Till this day Pac cannot please the critics with the way he handled his shit. The extreme opinions sway from labeling him RECKLESS or saying that he only got a criminal record cuz he became famous. To the first point I counter that Pac fought back out of honor, when he shot down those two cops - it was cuz he saw them harassing a another black motorist. Not cuz he was some Black Nightmare selling crack, pimpin hoes. It was to protect another black brother.
I think it was Shock G who remembers when a cop was harassing Pac when he was 17 in an alley in Marin County before he was famous and he said Pac spit in the Pig's face! When he was 17, that's some serious shit right there.
And for the other argument that he was just doing shit for fame, like the shit was calculated like all these Rappers today, Pac was fucking 19 when he came out with his first LP. He basically finished maturing in the limelight. What kind of pressures you under when you were 18-19?
Here's an earlier post I made for those of you who aren't too familiar with what a rough life Pac had and why it tested his generous spirit and made him so bitter after he got out of prison.
<<I dont think I'm being dramatic to a man who lived a very dramatic life. Stepfather, mother all his uncles leaders of the Black Panthers. All the men close to him either dead or incarcerated by the age of 25 because Hoover was justly paranoid over the militant black movement risin in the 60s.
Growing up in poverty, constantly moving in and out of projects and switching schools with an intellectual, spiritual mother on crack cocaine. Finding a little light in his life in a school for the arts only to find himself dealing crack on the streets of Marin County a short year later. Pulling himself out of the ghetto by rapping with DU at 18 and then finding a movie career by the age of 19. Financing an extended family of over 20 without a single paternal figure in sight still in his teens. Shooting two cops and getting acquitted. Having the Vice-Prez breathing down his neck for his first LP. Getting hated on from every fuckin law enforcement agency in the country by the age of twenty.
Getting set up for rape by the feds (read the extensive documenation on this - the same muthafucka Haitian Jack went through the same charges and was given probation - a fed snitch). Only one shotx5 and robbed when he was with three others also with jewelry. Goes up to the studio bleeding to death and finds Bad Boy crew staring at him without a fucking word. The cop that arrives is the one who testified against him in the rape charges. Would you get a little paranoid in this situation with five bullets in you. Fucking goes to his sentencing the next day after 5 hours in surgery in a wheelchair and gets 4 years for fondling that bitche's ass - the rape charges were dropped. Sent to a maximum security prison basically for sexual harassment.
Iovine of Interscope, a subsidiary of Time Warner, wants to drop this nigga because all the controversy but doesn't want to give up the dollars so tries to move him to Death Row where he has unconfirmed investments. Death Row run by Knight a notorious Blood and Kenner a white lawyer with serious ties to both the Italian mob and law enforcement agencies at a federal level. Death Row funded by a life sentenced drug dealer. Iovine stops the funds for Tupac to post bond as Suge woos him promising him freedom. His extended family going hungry as he rots in jail. More fed rat snitches whispering in Tupac's ear that Biggie and Puffy set him up. When you're doing time, word in the clink is usually gold and straight up. Many argue Feds were planting this info to cause a rift between the two biggest figures in hip hop just like Hoover destroyed the Panthers by using informants to spread rumors within the group to pit the Panters from the East and West. Biggie and Tupac was not the first East/West Coast beef for those who don't know. Tupac finds himself a rock in a hard place and makes a deal with 'the devil.' Kenner arranges Tupacs bond and Suge gets him out ONE WEEK after he signs to Death Row. They strong arm him into agreeing that Kenner be his manager/lawyer when this fucker is co-owner of Death Row. Everybody knew Kenner was the real muscle behind Row not Suge.
They fly to Cali and Tupac hits the studio the day he is released from prison in a three album deal. Within one month he drops All Eyez on Me - the first all original double rap CD to go quintiple platinum. He races against time starring in two movies, writing a screenplay, dropping close to two hundred tracks in the studio and writing poetry. He secretly sets up his own record label and production company to plan his escape from Death Row hoping against odds that his destiny of dying in violence can be averted. His accountant constantly asks Row for books to be checked over. Never given. After his death, its revealed everybody in Death Row and their fucking cousin bought houses and cars under Tupac's name.
Had enough, Tupac decides to break from Row testing fate. He tries to take his masters from the studio. The security under Kenner's command cannot allow this. Tupac FIRES Kenner as his manager/lawyer, again this fucker is co-owner of Row. Everybody close to Tupac cannot believe Tupac did this. Nobody says no to Kenner. Word hits the streets and everybody waits for the outcome. The Tyson Vegas fight is one week later. Tupac doesn't want to go, for good reason, but Suge twists his arm. He goes. He doesn't wear his ubiquitous bullet proof vest. We all know the rest - shrouded in mystery, yeah right, whatever. Dead at the old age of 25. I was still interning at some fucking company at that age. Row claims the masters. Afeni sues her fucking heart out. Props to Afeni for getting the courage. She comes back with a vengeance and learns a hard lesson from her 'entertainer' son.
People identify 2pac wit Death Row but he was only there for 9 months. That's it.>>
