Who would have figured this young man would have changed and impact the world in just 5 years of a music career.... No one has impact the rap game more than Pac.
Yea and it’s kinda sad seeing how much potential he had at such a young age and how he couldn’t live his full potential due to him passing away so young😢
This will help you out a little with his upbringing and why he was such a target: The phrase “Black Power” had been “like a lullaby when I was a kid,” Tupac recalled in a deposition he gave in 1995 (in a civil suit in which it was charged that some of Tupac’s lyrics had influenced a young man who murdered a Texas state trooper). He remembered that when he was a teen-ager, living in Baltimore, “we didn’t have any lights. I used to sit outside by the street lights and read the autobiography of Malcolm X. And it made it so real to me, that I didn’t have any lights at home and I was sitting outside on the benches reading this book. And it changed me, it moved me. And then of course my mother had books by people like . . . Patrice Lumumba and Stokely Carmichael, ‘Seize the Time’ by Bobby Seale and ‘Soledad Brother’ by George Jackson. And she would tell these stories of things that she did or she saw or she was involved with and it made me feel a part of something. She always raised me to think that I was the Black Prince of the revolution.” Tupac had indeed become a Black Prince by the time he was killed, but not along the lines laid out by the political activists of the sixties. Afeni and her friends were involved in what they perceived as revolutionary activity for the good of their community. Tupac and his fellow gangsta rappers sported diamond-encrusted gold jewelry, drove Rolls-Royce Corniches, and vied with one another in displays of gargantuan excess. Nevertheless, Tupac did not forget who his forebears were. “In my family every black male with the last name of Shakur that ever passed the age of fifteen has either been killed or put in jail,” Tupac said in his deposition. “There are no Shakurs, black male Shakurs, out right now, free, breathing, without bullet holes in them or cuffs on his hands. None.” The leaders of the black nationalist movement to which the other Shakurs belonged had been virtually eliminated, largely through the efforts of the F.B.I. In 1988, Tupac’s stepfather, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, who had received a degree in acupuncture in Canada and used his skills to develop drug-abuse-treatment programs, was sentenced to sixty years in prison for conspiring to commit armed robbery and murder. The crimes he was accused of included the attempted robbery of a Brink’s armored car in 1981, in which two police officers and a guard were killed (and for which the Weather Underground leader Kathy Boudin was also convicted). Mutulu was also found guilty of conspiring to break Tupac’s “aunt,” Assata Shakur (Joanne Chesimard), out of prison. She had been convicted in 1977 of murdering a New Jersey state trooper, but escaped two years later and fled to Cuba. Tupac’s godfather, Elmer (Geronimo) Pratt, is a former Black Panther Party leader who was convicted of killing a schoolteacher during a robbery in Santa Monica in 1968. He was imprisoned for twenty-seven years. His conviction was reversed a few weeks ago on the ground that the government suppressed evidence favorable to him at his trial (most significantly that the principal witness against him was a paid police informant). It was a haunting lineage, and Tupac would frequently invoke the names of Mutulu, Geronimo, and other “political prisoners” in his lyrics. “It was like their words with my voice,” he said. “I just continued where they left off. I tried to add spark to it, I tried to be the new breed, the new generation. I tried to make them proud of me.” But, at the same time, he did not want to be them. Their revolution, and in most cases their lives, too, were ashes. In the Panther 21 trial, Tupac’s mother defended herself with a withering cross-examination of a key prosecution witness, who turned out to be an undercover government agent; after her acquittal, this unschooled but intellectually powerful woman was lionized in liberal circles, invited to speak at Harvard and Yale, and subsidized in an apartment on New York’s Riverside Drive. Tupac and his sister Sekyiwa, who was born in 1975, became small Panther celebrities on the radical-chic circuit. “Then everything changed, the political tide changed over,” Tupac said in his deposition. “We went on welfare, we lived in the ghettos of the Bronx, Harlem, Manhattan.” He estimated that he’d lived in “like eighteen different places” when he started junior high school. In his deposition, Tupac says that by the time he was twelve or thirteen years old Afeni had developed serious drug and alcohol problems. (Afeni disagrees. She says he was seventeen.) Tupac did not know who his father was, but he was close to Mutulu, who was the father of Sekyiwa and lived with them for a number of years. Then Mutulu, too, left him, going underground when Tupac was ten, after the Brink’s holdup. While their contact was not altogether broken (“When I would feel he needed me, I’d do whatever I had to to get there, even if it was just so that he could see me-and he’d wave, so happy,” Mutulu recalled), the connections came at some cost to Tupac. “He had to keep secrets,” Mutulu said. F.B.I. agents would approach Tupac at school to ask if he had seen his stepfather. (Mutulu was on the F.B.I.’s “Ten Most Wanted” list until he was captured, in 1986.) The family moved to Baltimore, and when Tupac was fourteen he was admitted to a performing-arts school there. “For a kid from the ghetto, the Baltimore School for the Arts is heaven,” Tupac said in his deposition. “I learned ballet, poetry, jazz, music, everything, Shakespeare, acting, everything as well as academics.” Asked by his attorney whether he’d been in any gangs at that time, Tupac responded, “Shakespeare gangs. I was the mouse king in the Nutcracker. . . . There was no gangs. I was an artist.” He had started writing poetry when he was in grammar school in New York, and it was only a short step from writing poetry to rapping. He wrote his lyrics with great speed and ease, and was soon performing at benefits for Geronimo Pratt and other prisoners. Tupac spent two years at the Baltimore School for the Arts. When he first came in, Donald Hicken, a former teacher, recalls, “he was a truly gifted actor, with a wonderful mimetic instinct and an ability to transform a character. . . . His work was always original, never imitative, never off the rack. Even in this talented group of kids, he stood out.” One of his schoolmates, Avra Warsofsky, told me that there was no suggestion of the belligerent, confrontational side of Tupac that would later come to dominate his public image. “He was a dear, sweet person,” Warsofsky said. “There were inner-city kids at the school who were tough, who stole-but he was not that, not one bit.” This idyll ended when Tupac’s life at home became intolerable. As he described it in his deposition, he had no money for food or clothes; for a time he stayed at the home of a wealthy classmate and wore his clothes. That didn’t last, though. “So I had to go back home. . . . But my mother was pregnant, on dope, dope crack. She had a boyfriend that was violent toward her. We weren’t staying in our own spot, we were staying in someone else’s spot. We never could pay the rent. She always had to sweet-talk this old white man that was the landlord into letting us [stay] for another month. And he was making passes at my mom. So I didn’t want to be there anymore. So I sacrificed my future at the School for the Arts to get on a bus to go cross-country to California with no money.” He was not quite seventeen. Tupac stayed for a time with Linda Pratt, the wife of the incarcerated Geronimo Pratt, in Marin City, a poor community north of San Francisco, and then with his mother, who also moved to California. But school in California did not provide a haven for him. “I didn’t fit in. I was the outsider. . . . I dressed like a hippie, they teased me all the time. I couldn’t play basketball, I didn’t know who basketball players were. . . . I was the target for . . . the street gangs. They used to jump me, things like that. . . . I thought I was weird because I was writing the poetry and I hated myself, I used to keep it a secret. . . . I was really a nerd.” Tupac’s mother was at once a mythic figure to him and fallen, and his identification with his radical heritage was profoundly ambivalent. “At times he resented being the nineties’ voice of the Black Panther Party,” Karen Lee, one of his publicists, told me, “and at times he wanted to be.” Lee said that he was furious that his mother’s former comrades made no move to try to rescue her and her children when she became addicted to drugs. Indeed, when he was living in Marin City-destitute, with no place to stay (his mother and he had fought bitterly, and he accused her of lying to him about her drug use)-it was mainly street people who tried to help him. Man Man (Charles Fuller), a friend who would later become his road manager, provided him with a bed, and kept him from becoming a full-fledged drug dealer.
Wow thank you for going sooo in depth I really appreciate it. There’s so much to his story it’s crazy. I really enjoy learning things like this about him👌🏻🙏🏼
For context Afeni wasn’t just a member of the Black Panthers, she was very active. She was a member of the Panther 21 who were on trial against the state, she defended herself and was acquitted of all crimes posed against her. She also was romantically involved with political prisoner Mutulu Shakur. He mentions Geronimo Pratt who helped him launch the New African Panthers, Pac later left after he suspected it was infiltrated, it was later revealed the cops/feds were following him since he was a teen. He is apart of a revolutionary bloodline even named after an activist himself, Tupac Amaru, who gave his life for the people
It's amazing how much you smile when you are watching 2pac It's great to see You can see all of his potential in his face and how he spoke and how he thought I really miss him
You love and reverence for 2Pac says alot of great things about your character and moral compass. 2Pac wanted to change the world and was such a visionary at a young age. For you to be a young adult and appreciate his rhetoric, especially in an era of superficial wants and toxicity, is awe inspiring. Definitely enjoy the reaction. 2Pac definitely love deep and intricate individuals like yourself. Glad to take this journey with you. Keep up the great work sis.
I'm 51, same age as Pac and from NY. I've been at the same clubs while he was there. I remember seeing Pac making lots of females smile, so it was cool watching you do the same thing, so you're not alone, lol. Great reactions and keep up the good work, you're on to something 👍🏾💪🏾💯😊
I don't know where I would be if I didn't find 2pac at a young age. If you truly listen to him you get so much important knowledge that takes most people a lifetime over to learn. He puts you on game for the tricks and traps many of us can fall into. He shows you the hard path but lets you know that there is a spiritual truth in it even though it often feels hopeless. He talks about the underdog and struggle because those who fight the good fight will always be the underdog and live a lifetime of struggle. I love your reactions, very few people on here come off as honest and wanting to truly understand and learn with openness. Some people have already recommend watching the prison interview, it is one of the most revealing interviews on Pac's character. Thanks again, much love!
I agree a hundred percent with everything you said & I appreciate the kind words they mean a lot🙏🏼🙏🏼thanks for watching & I actually have reacted to his prison interview but TH-cam wouldn’t let me post it so I posted it on my patreon. You can join if you’re interested in seeing my reaction to that, the link is in the description of this video🙏🏼😊
people say his personality changed when he got older, but this interview proves different. the story of him quittin his job & snappin on the boss for tellin him he couldnt, is pure Tupac. him lightin up the cigarette in their faces & walkin out, is pure Tupac 😂
He was a good clean hearted guy really he seems like someone who because of his environment he grew up had to break his own voice and a outward shadow personality of himself that wasn't really him to survive growing up in hood
he trusted people way too much. thats one part of him that never changed. he became more cautious when he got older, but that trusting part of him never completely went away. all of his career/legal issues came from him being around/trustin the wrong people
Its so good watching you enjoy Tupac. I still remember the day when I found out he was shot again thinking "aww its Pac he'll pull through". Then 3 days later (in the same place) I got told he passed 😱😭. I was 14 and he's never left my playlist.
@@journeymariereacts it was kinda like loosing a cousin that lived abroad to me and I have loads. same way you had a connection I did too. he was such a big part of my childhood I even got my mum into him, which is why she came running to tell me. I was half asleep both times so it took a while for it to sink in and even longer to except the fact that he's not coming back. but like he's said in one of the interviews you watched, he is forever immortalised on film/record and most importantly our hearts and minds 🙏🏽❤️👊🏾
I think he learned how to make analogies from his mother. His mother always wanted him to learn how to think. At the beginning he probably got the analogies from his mother but he grew to think some on his own.
Alot of good reactions to some good throwback interviews of his when i saw this on the thug angel DVD way back and this showed me that he was really intelligent and mature for his age. And you can tell he read a whole lot of books.
Your journey into who Pac really was and where he came from is commendable. Side note...he never wanted to be a rapper. It was only when he realized that could get his message out to more people, did he then push his activisim into this art form. This is why he can never be compared to another artist in this genre. A truly amazing man who furthered the movement for black americans in more way than one. Continue the journey and you'll begin to appreciate his music even more...To answer your question regarding how or why would he ever call a woman a bit^^ please listen to, "I wonder why the call you bitc&". It was him reaching out to them in the most transparent way possible. You have to dig deep.
Did u check it out yet? And then maybe the whole Me Against The World album. Can you get away is a good track from there as well as Death Around Corner, and Shed So Many Tears. Honestly listen to the whole album start to finish with headphones on and no interruptions. Like don't even react to it. Just take it in. It's hard to pick a favorite album but if I had to pick one, this one, I would for reasons too complex to articulate right now. Just know, that I waited in line before the Palm Beach Mall opened to grab the CD when it dropped many moons ago and was transformed.
I just want you to know. I am an older man listening to you talking about Tupac. Your mother and father have done a great job with you and I am so proud of you. Keep listening to all three of them and keep your own mind. Yours truly, an older black man. Peace.
When I was 17 I was a goofy kid, I didn't at all do politics, I was just interested in running track and cross country and going to college the next year. At 17, 2Pac was so mature and aware, way beyond his years!
Something I just realized is the fact he never changed from this interview at 17 to his last interview only 8 years later. His views pretty stayed the same it seems like. Thank you for this reaction.
The harsh life if analyzed will mold you to be humble, and will question all actions which center your decisions toward happiness. I want to construct a family, but I need to build a reality of trust and combine our strengths to maintain happiness till death...
U need to watch his revolutionary speech he made in indiana in 93.he had that bless to reach people with his words.he was just 22 in that interview and he shake the whole room with his wisdom.to call that special man just a rapper is an insult at his best.he was poet,leader,activist,thinker,revolutionary,loud mouth,and above all else never scared to say whats in his mind whether its good or bad. Just to think that man was supposed to be here with us in 2022 30 years later and not even as an old man just heartbreaking.i dont think people understand how much he was willing to give from himself to his own community just so we could go further.we suffer a major loss when that man stopped breathing.💔
Tupac was homeless shortly after video was made. This was Tupac before the police beat him. His mom said that's what changed him. Your channel is the bomb and so geniune!!
Thank you so much for that info and for the kind words I really appreciate it😊🙏🏼& yea it’s sad to see how sweet and happy he was before all those terrible things happened to him😢though I know this side was still always in him👌🏻
Its so cute that you try to make your self not smile it’s ok go ahead and smile 😊 and I think he came up with analogies himself but his mom is the one to make him listen and think before he talks
I love seeing the 2pac videos love the video Marie stay motivated Dream big 1 mill on the way Queen he was smart and intelligent at a young age OMG he was only in high school at this time
I was in the Black Panther era they will protect our community around that country they would help feed the poor communities and the leaders was and a hotel and they killed them all but they did try to there self defend their self
Also it just hurts to see how he got so hardened after all the trauma and everything he had to endure. This side of Tupac was always still there but there were lots of times where he came off as being frustrated and angry about the world. It's even been disputed that he could have been suffering from some form of multiple personality or bipolar disorder because of how frequently his character would change (something even people close to him would bring up during interviews and talks) one minute he would be how he is in this interview and in another he would be horribly depressed.
@@alexgibson7960 yea it hurts my heart seeing him like this knowing how hard the world made him later on😢& I definitely agree that he seemed to have many different sides in different interviews but that could just be who he was🤷🏼♀️but u never know, maybe he did a struggle with something like that
Many have made comments about the paranoid behavior that Tupac exhibited later on in his life after being shot and receiving constant death threats from various individuals. Understanding the childhood that Tupac had gives us insight into how and why he responded to the circumstances the way that he did and, even further than that, paints a more vivid picture of what the life of a child birthed from the revolution looks like: “I can remember being like, four, and waking up and going to my window and hearing the police going, ‘Yeah, the black bitch is laying in the bed, uh, we can’t tell who else is in here…’ on the walkie-talkies. They were watching our house. And I didn’t know that for YEARS! I heard that, my mother was asleep, everybody was asleep… I didn’t know what that was for years. I remember later, after I grew up, I told my mother about it, and she told me what it was. But I didn’t even know it for years! Imagine that being one of your fucking memories! The police outside calling you mother a ‘black bitch.’ You know what I’m saying? That’s really not good. That’s not good. What America doesn’t understand is that they say that Black people are lazy, unintelligent, but to me, America is the dumbest motherfucker out here, ’cause how could you not study your own history and not see the fate that you prepared for yourself? They’re raising me to be a soldier. The more police beat me up, the stronger I get... The more they try to make me into a racist, the more of an understanding [integrationist] I become, I guess, because it’s all about survival… Shit, we a people… And I don’t want us to go back to Africa, ’cause we built THIS country, as great as it is. And it’s a great country, let me say, it’s a great country. Except it’s just the people at the top is fucking our money over, sending it to Iran and shit… We sending billions to take care of the starving people in Russia, but [there’s] people starving in South Central. We got a lottery where ONE person can win 25 million, and there’s people who don’t have ZILCH... They’re showing me pictures of babies with big bellies in Timbuktu, and I’m seeing babies with big bellies next door… and [they’re] telling me to ‘be all I can be in the army,’ ’cause ‘you’re not gonna be shit in the streets’…”
I think this was his first interview. At 17 ai was still in high school like in the 11th grade I was dumb as hell. I didn't know crap about the world I was a naive kid going to school and playing video games
Evidently you are drawn to Intelligent, Charismatic, Intellectual Types. That Spirit of energy is prevalent in Tupac, Fred Hampton, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Huey P. Newton, Nat Turner and Countless Others. God put this spirit in certain individuals to be leaders and to communicate with the masses. Afeni had this ability along with women like Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells and countless other women. His Mother taught him well in traditional Panther Cub that he is. You should definitely explore the Black Panthers Teachings , Ten Point Program and Ideology. They were considered dangerous to the government. This Government Killed the indigenous people of this land and force people to do there labor for them and made them rich. The Black Panthers taught to hate this unjust, hypocritical system and love the people and teach them and that made them dangerous. Just like 2pac saying that being so nice made certain women not view him as masculine. When you are a little boy you are taught to be strong and assertive. Women are drawn to these type of men and he picked it up later. Women love bad boys. They want a Man that's a protector, Leader, Intelligent but isn't scared to be strong and not swayed by the opinions of others. His Own Man! He grew into this and seen that's what made him a heart throb to women. God made many men like this and will continue to make many more. Pac was a Panther Cub and a New Afrikan Panther. My Uncle was a panther and even though he passed away when i was very young he had a profound effect on me and my cousins. Knowledge is Power! Knowledge of Self and Determination (K.O.S)!!!
Hey, I love your channel. You should some reactions to Nas. He’s really deep, and a vivid storyteller. I would start with “If I ruled the world ft. Lauryn hill”.
@@journeymariereacts they have a video for “one mic” and “hate me now”. “It ain’t hard to tell” is another good one by him. Plus, there’s some Nas interviews also. He’s very articulate and well spoken. A true artist nonetheless. 😊
2:38 Tupac said "I trust people more, and I'm more open"... That hits deep, because in the end with his last interviews he was so distrusting of people because of everything he went through. Pac always said either he'd change the world or the world would change him. That was one way the world changed him... everything from getting beat up by the cops, getting shot, Biggie leaving guns in his apartment and turning his back when Pac stayed quiet, took the fall, went to jail - they stole his trust... Maybe not entirely, but enough to have side-tracked him. Gotta also keep in mind this is 1988, yet he only has less than 10 years to live. So much happened in such a short period of time. Anyway, I just found that interesting. For the rest of the interview, he. is. so. wise.. I think it's partly his mother, but there's an aspect of him that comes off like an old soul (even if that sounds cliche). He just has a certain approach to answering questions that seems beyond his years. Interview even most of his legendary peers at that age, I doubt they'd be able to give such profound answers to these questions. Great interview, great reaction.
Capitalism is just an excuse, somethings should be a societal agreement, a balanced and checked capitalism that still cares for its most vulnerable, like some do have a place. Unchecked capitalism is the issue, in NA, which potentially turns to cooperate capitalism, then to oligarchy capitalism and turbo capitalism. ALL empires fall, by their own hand. Chew on that. Tupac makes you think critically.
...if it didn't end up on them, why does it "end up on you"? the design. so he is suggesting a design to where the selected "burden bearer's" get a piece. because by no way did "government" get established and maintain without committing the very acts in which they charge those with the ambition to achieve.
@@journeymariereacts 2021 biographical film about Fred Hampton & the Black Panther party of Chicago. Fred was a prominent black activist in African American history. If you like stuff of that sort, it’s really really good. Stars the lead from Get Out and Lakeith Stanfield from the show Atlanta. ✊🏽
As a society we give too little credit to our 16yo. Or we are going to the same as the boomers did? look at Covid, BLM, fight for democracy and environment youth lead movements.
Who would have figured this young man would have changed and impact the world in just 5 years of a music career.... No one has impact the rap game more than Pac.
His mother used to make him read newspapers when he did something and they’d have a debate. 8 years later;He passed
Most intelligent 17 years old I’ve ever heard
Even as a teenager he was always about making things better
I always thought it was crazy and sad to see him at 17 and how he was knowing the toll that the next 8 years would take on him
Yea and it’s kinda sad seeing how much potential he had at such a young age and how he couldn’t live his full potential due to him passing away so young😢
This will help you out a little with his upbringing and why he was such a target:
The phrase “Black Power” had been “like a lullaby when I was a kid,” Tupac recalled in a deposition he gave in 1995 (in a civil suit in which it was charged that some of Tupac’s lyrics had influenced a young man who murdered a Texas state trooper). He remembered that when he was a teen-ager, living in Baltimore, “we didn’t have any lights. I used to sit outside by the street lights and read the autobiography of Malcolm X. And it made it so real to me, that I didn’t have any lights at home and I was sitting outside on the benches reading this book. And it changed me, it moved me. And then of course my mother had books by people like . . . Patrice Lumumba and Stokely Carmichael, ‘Seize the Time’ by Bobby Seale and ‘Soledad Brother’ by George Jackson. And she would tell these stories of things that she did or she saw or she was involved with and it made me feel a part of something. She always raised me to think that I was the Black Prince of the revolution.”
Tupac had indeed become a Black Prince by the time he was killed, but not along the lines laid out by the political activists of the sixties. Afeni and her friends were involved in what they perceived as revolutionary activity for the good of their community. Tupac and his fellow gangsta rappers sported diamond-encrusted gold jewelry, drove Rolls-Royce Corniches, and vied with one another in displays of gargantuan excess. Nevertheless, Tupac did not forget who his forebears were. “In my family every black male with the last name of Shakur that ever passed the age of fifteen has either been killed or put in jail,” Tupac said in his deposition. “There are no Shakurs, black male Shakurs, out right now, free, breathing, without bullet holes in them or cuffs on his hands. None.”
The leaders of the black nationalist movement to which the other Shakurs belonged had been virtually eliminated, largely through the efforts of the F.B.I. In 1988, Tupac’s stepfather, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, who had received a degree in acupuncture in Canada and used his skills to develop drug-abuse-treatment programs, was sentenced to sixty years in prison for conspiring to commit armed robbery and murder. The crimes he was accused of included the attempted robbery of a Brink’s armored car in 1981, in which two police officers and a guard were killed (and for which the Weather Underground leader Kathy Boudin was also convicted). Mutulu was also found guilty of conspiring to break Tupac’s “aunt,” Assata Shakur (Joanne Chesimard), out of prison. She had been convicted in 1977 of murdering a New Jersey state trooper, but escaped two years later and fled to Cuba. Tupac’s godfather, Elmer (Geronimo) Pratt, is a former Black Panther Party leader who was convicted of killing a schoolteacher during a robbery in Santa Monica in 1968. He was imprisoned for twenty-seven years. His conviction was reversed a few weeks ago on the ground that the government suppressed evidence favorable to him at his trial (most significantly that the principal witness against him was a paid police informant).
It was a haunting lineage, and Tupac would frequently invoke the names of Mutulu, Geronimo, and other “political prisoners” in his lyrics. “It was like their words with my voice,” he said. “I just continued where they left off. I tried to add spark to it, I tried to be the new breed, the new generation. I tried to make them proud of me.” But, at the same time, he did not want to be them. Their revolution, and in most cases their lives, too, were ashes.
In the Panther 21 trial, Tupac’s mother defended herself with a withering cross-examination of a key prosecution witness, who turned out to be an undercover government agent; after her acquittal, this unschooled but intellectually powerful woman was lionized in liberal circles, invited to speak at Harvard and Yale, and subsidized in an apartment on New York’s Riverside Drive. Tupac and his sister Sekyiwa, who was born in 1975, became small Panther celebrities on the radical-chic circuit. “Then everything changed, the political tide changed over,” Tupac said in his deposition. “We went on welfare, we lived in the ghettos of the Bronx, Harlem, Manhattan.” He estimated that he’d lived in “like eighteen different places” when he started junior high school.
In his deposition, Tupac says that by the time he was twelve or thirteen years old Afeni had developed serious drug and alcohol problems. (Afeni disagrees. She says he was seventeen.) Tupac did not know who his father was, but he was close to Mutulu, who was the father of Sekyiwa and lived with them for a number of years. Then Mutulu, too, left him, going underground when Tupac was ten, after the Brink’s holdup. While their contact was not altogether broken (“When I would feel he needed me, I’d do whatever I had to to get there, even if it was just so that he could see me-and he’d wave, so happy,” Mutulu recalled), the connections came at some cost to Tupac. “He had to keep secrets,” Mutulu said. F.B.I. agents would approach Tupac at school to ask if he had seen his stepfather. (Mutulu was on the F.B.I.’s “Ten Most Wanted” list until he was captured, in 1986.)
The family moved to Baltimore, and when Tupac was fourteen he was admitted to a performing-arts school there. “For a kid from the ghetto, the Baltimore School for the Arts is heaven,” Tupac said in his deposition. “I learned ballet, poetry, jazz, music, everything, Shakespeare, acting, everything as well as academics.” Asked by his attorney whether he’d been in any gangs at that time, Tupac responded, “Shakespeare gangs. I was the mouse king in the Nutcracker. . . . There was no gangs. I was an artist.” He had started writing poetry when he was in grammar school in New York, and it was only a short step from writing poetry to rapping. He wrote his lyrics with great speed and ease, and was soon performing at benefits for Geronimo Pratt and other prisoners.
Tupac spent two years at the Baltimore School for the Arts. When he first came in, Donald Hicken, a former teacher, recalls, “he was a truly gifted actor, with a wonderful mimetic instinct and an ability to transform a character. . . . His work was always original, never imitative, never off the rack. Even in this talented group of kids, he stood out.” One of his schoolmates, Avra Warsofsky, told me that there was no suggestion of the belligerent, confrontational side of Tupac that would later come to dominate his public image. “He was a dear, sweet person,” Warsofsky said. “There were inner-city kids at the school who were tough, who stole-but he was not that, not one bit.”
This idyll ended when Tupac’s life at home became intolerable. As he described it in his deposition, he had no money for food or clothes; for a time he stayed at the home of a wealthy classmate and wore his clothes. That didn’t last, though. “So I had to go back home. . . . But my mother was pregnant, on dope, dope crack. She had a boyfriend that was violent toward her. We weren’t staying in our own spot, we were staying in someone else’s spot. We never could pay the rent. She always had to sweet-talk this old white man that was the landlord into letting us [stay] for another month. And he was making passes at my mom. So I didn’t want to be there anymore. So I sacrificed my future at the School for the Arts to get on a bus to go cross-country to California with no money.” He was not quite seventeen.
Tupac stayed for a time with Linda Pratt, the wife of the incarcerated Geronimo Pratt, in Marin City, a poor community north of San Francisco, and then with his mother, who also moved to California. But school in California did not provide a haven for him. “I didn’t fit in. I was the outsider. . . . I dressed like a hippie, they teased me all the time. I couldn’t play basketball, I didn’t know who basketball players were. . . . I was the target for . . . the street gangs. They used to jump me, things like that. . . . I thought I was weird because I was writing the poetry and I hated myself, I used to keep it a secret. . . . I was really a nerd.”
Tupac’s mother was at once a mythic figure to him and fallen, and his identification with his radical heritage was profoundly ambivalent. “At times he resented being the nineties’ voice of the Black Panther Party,” Karen Lee, one of his publicists, told me, “and at times he wanted to be.” Lee said that he was furious that his mother’s former comrades made no move to try to rescue her and her children when she became addicted to drugs. Indeed, when he was living in Marin City-destitute, with no place to stay (his mother and he had fought bitterly, and he accused her of lying to him about her drug use)-it was mainly street people who tried to help him. Man Man (Charles Fuller), a friend who would later become his road manager, provided him with a bed, and kept him from becoming a full-fledged drug dealer.
Wow thank you for going sooo in depth I really appreciate it. There’s so much to his story it’s crazy. I really enjoy learning things like this about him👌🏻🙏🏼
Wow some of this i didn't know
Thank you very much. That was very insightful.
There is no question this genius brain can't answer..Dann He was so ahead of time
For context Afeni wasn’t just a member of the Black Panthers, she was very active. She was a member of the Panther 21 who were on trial against the state, she defended herself and was acquitted of all crimes posed against her.
She also was romantically involved with political prisoner Mutulu Shakur.
He mentions Geronimo Pratt who helped him launch the New African Panthers, Pac later left after he suspected it was infiltrated, it was later revealed the cops/feds were following him since he was a teen.
He is apart of a revolutionary bloodline even named after an activist himself, Tupac Amaru, who gave his life for the people
It's amazing how much you smile when you are watching 2pac It's great to see
You can see all of his potential in his face and how he spoke and how he thought
I really miss him
Yea I just can’t help it😊
You love and reverence for 2Pac says alot of great things about your character and moral compass. 2Pac wanted to change the world and was such a visionary at a young age. For you to be a young adult and appreciate his rhetoric, especially in an era of superficial wants and toxicity, is awe inspiring. Definitely enjoy the reaction. 2Pac definitely love deep and intricate individuals like yourself. Glad to take this journey with you. Keep up the great work sis.
Thank you so much that meant a lot😢🙏🏼
Truss me 💯
Sometimes I feel jealous of this guy even if he's gone. He accomplish a lot in a short time, GOD knows why he took him away 🙏
I'm 51, same age as Pac and from NY. I've been at the same clubs while he was there. I remember seeing Pac making lots of females smile, so it was cool watching you do the same thing, so you're not alone, lol. Great reactions and keep up the good work, you're on to something 👍🏾💪🏾💯😊
Thank for the support😊🙏🏼
I'm 54 from NY too,been to Damn near every club, met Pac outside Bryant park after the MTV awards show with my man Hype Williams!!
@@philmaynard7691 that's what's up, you were there with all that static. Must have been a crazy night, lol.
I don't know where I would be if I didn't find 2pac at a young age. If you truly listen to him you get so much important knowledge that takes most people a lifetime over to learn. He puts you on game for the tricks and traps many of us can fall into. He shows you the hard path but lets you know that there is a spiritual truth in it even though it often feels hopeless. He talks about the underdog and struggle because those who fight the good fight will always be the underdog and live a lifetime of struggle. I love your reactions, very few people on here come off as honest and wanting to truly understand and learn with openness. Some people have already recommend watching the prison interview, it is one of the most revealing interviews on Pac's character. Thanks again, much love!
I agree a hundred percent with everything you said & I appreciate the kind words they mean a lot🙏🏼🙏🏼thanks for watching & I actually have reacted to his prison interview but TH-cam wouldn’t let me post it so I posted it on my patreon. You can join if you’re interested in seeing my reaction to that, the link is in the description of this video🙏🏼😊
This is how you know Tupac was the man I'm watching the TV show The flash and they have a poster of him in the episode the flash!!! My guy pac!!!
This child was wise. Its like he had to get as much information out to everyone being that he'd only live for 8 more years.
people say his personality changed when he got older, but this interview proves different. the story of him quittin his job & snappin on the boss for tellin him he couldnt, is pure Tupac. him lightin up the cigarette in their faces & walkin out, is pure Tupac 😂
Lol exactly, I loved when he told that story I could just picture it🤣
He was a good clean hearted guy really he seems like someone who because of his environment he grew up had to break his own voice and a outward shadow personality of himself that wasn't really him to survive growing up in hood
Tupac the goat.
he trusted people way too much. thats one part of him that never changed. he became more cautious when he got older, but that trusting part of him never completely went away. all of his career/legal issues came from him being around/trustin the wrong people
Yea he had a big heart n just wanted to give and receive real love😭
This Guy is bigger than Rap Music as Genre.
Dude, when you smile though😊. You keep being taken by Pac's dimples, and I'm like "have you seen yours?"😊😊😊
Its so good watching you enjoy Tupac. I still remember the day when I found out he was shot again thinking "aww its Pac he'll pull through". Then 3 days later (in the same place) I got told he passed 😱😭. I was 14 and he's never left my playlist.
I can’t imagine being alive at that time, his death would’ve destroyed me😢even though it still does years later🙁
@@journeymariereacts it was kinda like loosing a cousin that lived abroad to me and I have loads. same way you had a connection I did too. he was such a big part of my childhood I even got my mum into him, which is why she came running to tell me. I was half asleep both times so it took a while for it to sink in and even longer to except the fact that he's not coming back. but like he's said in one of the interviews you watched, he is forever immortalised on film/record and most importantly our hearts and minds 🙏🏽❤️👊🏾
Beautifully said🙏🏼❤️
I am 40 years old and going through these Tupac interviews with you has been inspirational, educational, and life altering actually....
I think he learned how to make analogies from his mother. His mother always wanted him to learn how to think. At the beginning he probably got the analogies from his mother but he grew to think some on his own.
I definitely agree thanks for watching/commenting🙏🏼
thats a Gemini thing. its how our mind works. Pac had a lot of those gifts naturally. Kanye does it too
Seeing you happy about Pac at the end makes me happy 🥰🥹
Alot of good reactions to some good throwback interviews of his when i saw this on the thug angel DVD way back and this showed me that he was really intelligent and mature for his age. And you can tell he read a whole lot of books.
Your journey into who Pac really was and where he came from is commendable. Side note...he never wanted to be a rapper. It was only when he realized that could get his message out to more people, did he then push his activisim into this art form. This is why he can never be compared to another artist in this genre. A truly amazing man who furthered the movement for black americans in more way than one. Continue the journey and you'll begin to appreciate his music even more...To answer your question regarding how or why would he ever call a woman a bit^^ please listen to, "I wonder why the call you bitc&". It was him reaching out to them in the most transparent way possible. You have to dig deep.
Did u check it out yet? And then maybe the whole Me Against The World album. Can you get away is a good track from there as well as Death Around Corner, and Shed So Many Tears. Honestly listen to the whole album start to finish with headphones on and no interruptions. Like don't even react to it. Just take it in. It's hard to pick a favorite album but if I had to pick one, this one, I would for reasons too complex to articulate right now. Just know, that I waited in line before the Palm Beach Mall opened to grab the CD when it dropped many moons ago and was transformed.
2pac was such a intelligent and beautiful guy ...no homo ... Amazing Israelite man ! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🌍
I just want you to know. I am an older man listening to you talking about Tupac. Your mother and father have done a great job with you and I am so proud of you. Keep listening to all three of them and keep your own mind. Yours truly, an older black man. Peace.
Thank you very much, that means a lot🙏🏼😊
When I was 17 I was a goofy kid, I didn't at all do politics, I was just interested in running track and cross country and going to college the next year. At 17, 2Pac was so mature and aware, way beyond his years!
Something I just realized is the fact he never changed from this interview at 17 to his last interview only 8 years later. His views pretty stayed the same it seems like. Thank you for this reaction.
The harsh life if analyzed will mold you to be humble, and will question all actions which center your decisions toward happiness. I want to construct a family, but I need to build a reality of trust and combine our strengths to maintain happiness till death...
Damn Tupac had his Deep voice even at 17 😅 Wonder what age his voice started changing
U need to watch his revolutionary speech he made in indiana in 93.he had that bless to reach people with his words.he was just 22 in that interview and he shake the whole room with his wisdom.to call that special man just a rapper is an insult at his best.he was poet,leader,activist,thinker,revolutionary,loud mouth,and above all else never scared to say whats in his mind whether its good or bad. Just to think that man was supposed to be here with us in 2022 30 years later and not even as an old man just heartbreaking.i dont think people understand how much he was willing to give from himself to his own community just so we could go further.we suffer a major loss when that man stopped breathing.💔
I definitely will react to that soon & agree with everything you said🙏🏼
Tupac was homeless shortly after video was made. This was Tupac before the police beat him. His mom said that's what changed him. Your channel is the bomb and so geniune!!
Thank you so much for that info and for the kind words I really appreciate it😊🙏🏼& yea it’s sad to see how sweet and happy he was before all those terrible things happened to him😢though I know this side was still always in him👌🏻
@@journeymariereacts facts
❤❤❤
You were cheesin' so hard 😂 I know you just wanted to let out a little scream 😂 love it though! Thank you for the content as always!
Lol yea I was fangirling🤣I just love his smile and aura, but thanks for watching🙏🏼😊
It's hard to believe he was only 17 during this interview, even at my age I still can't reason like this brother.. Lols
Great reaction ....I'll watch a few more times and formulate my thoughts.....the video has a lot of Gems.
It's funny that we don't have these conversation from anyone of this generation from anyone who supposed to be like him
This guy was so intelligent
Tupac had you blushing 😂😂💯
His mother was a black panther she made sure he stayed up on what is going on in the Real world. RIP to both his mother afeni Shakur and tupac 😢
Pac went to the same school as Jada Pickett-Smith, they was real close.
Good mothers attracts a good man & keeps one by learning how to first = produces strong kids
Its so cute that you try to make your self not smile it’s ok go ahead and smile 😊 and I think he came up with analogies himself but his mom is the one to make him listen and think before he talks
I love seeing the 2pac videos love the video Marie stay motivated Dream big 1 mill on the way Queen he was smart and intelligent at a young age OMG he was only in high school at this time
Awesome job Marie
I was in the Black Panther era they will protect our community around that country they would help feed the poor communities and the leaders was and a hotel and they killed them all but they did try to there self defend their self
When I look at the end of this interview I just be like awwww he was so gullible
So beautiful 😍
he was a pure Gemini. him & Kanye are a lot alike, but livin in different eras 💯♊️
Miss Journey Marie u are a fan of 2pac
GOD BLESS AFENI SHAKUR RIP🙏 GOD BLESS TUPAC SHAKUR RIP 🙏
Ahhhhh omg I've been waiting for this😆
Lol I hope you enjoyyyy😊
Also it just hurts to see how he got so hardened after all the trauma and everything he had to endure. This side of Tupac was always still there but there were lots of times where he came off as being frustrated and angry about the world. It's even been disputed that he could have been suffering from some form of multiple personality or bipolar disorder because of how frequently his character would change (something even people close to him would bring up during interviews and talks) one minute he would be how he is in this interview and in another he would be horribly depressed.
@@alexgibson7960 yea it hurts my heart seeing him like this knowing how hard the world made him later on😢& I definitely agree that he seemed to have many different sides in different interviews but that could just be who he was🤷🏼♀️but u never know, maybe he did a struggle with something like that
Funny how he was only 17 here but looks like he is 21yrs old & by the time he was 25, he already looked like he was 30.
The black panthers was like “if you strike me ,I strike you.” Not only turn the cheek ish
Good interview and reaction on 2pac.
Try reacting to Goodie Mob
The Experience & Beautiful Skin
Love Your Reactions 🌟
Thank you🙏🏼
@@journeymariereacts You're Welcome I Support U 🌟
This girls face glows when she watches Pac. lol
Love him🙏🏼❤️
Legs took ownership of pac as soon as he saw em. If I send you his actual father’s mother picture;u will be blown away
I want to see it can you post a link
rip pac!
am i one who thinks this girl is in love with pac?
His mother did some good and lied about his father being dead which destructs boys
Many have made comments about the paranoid behavior that Tupac exhibited later on in his life after being shot and receiving constant death threats from various individuals. Understanding the childhood that Tupac had gives us insight into how and why he responded to the circumstances the way that he did and, even further than that, paints a more vivid picture of what the life of a child birthed from the revolution looks like:
“I can remember being like, four, and waking up and going to my window and hearing the police going, ‘Yeah, the black bitch is laying in the bed, uh, we can’t tell who else is in here…’ on the walkie-talkies. They were watching our house. And I didn’t know that for YEARS! I heard that, my mother was asleep, everybody was asleep… I didn’t know what that was for years. I remember later, after I grew up, I told my mother about it, and she told me what it was. But I didn’t even know it for years! Imagine that being one of your fucking memories! The police outside calling you mother a ‘black bitch.’ You know what I’m saying? That’s really not good. That’s not good. What America doesn’t understand is that they say that Black people are lazy, unintelligent, but to me, America is the dumbest motherfucker out here, ’cause how could you not study your own history and not see the fate that you prepared for yourself? They’re raising me to be a soldier. The more police beat me up, the stronger I get... The more they try to make me into a racist, the more of an understanding [integrationist] I become, I guess, because it’s all about survival… Shit, we a people… And I don’t want us to go back to Africa, ’cause we built THIS country, as great as it is. And it’s a great country, let me say, it’s a great country. Except it’s just the people at the top is fucking our money over, sending it to Iran and shit… We sending billions to take care of the starving people in Russia, but [there’s] people starving in South Central. We got a lottery where ONE person can win 25 million, and there’s people who don’t have ZILCH... They’re showing me pictures of babies with big bellies in Timbuktu, and I’m seeing babies with big bellies next door… and [they’re] telling me to ‘be all I can be in the army,’ ’cause ‘you’re not gonna be shit in the streets’…”
Justice,hopefully coming soon.But why 26 years later?
Why is marie blushing 😅
I think this was his first interview. At 17 ai was still in high school like in the 11th grade I was dumb as hell. I didn't know crap about the world I was a naive kid going to school and playing video games
Evidently you are drawn to Intelligent, Charismatic, Intellectual Types. That Spirit of energy is prevalent in Tupac, Fred Hampton, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Huey P. Newton, Nat Turner and Countless Others. God put this spirit in certain individuals to be leaders and to communicate with the masses. Afeni had this ability along with women like Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells and countless other women. His Mother taught him well in traditional Panther Cub that he is. You should definitely explore the Black Panthers Teachings , Ten Point Program and Ideology. They were considered dangerous to the government. This Government Killed the indigenous people of this land and force people to do there labor for them and made them rich. The Black Panthers taught to hate this unjust, hypocritical system and love the people and teach them and that made them dangerous. Just like 2pac saying that being so nice made certain women not view him as masculine. When you are a little boy you are taught to be strong and assertive. Women are drawn to these type of men and he picked it up later. Women love bad boys. They want a Man that's a protector, Leader, Intelligent but isn't scared to be strong and not swayed by the opinions of others. His Own Man! He grew into this and seen that's what made him a heart throb to women. God made many men like this and will continue to make many more. Pac was a Panther Cub and a New Afrikan Panther. My Uncle was a panther and even though he passed away when i was very young he had a profound effect on me and my cousins. Knowledge is Power! Knowledge of Self and Determination (K.O.S)!!!
Thank you so much for this comment, it was very insightful & informative. I definitely agree that he was special and was a born leader👌🏻🙏🏼
... pertaining to jobs, u rent them your services, not selling yourself. u are the business of u.
sound like my auntie
6:55
Is facts
Hey, I love your channel. You should some reactions to Nas. He’s really deep, and a vivid storyteller. I would start with “If I ruled the world ft. Lauryn hill”.
I already know and love that song but if you have other suggestions I’d appreciate them😊
@@journeymariereacts they have a video for “one mic” and “hate me now”. “It ain’t hard to tell” is another good one by him. Plus, there’s some Nas interviews also. He’s very articulate and well spoken. A true artist nonetheless. 😊
Ok thanks😊😊
He didn’t know who his real father was at this time. The guy he thought was his dad is who he talkin bout his name was legs.
i love you
yassss lmao sugarpac whed did thug life start?
2:38 Tupac said "I trust people more, and I'm more open"... That hits deep, because in the end with his last interviews he was so distrusting of people because of everything he went through. Pac always said either he'd change the world or the world would change him. That was one way the world changed him... everything from getting beat up by the cops, getting shot, Biggie leaving guns in his apartment and turning his back when Pac stayed quiet, took the fall, went to jail - they stole his trust... Maybe not entirely, but enough to have side-tracked him.
Gotta also keep in mind this is 1988, yet he only has less than 10 years to live. So much happened in such a short period of time.
Anyway, I just found that interesting. For the rest of the interview, he. is. so. wise.. I think it's partly his mother, but there's an aspect of him that comes off like an old soul (even if that sounds cliche). He just has a certain approach to answering questions that seems beyond his years. Interview even most of his legendary peers at that age, I doubt they'd be able to give such profound answers to these questions.
Great interview, great reaction.
Yea the world definitely changed some of him unfortunately & I agree I did have an old soul and sooo much wisdom😢🙏🏼
React to Thug Angel documentary
Have you watched the the 2pac Mtv interview with Tabitha yet? I'm curious to see your reaction.
Not yet but it’s coming👌🏻👌🏻
Capitalism is just an excuse, somethings should be a societal agreement, a balanced and checked capitalism that still cares for its most vulnerable, like some do have a place.
Unchecked capitalism is the issue, in NA, which potentially turns to cooperate capitalism, then to oligarchy capitalism and turbo capitalism.
ALL empires fall, by their own hand. Chew on that.
Tupac makes you think critically.
Support petition to free Pac Stepdad Dr Mutulu Shakur #FreeMutuluNow
...if it didn't end up on them, why does it "end up on you"? the design. so he is suggesting a design to where the selected "burden bearer's" get a piece. because by no way did "government" get established and maintain without committing the very acts in which they charge those with the ambition to achieve.
Please watch Tupac fathers interview
React to Fame by Pac
React to Can U Get Away from him!
I know and love that song already😊
How about any bone thugs n harmony
👌🏻👌🏻
18:13 37:45 43:40
Lol I’m the same way no disrespect will be tolerated
Exactlyyy🤣👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻
Hi can you look for 2pac song call going czars
Lol why u tryna stop urself from smiling/blushing?
Lol cuz I look stupid🤣🤣
@@journeymariereacts What’s stupid about having an infatuated admiration for someone? Especially one like Tupac…
Please react to 2pac - can u get away
I know and love that song already😊
@@journeymariereacts can't wait for the reaction
Well I won’t be reacting to it since I already know that song but you can let me know any other song you’d like me to react to👌🏻
Hey Journey, have you seen “Judas and the Black Messiah”?
No I haven’t what’s that?
@@journeymariereacts 2021 biographical film about Fred Hampton & the Black Panther party of Chicago. Fred was a prominent black activist in African American history. If you like stuff of that sort, it’s really really good. Stars the lead from Get Out and Lakeith Stanfield from the show Atlanta. ✊🏽
As a society we give too little credit to our 16yo. Or we are going to the same as the boomers did? look at Covid, BLM, fight for democracy and environment youth lead movements.
If you haven't already you should listen to 2pac You Wonder Why They Call You B1tch.
Just put it on the list😊
Two weeks later he was homeless
Damn😢😢
@@journeymariereacts ya know I talked to his homie Kendrick wells and he said this pac changed after Kendrick smashed pac girl by accident.
@@SoundBiteInc- clown spotted 😂🤡
thats a horrible take. you can sit there and say that while benefitting from a "broken" world in every conceivable way imaginable
👌🏻