Can we talk about the rape case at all?

Okay. Nigel and Trevor took me to Nell’s. When we got there, I was immediately impressed, because it was different than any club I’d been in. It wasn’t crowded, there was lots of space, there were beautiful women there. I was meeting Ronnie Lott from the New York Jets and Derrick Coleman from the Nets. They were coming up to me, like, „Pac, we’re proud of you.“ I felt so tall that night, because they were people’s heroes and they saying I was their hero. I felt above and beyond, like I was glowing.

Soon as she finished that-just enough to get me solid, rock-hard-we got off the dance floor. I told Nigel, „I’ve got to get out of here. I’m about to take her to the hotel. I’ll see you all later.“ Nigel was, like, „No, no, no. I’m going to take you back.“ We drive to the hotel. We go upstairs and have sex, real quick. As soon as I came, that was it. I was tired, I was drunk, I knew I had to get up early in the morning, so I was, like, „What are you going to do? You can spend the night or you can leave.“ She left me her number, and everything was cool. Nigel was spending the night in my room all these nights. When he found out she sucked my dick on the floor and we had sex, he and Trevor were livid! Trevor is a big freak; he was going crazy. All he kept asking me was, „D-d-did you fuck in the ass?“ He was listening to every single detail. I thought, This is just some guy shit, it’s all good.

What happened on the night of the alleged rape?

We had a show to do in New Jersey at Club 88. This dude said, „I’ll be there with a limo to pick you up at midnight.“ We went shopping, we got dressed up, we were all ready. Nigel was saying, „Why don’t you give her a call?“ So we were all sitting in the hotel, drinking. I’m waiting for the show, and Nigel’s, like, „I called her. I mean, she called me, and she’s on her way.“ But I wasn’t thinking about her no second time. We were watching TV when the phone rings, and she’s downstairs. Nigel gave Man-man, my manager, some money to pay for the cab, and I was, like, „Let that bitch pay for her own cab.“ She came upstairs looking all nice, dressed all provocative and shit, like she was ready for a prom date.

When I went to the other suite, Man-man told me that Talibah, my publicist at the time, had been there for a while and was waiting in the bedroom of that suite. I went to see Talibah and we talked about what she had been doing during the day, then I went and laid down on the couch and went to sleep. When I woke up, Nigel was standing over me going, „Pac, Pac,“ and all the lights was on in both rooms. The whole mood had changed, you know what I’m saying? I felt like I was drugged. I didn’t know how much time had passed. So when I woke up, it was, like, „You’re going to the police, you’re going to the police.“ Nigel walks out the room, comes back with the girl. Her clothes is on; ain’t nothing tore. She just upset, crying hysterically. „Why you let them do this to me?“ She’s not making sense. „I came to see you. You let them do this to me.“ I’m, like, „I don’t got time for this shit right here. You got to chill out with that shit. Stop yelling at me and looking at me all crazy.“ She said, „This not the last time you’re going to hear from me,“ and slammed the door. And Nigel goes, „Don’t worry about it, Pac, don’t worry. I’ll handle it. She just tripping.“ I asked him what happened, and he was, like, „Too many niggas.“ You know, I ain’t even tripping no more, you know? Niggas start going downstairs, but nobody was coming back upstairs. I’m sitting upstairs smoking weed, like, Where the fuck is everybody at? Then I get a call from Talibah from the lobby saying, „The police is down here.“

And that’s what landed you in jail. But you’re saying that you never did anything?

Never did nothing. Only thing I saw was all three of them in there and that nigga talking about how fat her ass was. I got up, because the nigga sounded sick. I don’t know if she’s with these niggas, or if she’s mad at me for not protecting her. But I know I feel ashamed-because I wanted to be accepted and because I didn’t want no harm done to me-I didn’t say nothing.

How did you feel about women during the trial, and how do you feel about women now?

When the charge first came up, I hated black women. I felt like I put my life on the line. At the time I made „Keep Ya Head Up,“ nobody had no songs about black women. I put out „Keep Ya Head Up“ from the bottom of my heart. It was real, and they didn’t defend it. I felt like it should have been women all over the country talking about, „Tupac couldn’t have did that.“ And people was actually asking me, „Did you do it?“

Then, going to trial, I started seeing the black women that was helping me. Now I’ve got a brand-new vision of them, because in here, it’s mostly black female guards. They don’t give me no extra favors, but they treat me with human respect. They’re telling me, „When you get out of here, you gotta change.“ They be putting me on the phone with they kids. You know what I’m saying? They just give me love.

What’s going to happen if you have to serve time?

If it happens, I got to serve it like a trooper. Of course, my heart will be broke. I be torn apart, but I have to serve it like a trooper.

I understand you recently completed a new album.

Rapping…I don’t even got the thrill to rap no more. I mean, in here I don’t even remember my lyrics.

But you’re putting out the album, right?

Yeah. It’s called Me Against the World. So that is my truth. That’s my best album yet. And because I already laid it down, I can be free. When you do rap albums, you got to train yourself. You got to constantly be in character. You used to see rappers talking all that hard shit, and then you see them in suits and shit at the American Music Awards. I didn’t want to be that type of nigga. I wanted to keep it real, and that’s what I thought I was doing. But now that shit is dead. That Thug Life shit…;I did it, I put in my work, I laid it down. But now that shit is dead.