Tupac's Relationship With His Family

I thought my father was dead all my life. After I got shot, I looked up there was this ni**a that looked just like me. And he was my father; that's when I found out. We still didn't take no blood test but the ni**a looked just like me and the other ni**a's dead so now I feel that I'm past the father stage. I do want to know him and I do know him we did talk and he did visit and help me when I was locked down, but I'm past that. What I want to do is form a society in which we can raise ourselves; so we can become our own father figures and the big homies can become their father figures and then you grow up then it's your turn to be a father figure to another young brother. That's where I want to start. Nine times out of ten though we would want them to be there, they can't be depended on to be there. Now, some of the mothers can't be there because they doing their thing[working] I can't blame them, they gotta do what they gotta do. So I think the youth should raise themselves since they got lofty ideas about what's theirs and their rights, what they should deserve. Since you can't whup their a*ses, these muthaf**kers should get out and work at fifteen. I want to be a part of the generation that builds the groundwork for us to raise each other.

The East Coast / West Coast Feud

That's so much nonsense, Poppycock! (laughs) It's not a new allegiance to the west coast, I've been on the west coast all this time. Some people, not all, some people on the east coast are on their d**ks so hard, they never heard me say that I'm living on the west coast. It's just by me keeping it real, I always said where I come from. I always gave New York their props. On Me Against The World, I took a whole song to give it up. So now on the next album, whin I wanna give it up, for my home, where I'm at, everybody got a problem. Why don't they have a problem with Biggie saying Brooklyn in the house every f**king show he do. They just did a Sprite commercial with the "Bridge" and KRS, why isn't it hip-hop when I do it? Everybody else can have a beef within the music, talk about differences and it's ok. It's music, it's hip-hop, it's groundbreaking. When I do it, it's war. That's all I'm doing. All I'm doing is saying that I'm tired of you talking about where you're from; If that's what we're gonna do now. We was doing it like hip-hop was one nation. I have proof to say what I was doing-I've done more for the east coast than the east coast did. I put more guns in east coast ni**as hands than east coast ni**as did when they came out here. I put them ni**as on to more weed gates and weed spots and safe havens and safe spots than the east coast did. I put more rappers on than they did. I gave Biggie his first shows! I was that bridge that ni**as used to walk on to get over here. I explained it, I the one that told you. I'm why all these ni**as are running around with a gangbanger on their payroll now.

Tupac On Religion

I'm the religion that to me is the realist religion there is. I try to pray to God every night unless I pas out. I learned this in jail, I talked to every God (member of the Five Percent Nation) there was in jail. I think that if you take one of the "O's" out of "Good" it's "God", if you add a "D" to "Evil", it's the "Devil". I think some cool motherf**ker sat down a long time ago and said let's figure out a way to control motherf**kers. That's what they came up with-the bible. Cause if God wrote the bible, I'm sure there would have been a revised copy by now. Cause a lot of s**t has changed. I've been looking for this revised copy-I still see that same old copy that we had from then. I'm not disrespecting anyone's religion, please forgive me if it comes off that way, I'm just stating my opinion. The bible tells us that all these did this because they suffered so much that's what makes them special people. I got shot five times and I got crucified to the media. And I walked through with the thorns on and I had s**t thrown on me and I had the theif at the top; I told that ni**a "I'll be back for you. Trust me, is not supposed to be going down, I'll be back. I'm not saying I'm Jesus but I'm saying we go through that type of thing everyday. We don't part the Red Sea but we walk through the hood without getting shot. We don't turn water to wine but we turn dope fiends and dope heads into productive citizens of society. We turn words into money. What greater gift can there be. So I belive God blesses us, I belive God blesses those that hustle. Those that use their minds and those that overall are righteous. I belive that everything you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that's bad, I'm going to suffer for it. But in my heart, I belive what I'm doing in my heart is right. So I feel like I'm going to heaven. I think heaven is just when you sleep, you sleep with a good conscience-you don't have nightmares. Hell is when you sleep, the last thing you see is all the f**ked up things you did in your life and you just see it over and over again, cause you don't burn. If that's the case, it's hell on earth cause bullets burn. There's people that got burned in fires, does that mean they went to hell already? All that is here. What do you got there that we ain't seen here? What, we're gonna walk around aimlessly like zombies? That's here! You ain't been on the streets lately? Heaven now, look! (reffering to his plush apartment) we're sitting up here in the living room-big screen TV- this is heaven, for the moment. Hell is jail I seen that one. Trust me, this is what's real. And all that other s**t is to control you. If the churches took half the money that they was making and gave it back to the community, we'd be alright. If they took half the buildings that they use to "praise God" and gave it to motherf**kers who need God, we'd be alright. Have you seen some of these got damn churches lately? There's one's that take up the whole block in New York. There's homeless people out here. Why ain't God lettin' them stay there? Why these ni**as got gold ceilings and s**t? Why God need gold ceilings to talk to me? Why does God need colored windows to talk to me? Why God can't come where I'm at where he sent me? If God wanted to talk to me in a pretty spot like that, why the hell he send me here then. That makes ghetto kids not belive in God. Why? So that's wrong religion-I belive in God, I belive God puts us where ever we want to be at. They didn't make sense that God would put us in the ghetto. That means he wants us to work hard to get up out of here. That means he's testing us even more. That makes sense that if you're good in your heart, you're closer to God but if you're evil than your closer to the devil; that makes sense! I see that everyday all that other spooky s**t, don't make sense. I don't even belive, I'm not dissin' them but I don't belive in the brothers, I've been in jail with 'em and having conversations with brothers; "I'm God, I'm God." You God, open the gate for me. You know far the sun is and how far the moon is, how the hell do I pop this f**kin' gate? And get me free and up outta here. Then I'll be a Five Percenter for life.

How Long Will They Mourn Me?

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Tupac Shakur, the rapper whose raw lyrics drew on the rage of a coarse urban existence and seemed a blueprint of his own violent life, died Friday from wounds suffered in a drive-by shooting. He was 25. Shakur, known as 2Pac, was one of the most successful - and scorned - "gangsta" rappers. Fans bought millions of records; others denounced him and gangsta rap lyrics for glorifying violence and drugs and degrading women. He was pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m. PDT at University Medical Center of respiratory failure and cardio pulmonary arrest, a hospital spokesman said. Marion "Suge" Knight, chairman of Los Angeles-based Death Row Records, was driving Shakur on East Flamingo Road when a gunman pulled up along side them and emptied a semiautomatic pistol into the passenger side. Shakur was hit four times in the chest and abdomen. Police believe he was the target. Knight was hit by shrapnel but was treated and released from the hospital. It's been six days since Shakur was shot. He underwent surgery twice on Sunday and once on Monday, and his right lung was removed. George Pryce, Death Row Records spokesman, said they were preparing a statement. "Give people a moment to get over the shock."