Tanya Hart interviews Tupac Shakur
Tupac Shakur and I go way back. He did his first television interview with me. And All Eyez On Me – The Untold Story of Tupac Shakur – Legends Never Die is going to take us all back through the rise and tragic death of this great talent.
When I first met Tupac Shakur in 1992, he was a rising star. The genre of “Rap Music” was coming to the masses in an unprecedented way, and most folks weren’t happy about it.
Even the vice president at the time, Dan Quayle was speaking out against Rap and specifically Tupac. Shakur had a brilliant mind but he was really too young to understand how much power he had. This brilliance came thru in the interview I did with him. It was his first TV interview and he was nervous but he finally relaxed and we had a great conversation. Here’s a short piece from our interview.
Tanya Hart interviews Tupac Shakur for BET, February 2, 1992, Posted by Rich B JR, Subscribe.
As a child Tupac’s mother Afeni Shakur made him read the New York Times and she quizzed him daily on world affairs, this was all before he was ten years old. But keep in mind Afeni is also the woman who was charged with 200 counts of a conspiracy by the FBI because she was in the Black Panthers. She acted as her own attorney, beat every count and walked out of the courtroom a free woman. As they say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Tanya Hart Previews All Eyez On Me, Posted by AURN.Com Tanya Hart
In the next few years to follow Tupac and I became close enough that I would talk to him, especially when I saw him going down the wrong path. One of the last times I saw him was at a party Clive Davis was giving for Whitney Houston. At that point, he had survived the shooting attack in New York, but I honestly didn’t have a good feeling about his future if something didn’t change quickly. I invited him and Suge Knight to come to church with me. It seems they were inseparable which was also a problem. I made special arrangements and since my church West Angeles, is accustomed to celebrities it was going to be a very secure situation for them. They didn’t show and not long after that he was shot in Las Vegas and died six days later.
All Eyez On Me, Posted by Lionsgate Movies, Subscribe.
The original interview I did with Tupac has lived on and became the basis for the documentary Tupac Resurrection, which was nominated for an Academy Award.
I can’t help but wonder how his music and voice would have evolved in today’s world. I do know that no one has been able to really repeat the sound of his voice or his message. It all rings too true, especially in our new world order.
Tanya Hart
All Eyez On Me – In Theaters June 16!