Celebrating Tupac Shakur’s 49th birthday, E! News releases a rare interview where the Hip Hop icon talks about his own experience of police brutality and the movie Juice.
Back in 1992, Tupac Shakur sat down for his very first interview with E! News. During the interview, Tupac’s words still apply to the current times in which we live in today.
During the six minute video clip uploaded on YouTube, Tupac talks about his own experience with police brutality. “Its happened to me. The police beat me up in the middle of the street. No reason. Just simple cause I cursed at them, cause they was harassing me,” Tupac said during the interview with E! News.
The incident that Tupac speaks of occurred on October 1991, in Oakland, California. A twenty-year-old Tupac Shakur was walking across the street on 17th and Broadway. It was at this time when he was approached by two police officers, who would accuse Shakur of jaywalking.
During the stop, the officers gave Shakur a hard time and ridiculed him when he stated his name was Tupac. The officers would eventually bash ‘Pac’s face repeatedly to the ground, leaving him badly bruised and unconscious.
“Now in reality, I couldn’t shoot them like in my rhymes,” Tupac explained. “But, in my rhymes it vents that anger, cause I can you know I could fire back at the police, and I won’t go to jail for life. In my music, in a lot of the music, it is only talking about the oppress rising up against the oppressor. That’s what my music is about. So, the only people that are scared are the oppressors.”
Tupac also stresses the obstacles faced by a young black male. Whether it was in his times in the Baltimore School of Arts where he constantly heard “there is no work for black actors” or the attempts to bring you down when you finally succeed.
“It is my responsibility to be a true role model and show the world my faults, as well as my good points. So, no one can ever use my faults against me like they do to every black man. Soon as you make it they start to bring something to bring you down,” Tupac said.
