Happy Birthday, Tupac Shakur.
The iconic rapper-actor-poet would have turned 44 years old today, and although it's been nearly 20 years since his tragic death, Tupac continues to remain relevant and grow a loyal fanbase.
While many have taken to social media to share their birthday blessings with the late celeb, we decided to go into the vault and unearth a throwback interview with Tupac to remember his passion, charm and alluring demeanor that was ever-so-present during his sit-downs.
But what we came across was a bit eerie. E! News interviewed Shakur back in 1992 for his film Juice, a Ernest R. Dickerson-helmed movie that tells the story of youths growing up in Harlem, and during our conversation with the rapper, he began talking about police brutality against young black men.
Given the ongoing racial injustice that's happened recently, it was almost like Tupac was foreseeing the future.
When asked if he feels a social responsibility for promoting violence in rap music, Tupac responded, "I wanna see the true picture, because I don't care if he feels uncomfortable. What about when I felt uncomfortable for 400 years? You know what I'm saying? Now all of a sudden its bad to talk about—any time someone pulls a trigger or there's a gunshot, everybody start running for cover, but everybody's really doing all the shooting in the streets.
"That Iran-Contra, that war, that's violence to me. That's real violence. What we're talking about is fake violence. What we're rappin', it happens in the streets, but rapping about it is not the violence. And the movie about it is not the violence. It's an adventure world that we're creating. What we're doing is using our brain to get out of the ghetto any way we can, so we tell these stories and they tend to be violent because our world tends to be filled with violence."
He continues, "I would rather tell a young black male to educate his mind, arm yourself and be free, defend yourself, than just sit there and turn the other cheek. So whatever message that sends out that's the kind of message it is."
But Tupac also explains that it doesn't always have to result in violence.
"When you use your brain it doesn't always have to come to a violent end, but sometimes it does and that's all that I'm saying. That that is a choice. They never show you, you know, the cops beating on you—you have a choice. Violence to defend yourself, turn the other cheek or wait for the news cameras to come and talk about it. I'm talking about doing it."
He adds that his music is about the oppressed rising against the oppressor, and the only ones who would feel threatened or harmed by that are those who oppress. When it comes to those being oppressed, Shakur plainly stated, "They need to start striking back, beating back."
Tupac continues to be celebrated by all those who are touched and inspired by his work. One of those people is singer Jhené Aiko, who unveiled a special gift to the late star on his birthday.
Aiko recreated a few of 2pac's most iconic photographs, which were exclusively revealed on MTV, and explained why she chose to do so.
"He's so great to me that I don't even compare myself to him, like I'm trying to be Tupac. That's not what it is. It's just that my love for him, I really wanted to do the pictures justice."
She added, "I wasn't worried about what people were going to think, because it's just a personal thing for me. I'm not doing it for people to be like, "Oh, wow." For me, it's just about expressing my gratitude towards him and his legacy."
"I never felt there were a lot of people I could relate to as far as wanting to do so many things with my life that don't necessarily have to do with the other. He was so contradictory to people, but to me he was just human and not afraid to express himself. I could relate to that a lot… How dancing turned into music, turned into acting, turned into all of the things that he did. And he still had this passion and this purpose about him. That spoke to me so much."
RIP, Pac.