To mark the 20 year commemoration of Tupac’s sad demise, VIBE magazine have published a commemorative cover that also includes an unreleased excerpt from Kevin Powell’s candid 1996 interview with the late rap icon. The inside and out discussion went down only six months before Pac was killed in Las Vegas, and his unsettled, agitated perspective is clarified on account of his extraordinarily straight to the point reactions and responses.
Prior to the meeting even begins, VIBE incorporate an editorial manager’s note that clarifies the “intense climate” inside the hip hop community at the time. “There were high tensions on both sides of the country that made it dangerous for artists and crews to maneuver freely between coasts,” they clarify. They additionally try to express their aim for posting the portion: “We print this transcript not to perpetuate negative narratives, but to add another chapter to our journalistic tradition—to show Tupac as he was toward the end of his days. This rare glimpse at the end of Tupac’s story finds him erratic, introspective, and brilliantly insightful as always. We offer it with deep appreciation for ‘Pac, and with respect for his family, friends and fans.”
In the interview, Powell questions Tupac on his part in the threatening way of the hip jump group at the time. “We all black and everything…but I’m not talking about division. I’m talking about realism. You don’t hang with us. You live different than we live. We all brothers, but we don’t all live the same,” he explains. “I don’t want it to be fighting, I don’t want no arguing, I just wanna make my money. You can’t tell me I’m gonna sit down and hug and kiss n*ggas to make everybody else feel good. Straight up, there is no beef. If there was a beef n*ggas would know.”
Tupac additionally talks about the procedure behind his acclaimed collection All Eyez On Me, opening up about the title and uncovering how crude of a collection it was for him. “Everybody lookin’ at me right now,” he explains. “The police lookin’ at me, the females, my enemies, reporters, people that want me to fall, people that want me to make it. My mama. In jail, the guards. Everybody lookin’ at me. All eyes on me.”
Toward the end of the meeting, Pac talks about his then up and coming record name, Euthanasia Records. In an unexpected, miserable and turn, his last reply about the name of the name goes about as a piercing, lamentably prophetic forerunner to his passing: “I fell in love with that word. I feel like that’s me. I’m gonna die, I just wanna die without pain. I don’t wanna die, but if I gotta go I wanna go without pain.”