All I Wanted is to Defend My People | 2Pac Interview

This is Tupac's 1994 Interview with Ed Gordon. A foreshadowing of the #BlackLivesMatter mantra, Tupac begged a question that remains poignant to this day.

“Why is a a black life any more recuperable than a white life?”

‘Pac also eerily detailed that his own life was constantly in danger, sharing that he had a number attacks attempted against him by those that surrounded him. As he had done several times before and after his conversation with Gordon, Tupac also referred to the impending loss of his physical life.

“Once my life is gone, it’s gone; They can’t do nothin’ but come to my funeral and talk pretty about how Black people suffer.”

Throughout much of Shakur’s life, he was just as much either a victim or witness to police violence as many other people of color, even going back as far as his early childhood when his parents, the late activist and gatekeeper of Tupac’s estate, Afeni Shakur and Billy Garland were members of the Black Panthers in New York. As my video was debuting on MTV, I was behind bars getting beat up by the police department,” he told journalist Ed Gordon in 1994.