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Tupac Shakur Quotes
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154 Quotes to Explore the Profound Wisdom and Resonating Power of his Words

Discover the profound wisdom of Tupac Shakur through his iconic quotes. From his raw authenticity to his social commentary, delve into his thoughts on love, justice, and the inequalities of the world. Experience the power of his words that continue to resonate and inspire today.

Tupac Amaru Shakur, also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an influential American rapper who addressed social issues through his music. With over 75 million records sold worldwide, Shakur is considered one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He grew up in a politically active family and became a central figure in West Coast hip hop with the release of his debut album in 1991. Shakur achieved critical and commercial success with albums like "All Eyez on Me," but also faced legal troubles and was involved in the East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry.

Despite facing personal challenges, Shakur made a name for himself not just as a rapper but also as an actor, starring in several films. Unfortunately, his life was cut short when he was shot multiple times in 1996 and died six days later at the age of 25. Following his death, Shakur's influence continued to grow, with posthumous albums like "Greatest Hits" and "The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory" receiving critical acclaim and certification. He has been recognized for his impact on the industry, being inducted into both the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2023, Shakur was honored with a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

✵ 16. June 1971 – 13. September 1996  •  Other names 2Pac, Makaveli, Pac, Тупак Шакур
Tupac Shakur photo
Tupac Shakur: 154 quotes1286 likes

Tupac Shakur Quotes

“The reason I sell 6 million records, the reason I could 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 in to my face and find my soul, it's there, it's not sold, i didn't sell it, it's still within me, I still feel it, my heart is still connected to my body.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, Interview on the set of Gang Related (1996)

“Some people say I was a thug and a gangster; other people remember me as a poet and a born leader. But I'm saying to you, measure a man by his actions fully, through his whole life, from the beginning to the end.”

Tupac Shakur

Posthumous attributions, Tupac: Resurrection (2003)

“I've always been an actor, the reason I've been successful in the rap-game I think is that I treat my albums like movies, and I treat writing it like I'm a character writing a story, you know, for each album whatever I'm going through, whatever stages I'm going through, and I do it vividly with vivid pitcure, with action and description, and an beginning and with an end, and conflict, and you know, redemption, things like that. So I feel like I always been an actor and acting is my first love.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, Interview on the set Gridlock'd (1996)

“The only way I've been practicing my whole life, to live my life is to be responsible for what I do. I don't know how to be responsible for what every black male did, I don't know. And yes, I am gonna say that I'm a thug, that's because I came from the gutter and I'm still here! I'm not saying I'm a thug because I wanna rob you or rape people and things. I'm a business man, I mean, you know I'm a business man because you find me at my places of business.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, Interview outside courthouse (1994)

“The only thing that can kill me is death, that's the only thing that can ever stop me, is death, and even then my music will live forever.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, Prison interviews and interrogations (1995)

“For every dark night, there's a brighter day. ”

Tupac Shakur

“It seems, my main thing was to be major paid
The game sharper than a motherfucking razor blade
Say money bring bitches, bitches bring lies.”

Tupac Shakur

All Eyez On Me" (1996)
1990s, All Eyez on Me (1996)

“I made a metamorphose, I'm a new person today, because I used to strongly and honestly, honestly! I feel like I can represent my generation so much because I honestly did not care whether I lived or died. But now I can not die, with people thinking I'm a rapist or a criminal, I can not leave until this shit is straight, you know I'm not suicidal. I can't go until ya'll really know what time it is. And then after that, BOOM!, It's all over and we can see how this shit fall, but that's how it is, and the reason being is because if I can't live free, if I can't live with the same respect as the next man, I don't wanna be here, because god has cursed me to see what life should be like, If God wanted me to be this person and be happy here, he wouldn't let me feel so oppressed, he wouldn't let me feel so trampled on, you know what I'm saying, he wouldn't let me think the things I think. So I feel I'm doing Gods work, you know what I'm saying just because I don't have nothing to pass around for people to put money in a bucket don't mean I ain't doing God's work.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, Ed Gordon interview (1994)

“we wouldn't ask why a rose that grew from the concrete for having damaged petals, in turn, we would all celebrate its tenacity, we would all love its will to reach the sun, well, we are the roses, this is the concrete and these are my damaged petals, dont ask me why, thank god, and ask me how”

Tupac Shakur book The Rose That Grew from Concrete

Source: The Rose That Grew from Concrete

“Niggers was the ones with the rope, hanging off trees; Niggas are the ones with gold ropes, hanging out at clubs.”

Tupac Shakur

Posthumous attributions, Tupac: Resurrection (2003)
Source: Resurrection, 1971-1996

“I gotta big mouth, I can't help it, I talk from my heart, I'm real you know what I'm sayin whatever comes comes. But my controverse problems, It's not my fault, I try to find my way in the world you know, I try to be somebody instead of just, make money off of everybody. You know what im saying, so I go down paths that haven't been traveled before and I usually mess up, but I learn, you know what I'm saying, I come back stronger, I'm not talking ignorant, you know what I'm saying. So obviously put thought into what I do. So I think my mouth, my controverse, I have not been out of the paper since I joined Digital Underground, I've been in all, you know what I'm saying, my name has not been not uttered, you know what I'm saying, and that's good for me because I don't wanna be forgotten. If I'm forgotten then that means I'm comfortable and that means I think everything is okay.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, MTV interview (1994)

“Watch people, because you can fake for a long time, but one day you're gonna show yourself to be a phony.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, Prison interviews and interrogations (1995)

“I can't explain why I shine and no one else shines. I think everybody shines in different things.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, Interview on the set of Gang Related (1996)

“You have to be logical. You know? If I know that in this hotel room they have food every day, and I'm knocking on the door every day to eat, and they open the door, let me see the party, let me see them throwing salami all over, I mean, just throwing food around, but they're telling me there's no food.”

Tupac Shakur

Posthumous attributions, Tupac: Resurrection (2003)

“I think that I'm really, I was a reactionary, and now I don't do that any more. Same person, but I don't react. Before, I reacted. I didn't like the cameras, I split.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, MTV interview with Tabitha Soren (1995)

“Prison kills your spirit, straight up. It kills your spirit. There is no creativity, there's none of that.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, Prison interviews and interrogations (1995)

“Trust nobody, TRUST NO BODY.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, Prison interviews and interrogations (1995)

“Never surrender, it's all about the faith you got: don't ever stop, just push it 'till you hit the top and if you drop, at least you know you gave your all to be true to you, that way you can never fall”

Tupac Shakur

“Sometimes when I'm alone
I Cry,
Cause I am on my own.
The tears I cry are bitter and warm.
They flow with life but take no form
I Cry because my heart is torn.
I find it difficult to carry on.
If I had an ear to confide in,
I would cry among my treasured friend,
but who do you know that stops that long,
to help another carry on.
The world moves fast and it would rather pass by.
Then to stop and see what makes one cry,
so painful and sad.
And sometimes…
I Cry
and no one cares about why.”

Tupac Shakur

“I don’t see myself being special; I just see myself having more responsibilities than the next man. People look to me to do things for them, to have answers.”

Tupac Shakur

“Everybody against me. Why? Why me? I have not brought violence to you. I have not brought Thug Life to America. I didn't create Thug Life. I diagnosed it.”

Tupac Shakur

Source: Resurrection, 1971-1996

“My biggest fear of death is to come back reincarnated”

Tupac Shakur

“It's like if you plant something in the concrete and if it grow and the rose petal got all kinda scratches and marks, you ain't gonna say "damn, look at all the scratches and marks on the rose that grew from the concrete.." you gonna be like "DAMN! a ROSE grew from the CONCRETE?”

Tupac Shakur

“The american dream wasn't meant for me, cause lady liberty's a hypocrite she lied to me, promised me freedom, education, and equality never gave me nothing but slavery but now look at how dangerous you made me callin me a mad man because im strong and bold.”

Tupac Shakur

“More money means litigating, more player-hating. Got a cell at the pen, for me waiting. Is this my fate?”

Tupac Shakur

&quot;Hold Ya Head&quot; https://play.google.com/music/preview/Te5ppuyfquh4t6lnlla3zs6w33e?lyrics=1&amp;utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=search&amp;utm_campaign=lyrics&amp;pcampaignid=kp-lyrics <br class="br">1990s, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (1996)

“You have to work from one point to go to another. So I admire work ethic, I think it should be re-inforced through out our neigbourhoods, that everybody should work hard, practice makes perfect, you have to be diligent with what you want, you have to apply your self, you have to motivate your self. You have to do for-self by your self, and then you can do things for other people. But that's what I had to do, I had to do for-self.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, MTV interview (1994)

“It's not my liking for guns, what about the NRA? We all have the rights to bear arms, I have that, I have that same right as you do. Just because I'm black doesn't mean I shouldn't have a gun; I legally own guns.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, Interview outside courthouse (1994)

“I am the future of black America.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, Vibe magazine interview (September 1996)

“Why am I fighting to live,
If I am just living to fight
Why am I trying to see.
When there aint nothing in sight
Why am I trying to give,
When no one gives me a try
Why am I dying to live,
If I am just living to die?”

Tupac Shakur

“The seed must grow regardless
Of the fact that it’s planted in stone”

Tupac Shakur book The Rose That Grew from Concrete

Source: The Rose That Grew from Concrete

“The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams.”

Tupac Shakur

“Don't support the phonies, support the real.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, Prison interviews and interrogations (1995)

“Coming to grips with my past, it was hard. I don't feel like what I did was so evil, I just feel like the way I was living, and my mentality, was part of my progression to be a man.”

Tupac Shakur

Posthumous attributions, Tupac: Resurrection (2003)
Variant: I don't feel like what I did was so evil, I just feel like the way I was living and my mentality was a part of my progression to be a man.

“Basically It's a hypocritical view, because what your saying is it's okay for us to live in the dirt, in the gutter, in less than human conditions, but it's not okay for us to tell people that we are living in these conditions.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, Interview at Death Row offices (1996)

“No, you don't wanna get me started. Jell-O with hair all in the mold. I'd be like, "Damn, man, how are you gonna mess up Jell-O?" Jell-O is so wholesome and family-like. It just ruins it for me. To have a hair in there, yeah. I mean, I'm like, "Come on, Bill Cosby pumps this, man!"”

Tupac Shakur

Posthumous attributions, Tupac: Resurrection (2003)

“I'm known as a survivor now, I hope so, for the jail thing, bullets and everything, controversies and everything, I hope so. And I want to be in the future known as somebody. You know I want people to be talking about me like you know: "remember when he was real bad, remember when Tupac was real bad". You know what I mean, they do that about a lot of actors now, like John Travolta I read stories like "remember you were wild". And all these other people, and now they're like sweet hearts. We all should get that chance, I just want my chance.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, MTV interview with Tabitha Soren (1995)

“Every day, I'm standing outside trying to sing my way in: We are hungry, please let us in. We are hungry, please let us in. After about a week that song is gonna change to: We hungry, we need some food. After two, three weeks, it's like: Give me the food Or I'm breaking down the door. After a year you're just like: I'm picking the lock. Coming through the door blasting.”

Tupac Shakur

Posthumous attributions, Tupac: Resurrection (2003)

“It's like, you hungry, you reached your level. We asked ten years ago. We was asking with the Panthers. We was asking with them, the Civil Rights Movement. We was asking. Those people that asked are dead and in jail. So now what do you think we're gonna do? Ask?”

Tupac Shakur

Posthumous attributions, Tupac: Resurrection (2003)

“I got shot. I always felt like I'd be shot. Somebody was trying to do me some harm because a lot of people don't like me. But I didn't think it was gonna happen at that particular moment.”

Tupac Shakur

Posthumous attributions, Tupac: Resurrection (2003)

“It's not like I idolize this one guy Machiavelli. I idolize that type of thinking where you do whatever's gonna make you achieve your goal.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, Vibe magazine interview (September 1996)

“If you thought about it I'm hardly the villain, I'm hardly the one you should be scared of. It's the guy who can't talk, it's the guy without a job, it's the one with scares in his face, not the one clean cut, you know what I mean you should worry about a lot of other things, but not me.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, Interview on the set Gridlock'd (1996)

“When I was a little baby, I remember that one moment of calm peace, and three minutes after that, it was on.”

Tupac Shakur

Posthumous attributions, Tupac: Resurrection (2003)

“You grew up, we grew up B. C. Before crack. That's just saying it all. You understand? You don't have parents… You have young kids, fourteen, coming home and their mama is smoking out, going to their best friend to get the product.”

Tupac Shakur

1990s, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Atlanta (1992)