A fifth of a century after his death, the conversation rages on - is 2pac the greatest rapper of all time? Was his flow as good as Biggie's? Did he really weave words as intricately as Nas? No matter the debater/defacer, one thing is certain: no rapper ever to live had the intensely genuine flow of coherent wisdom (key word is coherent - sorry Yeezy) that Tupac displayed every time he opened his mouth. You heard it here first, folks - Tupac Shakur is the interview GOAT.
Working our way through his fascinating portfolio of interviews, we scrambled together a list of ten fascinating passages from Tupac's mouth - on topics ranging from self-esteem, economic disparity, all the way to the power of the blunt. Tupac died when he was 25 years old, but his wisdom will live forever.
Click through the gallery to read some of Tupac's 10 greatest quotables.
On Responsible Art
"If we really are saying rap is an art form, then we got to be more responsible for our lyrics. If you see everybody dying because of what you saying, it don’t matter that you didn’t make them die, it just matters that you didn’t save them."
Vibe, 1995
On America's Government
"I think this country still is run on gangs - Republicans, Democrats, the Police Department, the FBI, the CIA - those are gangs. Even the correctional officers. I had a correctional officer tell me straight up: 'We the biggest gang in New York state.'"
The Lost Prison Tapes, 1995
On His Upbringing
"I'm 23 years old. I might just be my mother's child, but in all reality, I'm everybody's child. Nobody raised me; I was raised in this society."
On Violence
"Stop killing each other - let's just smoke a blunt."
The Arsenio Hall Show, 1993
On Hope & Resilience
"If you can make it through the night, there’s a brighter day."
From "Keep Ya Head Up," recorded 1992
On Purpose
"My mama always used to tell me: 'If you can't find somethin' to live for, you best find somethin' to die for.' "
On Fear & The Self
"A lot of people - black, white, Mexican, young or old, fat or skinny - have a problem being true to they self. They have a problem looking into the mirror and looking directly into their own souls. The reason I can sell six million records, the reason why I can go to jail and come out without a scratch, the reason I can walk around, the reason I am who I am today is because I can look directly into my face and find my soul."
Interview for the film Gang Related, 1996 (his last acting role)
On Ambition(z)
"I have no fear. I have no mothafuckin fear. I have only ambition. I want mine, and I will do anything to feed and protect my family."
Interview with VIBE Magazine, May 1996
On Poverty
"There's too much money here. No one should be hitting the lotto for $36 million, and we got people starving in the streets. That is not idealistic, that's just real. That is just stupid. There's no way Michael Jackson, or whoever Jackson, should have a million-thousand-quadruple-billion dollars, and then there's people starving. There's no way! There's no way that these people should own [their own] planes, and there are people don't have houses, apartments, shacks, drawers, pants!!"
Un-aired MTV interview, 1992
On His Own Impact
“I'm not saying I'm gonna rule the world, or change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world. And that's our job - to spark someone else watching us."
MTV, 1994
