Somebody help me, tell me where to go from here cause even Thugs cry, but do the Lord care?
— Tupac Shakur
Let the Lord judge the criminals.
Is it a crime, to fight, for what is mine?
What I learned in jail is that I can't change. I can't live a different lifestyle - this is it. This is the life that they gave and this is the life that I made.
It's the game of life. Do I win or do I lose? One day they're gonna shut the game down. I gotta have as much fun and go around the board as many times as I can before it's my turn to leave.
If I win and get the money, then the Oakland Police department is going to buy a boys' home, me a house, my family a house, and a Stop Police Brutality Center.
I would rather have been shot straight-up in cold blood-but to be set up? By people who you trusted? That's bad.
I just spent 11 and a half months in a maximum-security jail, got shot five times, and was wrongly convicted of a crime I didn't commit.
I don't have no fear of death. My only fear is coming back reincarnated.
America wants its respect.
My mama always used to tell me: 'If you can't find somethin' to live for, you best find somethin' to die for.'
The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams.
I'll probably be punished for hard living.
With all my fans I got a family again.
Thug Life to me is dead.
It's a struggle for every young Black man. You know how it is, only God can judge us.
I'm a reflection of the community.
I worked hard all my life as far as this music business. I dreamed of the day when I could go to New York and feel comfortable and they could come out here and be comfortable.
I just don't know how to deal with so many people giving me that much affection. I never had that in my life.
Dre was one of my heros in the music industry. If he's not down for his homeboys, I don't wanna be a part of him or around him.
All I'm trying to do is survive and make good out of the dirty, nasty, unbelievable lifestyle that they gave me.
It seems like every time you come up something happens to bring you back down.
In my mind I'm a blind man doin' time.
We all gonna die, we bleed from similar veins.
When you do rap albums, you got to train yourself. You got to constantly be in character.
The only time I have problems is when I sleep.
If you believe in God, believe in Death Row East.
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.
I think I'm a natural-born leader. I know how to bow down to authority if it's authority that I respect.
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.
Don't change on me. Don't extort me unless you intend to do it forever.
Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.
There's nobody in the business strong enough to scare me.
