Some dood from work emailed me this, It came with a mp3 link but I cant get it to work. Tried Mozilla and IE. If you can get it to work please upload and post it in this thread. Im sure some have read it and some havent. Some good oldschool info. Link at bottom.
http://www.kpfa.org/cgi-bin/gen-mpe...le=dummy.m3u&mount=/data/20050615-Wed1600.mp3
:thumb: :thumb:
Davey D: Give a little bit of background on yourself. What got you into hip hop?
Pac: I'm from the Bronx, NY. I moved to Baltimore
where I spent some high school years and then I came to Oaktown. As for hip hop...all my travels through these cities seemed to be the
common denominator.
Davey D: 2Pac... Is that your given name or is that your rap name?
2Pac: That's my birth name and my rap name.
Davey D: You lived In Marin City for a little while. How was your
connection with hip hop able to be maintained while living there?
Was there a thriving hip hop scene in Marin City? 2Pac: Not
really..You were just given truth to the music. Being in Marin City
was like a small town so it taught me to be more straight forward
with my style. Instead of of being so metaphorical with the rhyme
where i might say something like... I'm the hysterical, lyrical
miracle I'm the hypothetical, incredible.... I was encouraged to go
straight at it and hit it dead on and not waste time trying to cover
things...
Davey D:Why was that?
2Pac In Marin City it seemed like things were real country.
Everything was straight forward. Poverty was straight forward.
There was no way to say I'm poor, but to say 'I'm po'...we had no
money and that's what influenced my style. Davey D: How did you
hook up with Digital Underground?
2Pac: I caught the 'D-Flow Shuttle' while I was in Marin City. It
was the way out of here. Shock G was the conductor.
Davey D: What's the D-Flow Shuttle?
2Pac:The D-Flow Shuttle is from the album 'Sons of the P' It was the
way to escape out of the ghetto. It was the way to success. I
haven't gotten off since... Davey D: Now let's put all that in
laymen's terms
2Pac: Basically I bumped into this kid named Greg Jacobs aka Shock G
and he hooked me up with Digital Underground and from there I hookedup with Money B... and from there Money B hooked me up with his step mamma... and from there me and his step mamma started making
beats...[laughter]
Me and his step mamma got a little thing jumping off. We had a cool
sound, but Shock asked me if I wanted a group. I said 'Yeah but I
don't wanna group with Money B's step momma 'cause she's gonna try and take all the profits... She wants to go out there and be like
the group 'Hoes with Attitude', but I was like 'Naw I wanna be more
serious and represent the young black male'.
So Shock says we gotta get rid of Money B's step mamma. So we went to San Quentin [prison] and ditched her in the 'Scared Straight'
program...[laughter. After that Shock put me in the studio and it
was on..This is a true story so don't say anything.. It's a true
story. And to Mon's step mamma I just wanna say 'I'm sorry, but a
man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. I'm sorry but it was Shock's
idea-Bertha.. but don't worry she can get her half of the profits
from the first cut after she finishes doing her jail time.
[laughter]
Davey D: What's the concept behind your album 2Pacalypse Now'?
2Pac: The concept is the young Black male. Everybody's been talkin'
about it but now it's not important. It's like we just skipped over
it.. It's no longer a fad to be down for the young Black male.
Everybody wants to go past. Like the gangster stuff, it just got
exploited. This was just like back in the days with the movies.
Everybody did their little gun shots and their hand grenades and
blew up stuff and moved on. Now everybody's doing rap songs with
the singing in it.. I'm still down for the young Black male. I'm
gonna stay until things get better. So it's all about addressing
the problems that we face in everyday society.
Davey D: What are those problems?
Pac: Police brutality, poverty, unemployment, insufficient
education, disunity and violence, black on black crime, teenage
pregnancy, crack addiction. Do you want me to go on?
Davey D: How do you address these problems? Are you pointing them out or are you offering solutions?
2Pac: I do both. In some situations I show us having the power and
in some situations I show how it's more apt to happen with the
police or power structure having the ultimate power. I show both
ways. I show how it really happens and I show how I wish it would
happen
Davey D: You refer to yourself as the 'Rebel of the Underground' Why
so?
2Pac: Cause, as if Digital Underground wasn't diverse enough with
enough crazy things in it, I'm even that crazier. I'm the rebel
totally going against the grain...I'm the lunatic that everyone
refers to. I always want to do the extreme. I want to get as many
people looking as possible. For example I would've never done the
song 'Kiss U Back' that way.I would've never done a song like
that-That's why I'm the rebel.
Davey D: Can talk about your recent encounter with police brutality
at the hands of the Oakland PD?
2Pac:We're letting the law do its job. It's making its way through
the court system.. We filed a claim...
Davey D:Recount the incident for those who don't know..
2Pac:For everyone who doesn't know, I, an innocent young black male was walking down the streets of Oakland minding my own business and the police department saw fit for me to be trained or snapped back into my place. So they asked for my I-D and sweated me about my name because my name is 'Tupac'. My final words to them was 'f--- y'all' . Next thing I know I was in a choke hold passing out with cuffs on headed for jail for resisting arrest. Yes.. you heard right-I was arrested for resisting arrest.
Davey D:Where is all this now?
2Pac: We're in the midst of having a ten million dollar law suit
against the Oakland Police Department. If I win and get the money,
then the Oakland Police department is going to buy a boys home, me a house, my family a house and a 'Stop Police Brutality Center' and
other little odd things like that..
Davey D:In the video for the song 'Trapped' do you think that
would've had the police want to treat you aggressively? After all,
the video is very telling especially in the un-edited version where
you have a cop get shot.
2Pac: Well the ironic thing is the cops I came across in that
incident didn't know about that video. The second thing is that
everything I said in that video happened to me. The video happened
before the incident. In the video I show how the cops sweat me and
ask for my ID and how I can't go anywhere...
Davey D:Let's talk about the movie 'Juice'. How did you get
involved? Where's it at? and what's it about?
Pac: MMM what led me? Well, we have the Freaky Deaky Money B and Sleuth [raod manager for DU]. Money B had an audition for the movie Sleuth [road manager] suggested I also come along so I went. Money B read the script and said to me' this sounds like you- a rebel. he was talking about this character named Bishop. I went in cold
turkey, read, God was with me...
Davey D:Have you ever had acting experience before?
2Pac: Actually I went to the school of Performing arts in Baltimore
and that's where I got my acting skills.
Davey D:Ok so you weren't a novice when you went up there... So
what's the movie about?
2Pac:The movie is about 4 kids and their coming of age.
Davey D:Is it a Hip Hop movie?
2Pac:No, it's not a hip hop movie. It's a real good movie that
happens to have hip hop in it. If it was made in the 60s it
would've depicted whatever was 'down' in the 60s...My character is
Roland Bishop, a psychotic, insecure very violent, very short
tempered individual.
Davey D:What's the message you hope is gotten out of the movie?
2Pac: You never know what's going on in somebody's mind. There are a lot of things that add up. There's a lot of pressure on someone
growing up. You have to watch it if it goes unchecked. This movie
was an example of what can happen...
Davey D:Can you explain what you mean by this?
2Pac:In the movie my character's, father was a prison whore and that was something that drove him through the whole movie...
Davey D: This was something that wasn't shown in the movie?
2Pac: Yes, they deleted this from the film. Anyway this just
wrecked his [Bishop's] mind. You can see through everybody else's
personality, Bishop just wanted to get respect. He wanted the
respect that his father didn't get. Everthing he did, he did just
to get a rep. So from those problems never being dealt with led to
him ending four people's lives.
Davey D: Do you intend on continuing making movies?
2Pac: It depends on whether or not there are any good parts. I want to challenge myself.
Davey D:What is your philosophy on hip hop? I've heard you say you
don't to see it diluted?
2Pac: Well when I said that, it made me think. It brought me to
myself. Now I have a different philosophy. Hip Hop when it started
it was supposed to be this new thing that had no boundaries and was
so different to everyday music. Now it seems like I was starting to
get caught up in the mode of what made hip hop come about. I would walk around and hear something and start saying 'That's not Hip Hop'. If someone started singing, I would walk around and say
'That's not Hip Hop'. Well, now I've changed my mind. That could
be Hip Hop.As long as the music has the true to the heart soul it
can be hip hop. As long it has soul to it, hip hop can live on.
Davey D:I guess my question would be, how do you determine what's
soul and what isn't?
2Pac: Well you can tell. The difference between a hit like 'Make
You Dance' [C&C Music Factory] and 'My Mind Is Playing Tricks On Me' [Geto Boys]. You have to ask yourself, 'Which song moves you'.
Davey D: Well actually both. Both songs move me
2Pac: Really? well... ok there you go
Davey D:So they both would be Hip Hop, right?
2Pac:I guess so, at least in your opinion. 'The Make You Dance'
song didn't move me. But the Geto Boys song did move me
Davey D:Well for the record Bambaataa says both of them are Hip Hop. I asked him what he thought about groups like C&C Music Factory. He said they were part of the Hip Hop family...But that's his
philosophy on things. So what's your plans for the next year or so?
2Pac: To strengthen the Underground Railroad. I have a crew called
the Underground Railroad and a program called the Underground
Railroad...I wanna build all this up, so that by next year you will
know the name Underground Railroad...
Davey D:So what's the concept behind The Underground Railroad?
2Pac:The concept behind this is the same concept behind Harriet
Tubman, to get my brothers who might be into drug dealing or
whatever it is thats illegal or who are disenfranchised by today's
society-I want to get them back into by turning them onto music. It
could be R&B, hip hop or pop, as long as I can get them involved.
While I'm doing that, I'm teaching them to find a love for
themselves so they can love others and do the same thing we did for
them to others.
Davey D: How many people in the Underground Railroad? Is it a group
that intends to keep constantly evolving? Also where are the people
who are a part of Underground Railroad coming from?
2Pac: Right now we're twenty strong. The group is going to be one
that constantly evolves. The people that are in the UR are coming
from all over, Baltimore, Marin City, Oakland, New York,
Richmond-all over.
Davey D: What do you think of the Bay Area rap scene compared to
other parts of the country?
2Pac: Right now the Bay Area is how the Bronx was in 1981.
Everybody is hot. They caught the bug. Everybody is trying to be
creative and make their own claim. New York just got to a point
where you could no longer out due the next guy. So now you have
this place where there isn't that many people to out due. Here you
can do something and if it's good enough people will remember you.
So that's what's happening. here in the Bay Area, it's like a
renaissance.
Davey D: In New York the renaissance era got stopped for a number of reasons in my opinion. What do you think will prevent that from
happening in the Bay Area?
2Pac: Well at the risk of sounding biased, I say Digital
Underground. They are like any other group. I'll give that to
Shock G. He made it so that everything Digital Underground does it
helps the Bay Area music scene. It grows and goes to New York and
hits people from all over the country. That helps the Bay Area.
Our scene is starting to rub off on people. We want everyone to
know about Oakland. When other groups come down, like Organized
Konfusion or Live Squad and they kick it with Digital Underground,
they get to see another side of the Bay Area music scene.It's a
different side then if they kicked it with that guy... I don't
wanna say his name, but you know who he is he dropped the 'MC' from his name [MC Hammer].
Davey D: So you think Digital Underground will be more strength to
the Bay Area rap scene because they help bring national attention.
What do you think other groups will have to do?
2Pac: What we have to do is not concentrate so much on one group.
We have to focus more on the area. It's not about just building up
Too Short, Digital Underground and Tony Toni Tone and say; 'That's
it. They're the only groups that can come from the Bay Area'. We
have to let the new groups come out. Nobody wants to give the new
acts a chance. Everybody wants to only talk about Too Short and
Digital Underground...We have to start talking about these other
groups that are trying to come in that are coming up from the
bottom.
Davey D: When you say 'come up' what do you mean by that?
2Pac: It's like this. Instead of letting them do interviews where
nobody ever reads them, let a good newspaper interview them.
Instead of putting them on the radio when nobody is ever going to
hear them or where nobody is going to hear them, have them where
people can hear them and get at them where they had a better chance, just like if they were Mariah Carey.
Davey D: Do you find the Bay Area sound is being respected? Do you
find that people are starting to accept it around the country?
2Pac: I feel that the Bay Area sound hasn't even finished coming
out. It's starting to get respected more and more everyday.
Davey D: Your brother Moecedes is a rapper for the group Tony Toni
Tone. What's the story with him? Are you guys gonna team up?
2Pac: He's in the Underground Railroad. He's also about to come out
with another guy named Dana.
Davey D: Who produced your album and are you into producing
2Pac: I co-produced it with the members of the Underground Railroad
which is Shock G, Money B, Raw Fusion, Pee Wee, Jay-Z from Richmond,
Stretch from the Live Squad. It's really like a life thing-this
Underground Railroad. It effects everything we do.
Davey D:Is there anything else we should know about Tupac?
2Pac: Yeah, the group Nothing Gold is coming. My kids are coming
out with a serious message...NG is a group coming out that I
produce.. All the stuff I say in my rhymes I say because of how I
grew up. So to handle that, instead of going to a pyschiatrist, I
got a kids group that deals with the problems a younger generation
is going through. They put them into rhymes so it's like a
pyschology session set to music. It'll make you come to grips with
what you actually do..
Davey D: What do you mean by that? Are they preaching?
2Pac: No they're just telling you straight up like Ice Cube or
Scarface. They're being blunt and it comes out of akid's mouth. If
you're a black man, you're going to really trip out cause they
really call you out and have you deal with them...NG will make us
have responsibility again. Kids are telling you to have
responsibility...
Davey D: What do you think of the current trends in Hip Hop like the
gangsta rap, Afrocentric Rap, raggamuffin and the fusion of the
singing and rap? Some people call it 'pop rap'.
2Pac: I think all the real @#%$ is gonna stay. It's gonna go
through some changes. It's going through a metaphorphis so it will
blow up sometimes and get real nasty and gritty, then the leeches
will fall off and Hip Hop will be fit and healthy. Hip Hop has to
go through all of that, but no one can make judgments until it's
over.
Davey D: What do you think the biggest enemies to Hip Hop are right
now?
2Pac: Egotistical rappers. They don't wanna open up their brain.
Its foul when people are walking around saying things like; 'Oakland
is the only place where the real rappers come out. New York is the
only place where the real rappers come out. They booty out there or
they booty over there...' All of that just needs to die or Hip Hop
is gonna have problems. Its gonna be so immature. Thats just
conflict in words. We can't be immature we gotta grow.
Davey D: Cool I think we got enough out of you 2Pac.
2Pac: yes I think you got enough
Davey D: Peace.
Pac: I'm from the Bronx, NY. I moved to Baltimore
where I spent some high school years and then I came to Oaktown. As for hip hop...all my travels through these cities seemed to be the
common denominator.
Davey D: 2Pac... Is that your given name or is that your rap name?
2Pac: That's my birth name and my rap name.
Davey D: You lived In Marin City for a little while. How was your
connection with hip hop able to be maintained while living there?
Was there a thriving hip hop scene in Marin City? 2Pac: Not
really..You were just given truth to the music. Being in Marin City
was like a small town so it taught me to be more straight forward
with my style. Instead of of being so metaphorical with the rhyme
where i might say something like... I'm the hysterical, lyrical
miracle I'm the hypothetical, incredible.... I was encouraged to go
straight at it and hit it dead on and not waste time trying to cover
things...
Davey D:Why was that?
2Pac In Marin City it seemed like things were real country.
Everything was straight forward. Poverty was straight forward.
There was no way to say I'm poor, but to say 'I'm po'...we had no
money and that's what influenced my style. Davey D: How did you
hook up with Digital Underground?
2Pac: I caught the 'D-Flow Shuttle' while I was in Marin City. It
was the way out of here. Shock G was the conductor.
Davey D: What's the D-Flow Shuttle?
2Pac:The D-Flow Shuttle is from the album 'Sons of the P' It was the
way to escape out of the ghetto. It was the way to success. I
haven't gotten off since... Davey D: Now let's put all that in
laymen's terms
2Pac: Basically I bumped into this kid named Greg Jacobs aka Shock G
and he hooked me up with Digital Underground and from there I hookedup with Money B... and from there Money B hooked me up with his step mamma... and from there me and his step mamma started making
beats...[laughter]
Me and his step mamma got a little thing jumping off. We had a cool
sound, but Shock asked me if I wanted a group. I said 'Yeah but I
don't wanna group with Money B's step momma 'cause she's gonna try and take all the profits... She wants to go out there and be like
the group 'Hoes with Attitude', but I was like 'Naw I wanna be more
serious and represent the young black male'.
So Shock says we gotta get rid of Money B's step mamma. So we went to San Quentin [prison] and ditched her in the 'Scared Straight'
program...[laughter. After that Shock put me in the studio and it
was on..This is a true story so don't say anything.. It's a true
story. And to Mon's step mamma I just wanna say 'I'm sorry, but a
man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. I'm sorry but it was Shock's
idea-Bertha.. but don't worry she can get her half of the profits
from the first cut after she finishes doing her jail time.
[laughter]
Davey D: What's the concept behind your album 2Pacalypse Now'?
2Pac: The concept is the young Black male. Everybody's been talkin'
about it but now it's not important. It's like we just skipped over
it.. It's no longer a fad to be down for the young Black male.
Everybody wants to go past. Like the gangster stuff, it just got
exploited. This was just like back in the days with the movies.
Everybody did their little gun shots and their hand grenades and
blew up stuff and moved on. Now everybody's doing rap songs with
the singing in it.. I'm still down for the young Black male. I'm
gonna stay until things get better. So it's all about addressing
the problems that we face in everyday society.
Davey D: What are those problems?
Pac: Police brutality, poverty, unemployment, insufficient
education, disunity and violence, black on black crime, teenage
pregnancy, crack addiction. Do you want me to go on?
Davey D: How do you address these problems? Are you pointing them out or are you offering solutions?
2Pac: I do both. In some situations I show us having the power and
in some situations I show how it's more apt to happen with the
police or power structure having the ultimate power. I show both
ways. I show how it really happens and I show how I wish it would
happen
Davey D: You refer to yourself as the 'Rebel of the Underground' Why
so?
2Pac: Cause, as if Digital Underground wasn't diverse enough with
enough crazy things in it, I'm even that crazier. I'm the rebel
totally going against the grain...I'm the lunatic that everyone
refers to. I always want to do the extreme. I want to get as many
people looking as possible. For example I would've never done the
song 'Kiss U Back' that way.I would've never done a song like
that-That's why I'm the rebel.
Davey D: Can talk about your recent encounter with police brutality
at the hands of the Oakland PD?
2Pac:We're letting the law do its job. It's making its way through
the court system.. We filed a claim...
Davey D:Recount the incident for those who don't know..
2Pac:For everyone who doesn't know, I, an innocent young black male was walking down the streets of Oakland minding my own business and the police department saw fit for me to be trained or snapped back into my place. So they asked for my I-D and sweated me about my name because my name is 'Tupac'. My final words to them was 'f--- y'all' . Next thing I know I was in a choke hold passing out with cuffs on headed for jail for resisting arrest. Yes.. you heard right-I was arrested for resisting arrest.
Davey D:Where is all this now?
2Pac: We're in the midst of having a ten million dollar law suit
against the Oakland Police Department. If I win and get the money,
then the Oakland Police department is going to buy a boys home, me a house, my family a house and a 'Stop Police Brutality Center' and
other little odd things like that..
Davey D:In the video for the song 'Trapped' do you think that
would've had the police want to treat you aggressively? After all,
the video is very telling especially in the un-edited version where
you have a cop get shot.
2Pac: Well the ironic thing is the cops I came across in that
incident didn't know about that video. The second thing is that
everything I said in that video happened to me. The video happened
before the incident. In the video I show how the cops sweat me and
ask for my ID and how I can't go anywhere...
Davey D:Let's talk about the movie 'Juice'. How did you get
involved? Where's it at? and what's it about?
Pac: MMM what led me? Well, we have the Freaky Deaky Money B and Sleuth [raod manager for DU]. Money B had an audition for the movie Sleuth [road manager] suggested I also come along so I went. Money B read the script and said to me' this sounds like you- a rebel. he was talking about this character named Bishop. I went in cold
turkey, read, God was with me...
Davey D:Have you ever had acting experience before?
2Pac: Actually I went to the school of Performing arts in Baltimore
and that's where I got my acting skills.
Davey D:Ok so you weren't a novice when you went up there... So
what's the movie about?
2Pac:The movie is about 4 kids and their coming of age.
Davey D:Is it a Hip Hop movie?
2Pac:No, it's not a hip hop movie. It's a real good movie that
happens to have hip hop in it. If it was made in the 60s it
would've depicted whatever was 'down' in the 60s...My character is
Roland Bishop, a psychotic, insecure very violent, very short
tempered individual.
Davey D:What's the message you hope is gotten out of the movie?
2Pac: You never know what's going on in somebody's mind. There are a lot of things that add up. There's a lot of pressure on someone
growing up. You have to watch it if it goes unchecked. This movie
was an example of what can happen...
Davey D:Can you explain what you mean by this?
2Pac:In the movie my character's, father was a prison whore and that was something that drove him through the whole movie...
Davey D: This was something that wasn't shown in the movie?
2Pac: Yes, they deleted this from the film. Anyway this just
wrecked his [Bishop's] mind. You can see through everybody else's
personality, Bishop just wanted to get respect. He wanted the
respect that his father didn't get. Everthing he did, he did just
to get a rep. So from those problems never being dealt with led to
him ending four people's lives.
Davey D: Do you intend on continuing making movies?
2Pac: It depends on whether or not there are any good parts. I want to challenge myself.
Davey D:What is your philosophy on hip hop? I've heard you say you
don't to see it diluted?
2Pac: Well when I said that, it made me think. It brought me to
myself. Now I have a different philosophy. Hip Hop when it started
it was supposed to be this new thing that had no boundaries and was
so different to everyday music. Now it seems like I was starting to
get caught up in the mode of what made hip hop come about. I would walk around and hear something and start saying 'That's not Hip Hop'. If someone started singing, I would walk around and say
'That's not Hip Hop'. Well, now I've changed my mind. That could
be Hip Hop.As long as the music has the true to the heart soul it
can be hip hop. As long it has soul to it, hip hop can live on.
Davey D:I guess my question would be, how do you determine what's
soul and what isn't?
2Pac: Well you can tell. The difference between a hit like 'Make
You Dance' [C&C Music Factory] and 'My Mind Is Playing Tricks On Me' [Geto Boys]. You have to ask yourself, 'Which song moves you'.
Davey D: Well actually both. Both songs move me
2Pac: Really? well... ok there you go
Davey D:So they both would be Hip Hop, right?
2Pac:I guess so, at least in your opinion. 'The Make You Dance'
song didn't move me. But the Geto Boys song did move me
Davey D:Well for the record Bambaataa says both of them are Hip Hop. I asked him what he thought about groups like C&C Music Factory. He said they were part of the Hip Hop family...But that's his
philosophy on things. So what's your plans for the next year or so?
2Pac: To strengthen the Underground Railroad. I have a crew called
the Underground Railroad and a program called the Underground
Railroad...I wanna build all this up, so that by next year you will
know the name Underground Railroad...
Davey D:So what's the concept behind The Underground Railroad?
2Pac:The concept behind this is the same concept behind Harriet
Tubman, to get my brothers who might be into drug dealing or
whatever it is thats illegal or who are disenfranchised by today's
society-I want to get them back into by turning them onto music. It
could be R&B, hip hop or pop, as long as I can get them involved.
While I'm doing that, I'm teaching them to find a love for
themselves so they can love others and do the same thing we did for
them to others.
Davey D: How many people in the Underground Railroad? Is it a group
that intends to keep constantly evolving? Also where are the people
who are a part of Underground Railroad coming from?
2Pac: Right now we're twenty strong. The group is going to be one
that constantly evolves. The people that are in the UR are coming
from all over, Baltimore, Marin City, Oakland, New York,
Richmond-all over.
Davey D: What do you think of the Bay Area rap scene compared to
other parts of the country?
2Pac: Right now the Bay Area is how the Bronx was in 1981.
Everybody is hot. They caught the bug. Everybody is trying to be
creative and make their own claim. New York just got to a point
where you could no longer out due the next guy. So now you have
this place where there isn't that many people to out due. Here you
can do something and if it's good enough people will remember you.
So that's what's happening. here in the Bay Area, it's like a
renaissance.
Davey D: In New York the renaissance era got stopped for a number of reasons in my opinion. What do you think will prevent that from
happening in the Bay Area?
2Pac: Well at the risk of sounding biased, I say Digital
Underground. They are like any other group. I'll give that to
Shock G. He made it so that everything Digital Underground does it
helps the Bay Area music scene. It grows and goes to New York and
hits people from all over the country. That helps the Bay Area.
Our scene is starting to rub off on people. We want everyone to
know about Oakland. When other groups come down, like Organized
Konfusion or Live Squad and they kick it with Digital Underground,
they get to see another side of the Bay Area music scene.It's a
different side then if they kicked it with that guy... I don't
wanna say his name, but you know who he is he dropped the 'MC' from his name [MC Hammer].
Davey D: So you think Digital Underground will be more strength to
the Bay Area rap scene because they help bring national attention.
What do you think other groups will have to do?
2Pac: What we have to do is not concentrate so much on one group.
We have to focus more on the area. It's not about just building up
Too Short, Digital Underground and Tony Toni Tone and say; 'That's
it. They're the only groups that can come from the Bay Area'. We
have to let the new groups come out. Nobody wants to give the new
acts a chance. Everybody wants to only talk about Too Short and
Digital Underground...We have to start talking about these other
groups that are trying to come in that are coming up from the
bottom.
Davey D: When you say 'come up' what do you mean by that?
2Pac: It's like this. Instead of letting them do interviews where
nobody ever reads them, let a good newspaper interview them.
Instead of putting them on the radio when nobody is ever going to
hear them or where nobody is going to hear them, have them where
people can hear them and get at them where they had a better chance, just like if they were Mariah Carey.
Davey D: Do you find the Bay Area sound is being respected? Do you
find that people are starting to accept it around the country?
2Pac: I feel that the Bay Area sound hasn't even finished coming
out. It's starting to get respected more and more everyday.
Davey D: Your brother Moecedes is a rapper for the group Tony Toni
Tone. What's the story with him? Are you guys gonna team up?
2Pac: He's in the Underground Railroad. He's also about to come out
with another guy named Dana.
Davey D: Who produced your album and are you into producing
2Pac: I co-produced it with the members of the Underground Railroad
which is Shock G, Money B, Raw Fusion, Pee Wee, Jay-Z from Richmond,
Stretch from the Live Squad. It's really like a life thing-this
Underground Railroad. It effects everything we do.
Davey D:Is there anything else we should know about Tupac?
2Pac: Yeah, the group Nothing Gold is coming. My kids are coming
out with a serious message...NG is a group coming out that I
produce.. All the stuff I say in my rhymes I say because of how I
grew up. So to handle that, instead of going to a pyschiatrist, I
got a kids group that deals with the problems a younger generation
is going through. They put them into rhymes so it's like a
pyschology session set to music. It'll make you come to grips with
what you actually do..
Davey D: What do you mean by that? Are they preaching?
2Pac: No they're just telling you straight up like Ice Cube or
Scarface. They're being blunt and it comes out of akid's mouth. If
you're a black man, you're going to really trip out cause they
really call you out and have you deal with them...NG will make us
have responsibility again. Kids are telling you to have
responsibility...
Davey D: What do you think of the current trends in Hip Hop like the
gangsta rap, Afrocentric Rap, raggamuffin and the fusion of the
singing and rap? Some people call it 'pop rap'.
2Pac: I think all the real @#%$ is gonna stay. It's gonna go
through some changes. It's going through a metaphorphis so it will
blow up sometimes and get real nasty and gritty, then the leeches
will fall off and Hip Hop will be fit and healthy. Hip Hop has to
go through all of that, but no one can make judgments until it's
over.
Davey D: What do you think the biggest enemies to Hip Hop are right
now?
2Pac: Egotistical rappers. They don't wanna open up their brain.
Its foul when people are walking around saying things like; 'Oakland
is the only place where the real rappers come out. New York is the
only place where the real rappers come out. They booty out there or
they booty over there...' All of that just needs to die or Hip Hop
is gonna have problems. Its gonna be so immature. Thats just
conflict in words. We can't be immature we gotta grow.
Davey D: Cool I think we got enough out of you 2Pac.
2Pac: yes I think you got enough
Davey D: Peace.
:thumb: :thumb:
