- And they didn't even use them goddamn pictures.
They used the pictures some photographer
took a year ago, with me with a strait jacket on.
You know, am I crazy or what.
I was having concerts, they were sold out.
White boys, Mexicans, blacks,
and they would do whatever I said.
I could tell all those people to
turn around in a circle and they would do it.
I was having love, I mean like undeniable love.
And I was scared, I was scared
that I would come to a town and I have
the leader of the gang there telling me
what do you need?
I was scared, but so was America, so was
somebody else, because all of a sudden
I had all kind of legal problems.
And you have to think about this,
I had a clean record, for 20 years.
A clean record, living in the ghetto,
in the gutter, no record.
What about my morals then?
What about my character then?
You know what I'm sayin'?
Two years that I start raising noise,
that I start being publicly viewed,
I've had a record, and now it
looks like I'm a criminal who has
no way of being reformed.
But all of these came one after the other.
Do you understand?
- [Interviewer] Right.
- It takes logic.
- [Interviewer] Well what about, I mean that's
another interesting part of your past,
have you ever been incarcerated before?
- Have I ever been incarcerated?
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
- No, not for longer than a day, longer than enough
for somebody to take me, you know,
the police can arrest anybody they want
and put 'em in jail.
But if you stay there, that, you know what I'm sayin',
I haven't stayed anywhere.
I've been arrested a lot, put in a cell,
and they come and get me, when I call
my lawyer, you know what I'm sayin'?
But I mean, it's the type I got.
- [Interviewer] Well, I wanted to bring up, I mean
obviously tomorrow is a big day,
you're being sentenced tomorrow.
- Yes.
- [Interviewer] And, you know, we're sitting here
and in 24 hours you'll know what
the situation's going to be.
Are you thinking about the prospect of going to jail?
- First, I was like, I'm not going to jail.
I was like, if they try to come get me
for something I didn't do, I'ma open fire.
You know what I'm sayin'?
But I can't do that because it's not just me anymore.
You know what I'm sayin'?
That's what they expect.
If I have to, if God sees it fit for me
to spend time in a cell, if he wants my brain
to be inside of a cage, if he's brought
me so far from hell to put me here
and now he wants me to go to jail, I'll go.
You know what I'm sayin', if that's where I'm meant to be,
but I don't think so.
I don't think so.
You know what I'm sayin', I don't really believe
in my heart that I belong in jail, I don't believe
I did anything to warrant me going to jail.
- [Interviewer] Okay, what do you think, if you do
go to jail, is to be expected, because you are
a known personality?
- I'ma ask to be put in solitary confinement
and I'ma do pushups and read books
and come out weed-free, smoke-free, and with
a degree or some shit, you know what I'm sayin',
I won't let it stop me, you know what I'm sayin',
but I'm not going to jail to just parlay.
If I went to jail, best believe, it's not like
I'm gonna have a problem in jail.
I got love there.
You know what I'm sayin', I got love from thugs
and the street dudes.
And I can go to jail and probably
organize a riot, you know what I'm sayin',
but that's not what I want to do.
If I have to go to jail, I don't even
wanna be livin'.
I want to just cease to exist,
for however long they have me there,
and then when I come out, I'll be reborn.
You know what I'm sayin', I'll be taking
less problems, and my mind will be sharper,
and the venom will be more potent,
you know what I'm sayin'?
So they shouldn't send me there.
They should really try to, you know,
it's like, you don't throw more gasoline
on the fire to put it out.
- [Interviewer] What about, I mean, this is
one step and there are some other cases
that are going to be coming up.
What has changed for you?
You mentioned the last two years
is when everything started to happen,
one after the other.
What changed for you in these two years?
How is your life now different than it was before?
- Like I said, you know there was no spot for Tupac.
It's not like there was somebody like me before,
and I moved into the spot so I can ask him how he did it,
you know what I'm sayin'?
There was no spot here, nobody
wants to be the person that thugs
in the street, people could rally around,
nobody wanted to be that.
So when I was that, I couldn't handle it,
you know what I'm sayin', I couldn't,
I could handle it, but not right away.
Of course I had problems, I was making mistakes
that anybody would make when you have
14,000 people ready to do whatever you want.
You know what I'm sayin', when you have all over
the country people waiting to hear
what you wanna do, you know what I'm sayin'?
This thug life code, we have a code, put order
to the violence on the streets.
And when they all listenin' to you,
I got people in the penitentiary, you know what
I'm sayin', big time OG criminals,
who are calling me, telling me they want me
to lead their movement.
I mean, I'm gonna have a problem,
you know what I'm sayin', I'm gonna
have a small identity crisis here, you know what
I'm sayin', because like I said, I was from
a single mother, with no father, no male figure.
Now I got every man in America
who wants to take order from me, you know what
I'm sayin', who wants to know what I want to do.
Or what's my plan for young black males.
And that makes me scared.
But that makes me want to rise to the occasion,
you know what I'm sayin', what makes me want to
give my whole life to 'em, and I will
give my whole life to this plan that I have
for thug life.
- [Interviewer] Now when you said a code,
I don't know exactly what you mean by a code.
- I organize the OG's in the east coast
and the west coast and the penitentiaries
to come up with a set of codes, of ethics
for criminals, you know, like
we gonna be against drive-bys, kidnappings,
attacks on people that are not involved with
the street gang, with the drug trade,
or illegal business at all, you know,
all that kidnapping and shootin' drive-bys
out the car, we against that.
And people who'll perpetrate that, they have to deal
with the consequences when they go to jail,
'cause that's who's gonna enforce this code
and the thug life that's on the street.
It's like we cleanin' up the dirt.
I can't change the dirt that's here,
but I can put all this dirt in one corner,
you know what I'm sayin', somehow I have
some order here, and for that, they need to
give me a little legroom, you know what I'm sayin',
let me do what I wanna do, 'cause nobody
else is gonna do it, nobody else wants to do it.
But I'm not scared to walk in the middle of Watts,
Compton, Chicago, wherever, and sit down with
whoever's the OG.