings to entertaining that has won him a legion of fans I wanted how he's handling this pretty heady stuff at the tender age of 23 [Music] I'm almost more in all of the people in all of me the leg of me you know saying I stripped off because it happens out of nothing it just goes you know everybody just be screaming that you're not just I get uncomfortable and I it's like it's like I'm similar to a deer being caught in the headlights I just freeze you know I don't know what to do I don't know if I should um be what they want me to be or if I should make them hate me so they can stop you know like say something mean so they can just stop but I'm off them just like caught in the middle of it because you can't I mean no one could do that police can't do that they can't stand in front all those people are controlling with a gun and mace and all that so me with just words it's like a battle to find the right words to say at the right time I'm curious when you when you think about the idea that you do have that kind of control over so many people in one sense the whole idea of being a role model comes up in the imagery and a lot of people who know you and I talk to them beforehand suggested that hey you know when you meet him he's going to be something entirely different than you imagine and what the media is portraying them what about that idea that that you have been portrayed and sometimes I mean to be honest you like the portrayal of you just hard bug that's right don't step on me that's right you in trouble that's right yet there's another side to you too what about that idea that you got to be able to figure out where you're going to me it's like it is my sensitive side that um that likes to blow up the hard side because it's my if I can get my image or my reputation can stop a confrontation before it happens I'm not fine you know I'm saying I know how it is day-to-day it's a constant man ego check going on industry in this world so part of that is just like you know that's my that's my resume but as far as the media they look at it something different they don't care about my resume they don't care about me 19 in trouble is just another story you know and it's a real story they don't have to pay for it and they're gonna milk it for all it's worth as far as people they want me when they first see me to humble myself they want me to be like this and do it just because they're scared of me but I don't feel like that's my job to humble myself to show you that I'm not a threat I'm not a threat I let your threat to me you know I'm saying so when people say when you meet pop she's different than the years because when somebody one-on-one anybody one-on-one I believe honestly that I can talk I believe that I have the ability to reason I have logic I have compassion I understand it if we talk there's no problem you know then but that's not what happens people use what they heard in the media and that's how they come at me and then you know we got a class one of the things that you read in the media is that you're angry that you personify your generation and she just got some angry folks out there and you're one of them I'll put it to you are you angry are you angry with what you see Society is about yeah I'm extremely angry confused you know a lot of the times I set up in court I couldn't defend myself and I'm saying and it was it wasn't like the things they were saying about me were beyond my comprehension or the things that I could say weren't going to help my case but because I mean I was just like being exiled you know from from society and that's how I feel and this whole um anger comes from I'm tired of waiting for my past to get into society all I have ones do was make me and everybody around me feel more comfortable about where we were you know I'm saying about the places that we stay we just got home base let's build it up let's be happy about what we come from I'm saying instead of trying to assimilate and get a passkey to where they had you know I'm saying not to say that everything needs to be separate but we gotta find pride in ourselves you know I'm saying and once you get the pride like family of two seconds after the pride comes anger from being held like that but so long and to be made to go through those changes you get mad you know I'm saying as soon as I believe soon as any black man receives his first three checks he starts getting mad because it's not about the necessity of having to have a job and having to pay and having to do that you don't care no more about the smiles in the you know yes monster because you cannot pay you know saying and now it's like you want to save money you want to help other people you see how how far it is how far you have to go to help anybody in your neighborhood it set up for me when I get paid for me to exit together you know I'm saying the only reason I've had these problems because I haven't left yet and these problems don't come from a white man it comes from just society the problems that we have let me put this to you a lot of people tell me to [ __ ] is for the most part of nice guy there's no such thing hype good for record city helps them identify with the young people who are out there and angry who would maybe label him a sellout like they did hammer if he didn't have that hard not what about that first of all nobody could call me a sellout I'm not I'm not going through that I'm not even in that I'm not I'm not looking for approval from the black community because we don't give approval you know we don't really do nothing but exist so it's not like I'm black people could tell me you would sell out or you true blue you know saying it's not that I'm not even caught up in it but I can see that you know I'm saying the one thing we do have in common as black people is we share that poverty so the thug side is more closer to the poverty they need being rich you know how can I come to any community center you know I'm saying Spooner a rolex president to all these diamonds and be like look we gotta gotta yeah but now when I say we they know what I mean I'm not saying like I live in this neighborhood none but I'm a duck and they took they can relate to something about to say that you know saying when I come I don't have to say I'm real they already know that you know I'm saying from for me for me being me from not pushing the Douglas but I know from the business that everybody in this business is always whisper in your ear about what you can't say what you can't do what you can't we're in this world and then this works two words white we're in a black world all I did was stand in the middle you know understand say I'm living in these but I'm living in both worlds I can go the streets and survive and I can go out here and do my business on here I'm play devil's advocate again critics say yeah but you being pimped you being pimped by the record record executives who will allow you to do your thug life because it betrays a certain black I mean you've heard it yeah that if you were just a singer you wouldn't have the same record contract in hands well but because you portrayed the thug like the gangster rap they've allowed you to make that money they've allowed you to push and make you play I beg to differ yes hey I'm getting pen that's true but just like a power woman repeating I'm saying anybody depends you know it's like it's not the chief you're tense it's how long you get tense you understand because if you really look at your situation it is not I was being pissed when you look at the white kids we write a sad song it's the white folks getting pimped another thing because I'm making their future I'm writing down their curriculum right now what I write in my album today when it comes out in two months that's what white kids is doing so who really is getting tense I'll be I'll be out when I'm writing my rap is what the white kids are gonna be saying today mamas and daddies when they come home who is getting pimped you know I'm saying I'm a high school dropout you know I'm saying far as my teacher told me when I was in high school I could be you know I'm saying I just got a retweet it's going down the other says going down you know everybody's getting pimps whether you working 9 to 5 or whether you work for yourself you can't about somebody that's not that that's not to climb the climb is how long you allow yourself to keep and you have to come up everything has to come up everything that's a struggle you saw from the bottom working to the top I asked you cool about his feelings on people like New York Minister Calvin butts and the Reverend Jesse Johnson who have been critical of Shakur and others who were the gun-toting image many young rappers had there's nothing criminal about banning all nothing nothing only the press in the media makes you think that a black man arming himself is illegal or criminal or that he wants to arm itself to rob a liquor store some you know I'm saying that is for me to defend myself and it should always be it's just about surviving you know and we have to be honest about the tools that we use to survive and why is a black life any any more recoupable in the white life and I'm saying we know that they don't put the same security and then together that they do and white sand and white neighborhoods so therefore for me to be out here saying don't you know put your guns down and no violence I said look critical and if I didn't talk about the violence everybody would act like the violence wasn't there we as rappers what that violence we bought the violence that we've seen on the street put in our records put in our records for years and after three four years people watched ronnie starting to see it because all the statistics that's going on in the streets if we stop talking about it then they wouldn't take statistics and when they stop taking statistics then you'd be killing telling the screen these white people in care no more only people they only reason they cares because you know that's been some strays and we just flipped over in the white neighborhoods and there's kids in Iowa they want to be like us you know I'm saying it's kids in in Indiana that's trying to be like us cuz they can relate to you know I'm saying you even admitted I don't live in that neighborhood anymore there's no real reason for you to carry a nine millimeter leave that why and in two years I've had a gun pulled on me by my limo driver by police by everybody you know I'm saying and I better be I better be you know I'm saying I've been attacked you ain't read the papers about these skinheads trying to blow up black churches why they see me as the enemy just like y'all do you know I'm saying they can come to my house and sit outside my house just like anybody else can ask in it and once my life is gone is gone can't nobody give it back to me not the judge not the president not the governor not counting but not Jesse Jackson they came to number come to my funeral and talk pretty about how black people suffer you understand and as far as Jesse Jackson my first acting job was at the Apollo Theater when Jesse Jackson was running for president in 1984 it hurts me for him to say anything negative about any rapper because we supported him he should support us you know I'm saying as far as his image you know I'm saying what was he what was he doing you know he should be the last person talking about gun violence when he sat right there while Martin Luther King caught one in the neck you know I'm saying things ain't really changed that much I swear to God nothing I ever say it's meant to be um something where innocent people get hurt nothing I ever say it's meant to be like a end or let's go do it right now nothing everything I ever say and if any this is that we could set it clear anything I ever say as it pertains to my peers and and and being strapped it's only in self-defense you know understand because my right now where I'm at the world is harsh and I just don't got no beautiful stories you know I would just be getting them ready because so I think I messed up somebody would have grabbed me pulled me to the side a bit like look to park as soon as you step out here they're gonna be action and some I would explained it to me I wouldn't it took to say mistakes but I made those mistakes now it's my job to stop somebody else in making those same mistakes to lay it out to lay out the real map on your world and how would it and how it is for Shakur is troubled it's continuing to mount he was just thrown off a concert tour for allegedly inciting a riot Shakur claims his actions are just misunderstood I'm not coming here telling you my plight and then I walk outside and live the good life everything I'm saying is a warning as a plea for help if everybody was so I'd been worried about me why ain't nobody came to help me you know I'm saying I never wanted to be no star they say my job of care for everybody I'll cheer for me you know I'm saying if you're not cheering for me for what I'm doing though cheer for me don't cheer cuz you think I'm cute you know I'm saying screw that cheer for me for what I'm doing for what I stand for and when I go to jail you should [ __ ] louder you know I'm saying because I'm standing after what I do I'm I Robin nobody not stealing from nobody I never cooking I said everything I do I do the represent my people I do because I think this is what they want me to do chicken says all the attention given to her mishaps are one time all right this is all I want to say following people that doubt me I had no record all my life okay no record no police record until I made a record as my video with debuting on MTV I was behind bars getting beat up by the police department got ten million dollar lawsuit they said they were setting with me and everything you know I'm saying but nobody cared about that that one blew up all the moves they see me they did not see me on TV with my I busted my head busted it pictures of those and oh yeah in Oakland you don't see them pictures you can pick it's a Tupac coming out of jail it cuffs you don't see pictures of the police standing over me beating my brains in you don't see that but I see that that's what I see it's not there so it's all real and I feel like just like a woman that's raped any woman that's great we'll never ever allow yourself to be raped again am I correct any woman that's violated would never allow itself to be violated again same thing you know they're gonna be people who sit here and say how can you say that when you're faced with that charge that's how I can say it we got people in my own community that will get me why because I got it now this girl who I can't say her name but if I was to say her name a thousand all over the world would go I put this on everything I love on everything I love when I was in Atlanta I was pulled over the gas station some goon from New York food over next to me and told me the girl's name I shot they said I know the girl did it they told me her name and where she's from say she's scamming I can't go on TV telling my this girl is better cuz that's what they want me to do they want me to get on TV and talk about my black sisters our home and she's a BITC a to shake she's a money-grubber I sister say that I don't have to do that to show that I'm innocent you know I'm saying I'm not guilty people should look me in my eyes they should look me in my eyes anybody thinks I've committed that rape should go get Brenda's got a baby and keep your head up and listen to him totally it was hard to imagine that you do that it shouldn't be nothing it should not even be to me I have no patience for anybody to doubt me none at all it's too hard out here you know I'm saying if my people don't stand up for me who is I understand these white folks looking at me like that because they don't know me they didn't hear keep your head up that ain't no fluke you know keep your head up in a damn come up I didn't do that for to be smiling in my face to say oh he's cool I get that from my heart so that they do try to put a rape charge on me my sisters could say hangs out that now my sisters can say that you know hear nothing keep your head up on my mouth you understand me because this is struggle on young black males today Shakur was childhood plays a large role and the man he is today he grew up knowing little about his father and just recently mended his relationship with his mother who was an active member of the Black Panther Party he says much of the pain and anger he brings to his work him from his background have you ever seen what would a Vietnam vet be like without a sergeant without any backup without any other soldiers nobody but a Vietnam vet in Vietnam when he came on how would he be and that's me I had to go to all that street war everything the same drugs that everybody else get turns out on you know where I would have been stopped shorted I made it past and here's where I am but because I made a pass I missed some lessons you know I'm saying and you can see the lessons that I miss when you talk to me you can see where where I haven't had a father when you talk to me you know I'm saying you can see where I spent a lot of my time in the street when you talk to me because the words I think I know where I come from a mother's mouth or father's life is worse it comes from a pimp now or a prostitute or a hustler or drug dealer you know I'm saying but to me these were my role models how much of that though in terms of growing up without a father sometimes not being with your mother B do you lament on and look back and say damn I missed something big everything I'm I know for a fact that had I had a father how to have somebody and I hate saying this because white people love hearing black people talk about this but had I had a father had I had some of these opportunities I've been able to help my mother more she wouldn't have went the road she went I could have been a better son you know I'm saying she wouldn't went that road it was the absence of my father you know I'm saying I'm dealing with him being daddy not being there my mother's dealing with him being my man not being there you know so many problems in our community that that affect everything so by me not having that I never want to hear nothing about no kind of relationships between a black man and a black woman I knew they didn't luck as far as I knew my daddy was the coolest dude out there and my momma was a panther sort of dating work it don't work that's how I felt you know I'm saying and going out there you don't saying it's like watching my mother just go through changes and everything it's like my mother is my partner she a soldier you know she is soldier like I'm a soldier you know I watch the repeat the game and she went through if I would have went the same way my mother went had not she did her route and showed me which way it went wrong with her my mother always told me don't you ever ever just volunteer yourself to our people because they'll use you that's what they do you know then she never she also told me to uh follow my heart and for me to be the leader but it's interesting to see just to change and you face your reaction your thought process that's all I ever wanted to do ask my mama I wanted to go to college I went to school all the way and was ready to go to college the only thing that stopped me was money the time repect all my all the kids in my school was writing applications to go to college I didn't have no lights and no electricity and I need my mama strong you know I'm saying so when I think back to that I'm not tugging for me I'm sucking for my family I pay all the bills you know I'm saying I feed my whole family wrong all right I do and I can't stop you know saying if Duggan is gonna make me a million bucks cuz it just got me platinum that's what I got to do constantly and if it makes me feel good right now I feel satisfied I don't feel like I've ever embarrassed myself or my people you know and nothing I've done and yet no I got the whole world feeling numb saying at 23 weighing 160 pounds you know then and I ain't even started I haven't even rolled my plan out yet and they scared I got the vice-president Know Who I am the president every cop in every city you know I'm saying and I haven't even started working on a plan the remember paints young black men as victims and blames much of their plight on others so I wondered how he dealt with the fact young black men are killing each other in record numbers suicide betting homicide that's suicide we killing each other because we killing ourselves we not when a man when another man I know I've been in the position it's out of our control it's not like he wants to kill he just doesn't want to die you know I'm saying is that it's that situation when you got we are living in a war zone it's not as easy as these people are making a stink that they just got some criminal ass black kids with guns it is not like that we live in hell we live in the gutter we got two stacks up 80 deep in one building you know by the time you get out your house you strapped it to protect yourself because you living in the same communities the police is County and rifles and riot gear saying they need them right right excuse my language I'm so sorry the same reasons they need the right hat the riot jackets a flak jacket the double vests the nine-millimeter Glocks with extra bullets the teargas the mace all who do you think the police is using that against dogs so we fighting the same villains that they fight in the street but instead of them seeing us fighting villains in the street we all bill it is your generation the one that is picking up for where the Panthers left off saying all right nothing's enough the generation before us forgot about the fight we're picking it back up now we forgot about the fight forgot about us yes and we're picking it back up but at this level all we're trying to do is unite and right now after year we got a million people that's listening now we can tell them something now we can try to get them that way we might lose some we might gain some but we would never even had that audience had we not said what was real you know I'm saying and the main thing for us to remember is that the same crime element that white people are scared of black people are scared of the same crime element that white people fear we fear so we defend ourselves from the same crime element that they scared of you know I'm saying why they waiting for legislation in the past and everything we next door to the killer we next door to them you know cuz we up in the project with 80 in the building all them killers would say letting out they right here in that building but it's better this cuz we black we get along with the killers or something we get along with the rapist because we black me from the same moon what is that we need protection to finally I want to ask you about something that someone else asked you in an interview and I thought the answer was interesting because I think it speaks to you and your generation a lot someone said what do you see to pop ten years from now you said hey I just want to be alive that's real for you that's so real I can't I made a metamorphic I'm a new person today because I used to strongly and honestly honestly I feel like I could represent my generation so much because I honestly did not care whether I lived or died but now I cannot die with people taking on a rapist or acremant I can't leave but to the straight you know I'm not suicidal I'm not I can't go until y'all really know what time it is and then after that boom it's all over and we could see you know how did fall but that's how it is and reason being is because if I can't live free if I can't live with the same respect as the next man I don't want to be here because God has cursed me to see what life should be like if God wanted me to be this person and be happy here he wouldn't let me feel so oppressed he wouldn't let me feel so trampled on you know I'm saying he would let me think the things I think so I feel like I'm doing God's work you know I'm saying just because I don't have nothing to pass around for people to put money in the bucket don't mean I ain't doing God's work I feel like I'm doing God's work I'm saying because these ghetto kids ain't God's children and I don't see no missionaries coming through there you know I'm saying so I'm doing God's work while Reverend Jackson you hid up in the middle class and he go to the White House and have dinner and pray over the president I'm up in the hood you know I'm saying doing my work with my folks and just cuz I don't live dead I mean I don't go yet I got to go there because I can't hang nowhere

Channel: 2PacDonKilluminati

Views: 212,951

Keywords: 2pac, full, interview, 1994, soldier, tupac, shakur, ed, gordon, missing parts, full interview, HD, full HD, 1080p, thug life, red, before jail, charge, new york, Los angeles

Id: S73X6YXK5pA

Length: 24min 19sec (1459 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 05 2017