- America has shown us over and over again
exactly what ambition is,
and what forms ambition should be shown,
and how ambition can take you to the top.
All we doin' is puttin' a mirror up and showin' you that,
"Yes, we saw it, yes, we got it, and yes, we're doin' it."
So that's what this video is about.
- [Interviewer] All right, I'm gonna let you guys
do most of the talking.
- Oh, no doubt.
- [Interviewer] All right, so first of all,
just simply explain the concept of the video to me.
What we're trying to do is use intellect while we rapping.
So what we wanted to do was,
since everybody feels like it's their duty
to say how we are portraying gangsters and gangster music,
and we are dirtying up the airwaves
and people's houses with gangster music,
we wanted to put the mirror up
to show you where we got these gangster ideas.
So we took all these scenes
out of classic movies with gangsters in it.
Not gangsters from Compton or gangsters from Watts,
but gangsters from Chicago and gangsters
from New York, gangsters from Italy.
Not gangsters named DoDirty and Snoop
and Tupac and Daz and Kurupt,
but gangsters named Lucky Luciano, and...
- Mafioso Mick.
Al Capone. - Corleone
and John Gotti, Al Capone, and all of them.
- [Director] Pac, get close to Snoop.
Get closer, I wanna get both of you in there.
Come on!
- [Interviewer] Is this something that you guys
came up with the concept and pitched it to Suge, or?
- I said, "Whenever you're ready, let me know,
so we can do the video for '2 of Amerikaz Most.'"
'Cause you know, he was going through the court thing.
I said, "Just let me know."
So he's like, "I'm ready."
And he's like, "This is what I want."
I said, "What scenes you got to have in there?"
'Cause all we do, me and Dogg,
we finna do a movie together called "Two Strikes,"
so all we do is watch old movies.
So we would come together and be like, "Did you see this?"
I'd be like, "Nah, did you see this?"
And he's like, "Oh yeah, I saw that!"
I'd be like, "This scene right here!"
And we put it together like that.
So we never really sat down and was like,
"I'ma give you this and you give me this."
We just both know what wavelength we on.
So he come up with an idea,
and I automatically be like, "Yeah, that's it."
Same thing vice versa.
Plus, we wanted to show the two styles -
me and Snoop represent,
to me, my own opinion,
we represent the nucleus of the entire ghetto.
I represent the hardcore, grab-at-you,
no-holds-barred, no-prisoners, relentless, hustle-
to-the-early-morning hustler type of person, thug, you know.
And Snoop represent the more calm, all legit,
right-by-the-book, no-waves, let's-get-our-business-handled,
you know what I mean?
We both represent, you know what I mean?
Both sides of the game.
The calm one and the relentless one.
And no one knows which side is more appropriate
or which side is more profitable,
but we're showing you both sides.
And if you look at our lives and look at our music
you'll see where each side takes us.
'Cause right now, we side by side hitting 'em up
through this whole industry, through this whole world,
we hitting 'em up side by side.
- [Interviewer] Last time we saw you
was at the LBC video shoot.
How are you popping up in this video today?
Actually, these is all the homies,
and they got together to do this video for "2,"
I mean, actually to do the song for Tupac's album.
And now we getting together again
to collaborate to do the video.
So it say what the song say,
"Ain't nothin' but a gangster party.”
So all the gangsters is getting together
to throw a little party
and bring the cameras along so we can have a video.
- [Interviewer] What's it like shooting videos for you guys?
Do you find it an enjoyable process,
or is it because all of you guys are together?
- When they not, "Stop, break, five minutes,
let's set up this," when it's like that, we don't like it.
But when it's going smoother, we could just do a take,
move to the next scene, do a take.
It's fun then.
When it gets down to the politics,
nobody's getting along, and it's just hectic.
But this one is real cool. Real cool.
It looks like it's gon' be real fun.
I can't wait to see it.
- So what I got on this, we're doing a...
You ever see "Reservoir Dogs?" The opening scene?
- Yeah. - Same (beep)
Stanley Kubrick, kind of like. Amazing (beep).
So we're gonna have you guys being opened up from the back,
you come out, and it's like this (beep) been planned.
One camera's up here, and one's up there.
We've got a high angle.
The high angle is gonna see
the body sprawled out and the pools of blood.
This one's basically just going
to see the crumpled up bodies,
and you guys approaching this way.
And then we'll go to performances right there on the spot.
- [Tupac] For the performance, I want us to get out the car
just like you explained, we sitting there,
ain't nobody here to catch us or nothin',
so we could still be out here doing performance.
Then I want a car to come, a police car,
and that detective, anybody.
And that's what make us run.
- (beep) just crashed, we just got outta court,
when we leave court, the (beep) just crashed.
We jump out, it's gon' be
a police laying down in blood right here,
police laying down in blood right here.
The homies just did that.
Daz, Nate, Psych, and Bogart, that's who they see.
That's who they see coming out the car.
You don't see them shooting or nothing, that's done.
Only thing you see is them standing.
The first part you see, it's just us.
You just see us doing the performance part.
Then after we finished the performance
at the end of our lyrics for gangster party,
when it's just going over like yeah, West Coast,
that's when the car pull up, they all get out the car.
- [Interviewer] Snoop, what's it like
sort of taking direction from Pac?
- I mean, I know he know what he doing,
and I'm looking at it like this,
he's a critic, a fan, and a friend,
you know what I'm saying?
It's the same way I am with him.
And first of all, to look at it like that,
you got to say, "Well, I like his music,
"and I know when he's tight and when he's not tight."
So he's gon' correct me and say,
“Well look here, Dogg, that’s the bomb.
"Keep doing it like that."
The same way I'm gon' tell him.
And that way we ain't gon' never go wrong,
'cause we don't have no egos to where
he can't tell me nothing, I can't tell him nothing.
We look at each other like your word is good.
That's the best business in the world,
whenever you can tell somebody that they ain't right,
and they give you that nudge and say,
"All right, it's cool, let's move on."
- [Interviewer] Tell me just a little bit
about the concept of this video.
Is this something that Tupac and Snoop came to you,
and they said, "We want to do this?"
- Yeah, you know, Tupac is real creative.
He basically wanna know what he wanna do on his own videos.
And you know, Snoop supports him, and I support them,
so I don't try to make all the decisions.
I give them the right to do what they wanna do.
Pac had an excellent idea.
We had some other people give us some treatments
that it was real dry,
and the song's too powerful for the treatment we had.
So I decided to let Pac do it,
which is for the best, and it worked out.
- [Interviewer] Is Pac almost taking
a director credit in this, maybe?
- He's the director of it.
He's definitely the director of it.
I think he's probably been directing
the majority of his videos,
but people probably just never gave him the credit.
So this time, on Death Row, he definitely get his credit.
- [Interviewer] When you guys were writing
"2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted,"
were you writing it sort of, almost as like
a (beep) you to the Bob Doles of the world,
or people that censor things like that?
- Personally, when I wrote it,
I was so happy that Pac was out of jail.
You know what I'm saying?
I was happy, and I was like,
"Damn, I got to give up my best performance."
You know what I'm saying?
To complement him and not to take nothing away from him,
but to let him know that I'm with him.
It's just like, OK, the song is four minutes, right?
You got a certain amount of time to say what you gon' say.
So I wanted to be precise to say what I wanted to say.
I wanted to let people know I was thinking about my case,
and I was thinking about him as well,
because if they take me away, they got to let him go.
So he gon' be speaking for me while I'm in
like I was speaking for him when he was in.
So this is just networking and letting them know
that you can take one of us, but you can't take us both.
And if you let us both go,
that's when you really done (beep) up.
- When I was hearing about who was
the most dangerous rapper though, it was always Snoop.
And when it wasn't me, it was Snoop.
And I was like, damn, we on the same record label.
I know these people are really thinking
we are like the antichrist.
And I remember being in the studio,
and it'd be me and Snoop, and he'd have his son in there,
and I was in there, and just being out of jail,
still having the emotional responses
that somebody has when he just got out of jail
for a year for a crime he didn't commit.
And he in there fighting a trial for murder.
We in there with kids, and all our dreams in front of us,
all our hopes in front of us,
and doing that song, it was like irony.
You know what I mean?
'Cause it was like in the song, we the big bad guys,
but in real life, I mean, this dude a daddy.
I mean, a doting daddy. A pushover daddy.
You know what I mean?
And I'm just me, you know what I mean?
So it's like, when they look at us,
it's like they look at us like two different people.
So that's why "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted,"
although it is frighteningly true,
it's really just like a joke.
- [Interviewer] Is there definitely more
collaborations of you two in the future?
Do you guys think that you'll get back
in the studio again together?
- [Tupac] Oh, we got like five songs together.
- [Snoop] We done did a whole lot of songs together.
- [Interviewer] I know that individually,
when I've interviewed both of you,
that you've always been a fan of Snoop's,
and you've always been a fan of Tupac's.
Were you guys intimidated at all
to work in the studio together?
- Nah, I mean he bring the best out of me.
- That's how it is, yeah.
- It's like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson
on the same team.
Healthy, you know what I'm saying?
- The way we look at it is like,
myself sometimes I look at it
and think about the kids coming up today,
how do they see us?
Because I look at how I seen Aretha Franklin,
and Marvin Gaye, and all those people, The Temptations.
You look at them like giants.
And when Marvin Gaye did something with The Temptations,
anybody did something together, you felt that.
You was like, "Whoa, man."
It made you be together.
You know what I mean?
It made us be together, because we felt that
like damn, these two giants could get together.
So that's how it is, what me and Dogg feel.
That's why I be telling him we got to work.
We got to do songs with Mary,
'cause Mary is the new Aretha Franklin.
We got to do songs with Danny Boy.
Danny Boy is Sam Cooke.
We gotta do this, we gotta carry on the tradition.
We might not say our things
as sweet as they want us to say it,
but we are the next generation.
And we are gonna carry on that tradition.
And when people go back to see
what we was living like in 1996,
and what was going on, and how did we feel,
I'm almost willing to bet my life,
and I am betting my life, and Dogg is betting his life,
that it's gonna be our stories that they're listening to.
I can guarantee it.