Top 45 Tupac Quotes

Tupac and I were just close friends because we had such an insatiable drive and passion for acting and entertainment.

Tupac was a glorious person, and he had all the right intentions.

I was a super-duper Tupac fan, and I realized later, when I became a huge Nas fan and a huge Eminem fan, I was drawn to the storytellers. They all told stories in different ways, but they were all like the best storytellers.

Tupac has always been somebody who represented a higher consciousness of what it means on both sides of the coin to be black in America. He and Prince were leaders who moved to the beat of their own drum, and I can only hope to follow in their footsteps.

Tupac was the first artist that I really related to.

Biggie Smalls, Jay-Z, Nas, Eminem, Big L, Tupac. That was, like, my top five, generally.

My Mom and my Pops liked Tupac a lot.

I knew Snoop Dog didn’t start misogyny. I knew that Tupac Shakur didn’t start sexism, and God knows that Dr. Dre didn’t start patriarchy. Yet they extended it in vicious form within their own communities. They made vulnerable people more vulnerable.

He’s been my number one influence. If you say Tupac didn’t influence you, then you don’t really need to be rapping because nobody evokes that kind of emotion on a track like Tupac does.

There’s a great documentary on Tupac called ‘Resurrection’ about the last few years of Tupac’s life and how he transformed. And, ironically, how this East Coast rapper became this West Coast icon, back when all that Death Row/Sean Combs stuff was going on.

I enjoy Tupac’s music. I enjoy Tupac.

I don’t know rap. I can’t tell you a Tupac song. But you put on some go-go, and I’ll know it word-for-word. That’s why I feel like I got my own sound – or a D.C. sound.

My biggest influence is Tupac. He was a poet, and listening to Tupac is what inspired me to start rapping.

Allen Iverson was the Tupac of basketball; he was a true revolutionary.

I listened to Tupac and a lot of Biggie Smalls.

I went to Baltimore School of the Arts, which is known for discovering Tupac and Jada Pinkett-Smith.

You’ll get a kid in Liberia wearing a Tupac T-shirt, and for us, that’s zef. People try to say it’s like trash, but it’s not really trash. It’s putting things together you think are cool.

One day, I’ll be listening to a bunch of Ray Charles, the next day it’s nothing but Red Hot Chili Peppers. The next day it might be Tupac all day.

I have no secrets. Neither did Tupac, neither does my daughter. We don’t live behind secrets, we don’t live lies, we are who we are, and we are pretty happy to be who we are.

I have a lot of friends who are in love the ’90s. Girls, boys. ’90s music? That’s Tupac. That’s Biggie. That’s TLC. That’s Aaliyah. I still listen to Aaliyah. I still listen to Tupac and Biggie. There’s people who are really heavy on that culture.

My fondest memory of Tupac is my father producing ‘Toss It Up’ for him when I was 7 years old and hearing that.

Everybody has the Tupac that they admire. Certain people love the hip-hop person, the rapper. Strictly just the rapper. A lot of people, the newfound Tupac fans… they’re into Death Row-era Tupac. But that was only nine months!

Tupac is definitely an icon. There’ll never be another Tupac, so I’m not gonna ever, ever try to fill those shoes. I’m just gonna stay in my lane and be the best me that I can be.

I met Tupac through Queen Latifah in New York at this party that we were at, at a place downtown called Big City Diner.

I’m not Tupac or this prophetic dude or anything like that. I just want to make music and have fun.

A lot of people say I tried to emulate Tupac, but when I look back at my career, we’re very different artists. I took pages out of Pac’s book, of course, and lots of other rappers – Biggie, Nas – of course you take pages out of those books, but you eventually make it your own thing. And I think I did a good job of that.

Before I got signed to Bad Boy, I grew up listening to Snoop and Tupac and my hood was all Tupac driven.

Guru’s like Tupac. He just records and records and records.

They use all of the music that I did in the ’50s, ’60s and the ’70s behind people like Tupac and LL Cool J. I’m into all that stuff.

That’s what Tupac and I got from my dad – the rebellion and the need to fight back and be recognized for being different.

In 2011, a lot of people didn’t even know I did ‘Tupac Back.’

All we ever wanted was for Tupac to have the opportunity to tell his story.

I believe it is our responsibility to make sure that Tupac’s entire body of work is made available for his fans.

I’m better than Tupac and Biggie. I say that so now you know where my head at.

I think my music’s more disturbing than Tupac’s – or at least I thought some of the themes of ‘The Downward Spiral’ were more disturbing on a deeper level – you know, issues about suicide and hating yourself and God and people and everything else.

I do say things that I think will shock people. But I don’t do things to shock people. I’m not trying to be the next Tupac, but I don’t know how long I’m going to be on this planet. So while I’m here, I might as well make the most of it.

When Tupac came out, my writing changed for sure. I learned from it. It was a cultural thing.

‘Dear Mama’ is my favorite song from Tupac, man. It touches you, and I think that that’s the most important thing with music.

I think Tupac was more someone who was trying to inform us about what was going on, and he did it through entertainment.

Tupac was a person who was all about love. I feel like that’s me, too; that’s who I’ve always been.

He’s a layered person, so you have to tackle all the aspects of Tupac individually.

I like Jay-Z. I love Luda. I love Ledisi. I like Beyonce, of course. I think she’s just brilliant. She’s a triple threat. But my favorite – my all-time rapper is Tupac. See, I could have been Tupac’s girlfriend.

Growing up, you hear Tupac’s music, it’s kind of like… it goes without saying that everyone likes Tupac.

I think what it was is that Tupac was extremely passionate, very honest and raw in his approach to communicating. He understood communicating. And I think he just did it from a deep place within.

We don’t really know who killed Martin Luther King. We don’t really know who killed Bobby Kennedy. We don’t really know who killed John Kennedy. We don’t really know who killed Tupac Shakur.