Then I was in Los Angeles interviewing the Death Row posse, I was told Tupac Shakur wasn’t available to talk. But after Randy „Stretch“ Walker was killed, I felt the need to contact Shakur. What I thought would be a five-minute conversation lasted well over an hour. „Lemme get my cigarettes,“ Shakur said as he got comfortable. He was, as usual, very candid.

Did you move to Death Row for some sort of protection?

Hell, no. There’s nobody in the business strong enough to scare me. I’m with Death Row ‚cause they not scared either.

When I was in jail, Suge was the only one who used to see me. Nigga used to fly a private plane, all the way to New York, and spend time with me. He got his lawyer to look into all my cases. Suge supported me, whatever I needed. When I got out of jail, he had a private plane for me, a limo, five police officers for security. I said, „I need a house for my moms„; I got a house for my moms.

I promised him, „Suge, I’m gonna make Death Row the biggest label in the whole world. I’m gonna make it bigger than Snoop even made it.“ Not stepping on Snoop’s toes; he did a lot of work. Him, Dogg Pound, Nate Dogg, Dre, all of them-they made Death Row what it is today. I’m gonna take it to the next level.

Is it true your marriage was annulled?

Yeah. I moved too fast. I can only be committed to my work or my wife. I didn’t want to hurt her; she’s a good person. So we just took it back to where we were before.

I wanna put a rumor to rest. Did something happen to you in prison?

Kill that rumor. That got started either by some guards or by some jealous niggas. I don’t have to talk about whether or not I got raped in jail. If I wouldn’t lay down on the floor for two niggas with pistols, what the fuck make you think I would bend over for a nigga without weapons? That don’t even fit my character.

Do you or Death Row have any beef with Puffy or Biggie?

[Laughs] I don’t got no beef with nobody, man. I let the music speak for itself. If you know, you know; if you don’t, you don’t. Ain’t no mystery-niggas know what time it is.

So is this an East Coast/West Coast thing?

It’s not like I got a beef with New York or nothing, but I do have problems. And I’m representing the West Side now. There’s people disrespecting the West Coast-„It’s only gangsta shit, it ain’t creative enough, it’s fucking up the art form“-even though we made more money for this art form than all those other motherfuckers. The artists now who selling records stole our style. Listen to ‚em-Biggie is a Brooklyn nigga’s dream of being West Coast.

You used the word jealousy-

Let’s be real. Be real, Kev. Doesn’t Biggie sound like me? Is that my style coming out of his mouth? Just New York-tized. That big player shit. He’s not no player-I’m the player.

What about all the kids who look up to you and Biggie who don’t understand all this?

Regardless of all this stuff-no matter what he say, what I say-Biggie’s still my brother. He’s black. He’s my brother. We just have a conflict of interest. We have a difference of opinion.

How can we stop this disagreement before someone gets killed?

I don’t want it to be about violence. I want it to be about money. I told Suge my idea: Bad Boy make a record with all the East Coast niggas. Death Row make a record with all the West Coast niggas. We drop the records on the same day. Whoever sell the most records, that’s who the bombest. And then we stop battling. We could do pay-per-views for charity, for the community.

What about Death Row and Bad Boy doing something together?

That’s as together as we can get. For money. What about getting together as black men? We are together as black men-they over there, we over here. If we really gonna live in peace, we all can’t be in the same room. Yellow M&M’s don’t move with green M&M’s. I mean, you don’t put M&M’s peanuts with M&M’s plain. You hear me?

What about this hostility that people are feeding into? Can you and Suge and Puffy and Biggie sit down-

But that’s corny. That’s just for everybody else-they just wanna hear what the conversation is about. I know my life’s not in danger. They shouldn’t feel like they gotta worry about me. Puffy wrote me while I was in jail. I wrote him back that I don’t got no problems with him. I don’t want it to be fighting, I just wanna make my money. You can’t tell me I’ve gotta sit down and hug and kiss niggas to make everybody else feel good. If there was beef, niggas would know.

Your new album is called All Eyes on Me. Can you describe it in a phrase?

Relentless. It’s like, so-uncensored. I do not suggest that children buy this album. There’s a lot of cursing. There’s a lot of raw game that needs to be discussed in a family moment before you let them listen.

What would you suggest parents tell their kids to prepare them for it?

Explain to them that because I’m talking about it doesn’t mean that it’s okay. This comes from someone who just spent 11 and a half months in a maximum-security jail, got shot five times, and was wrongly convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. This is not from a normal person.

Do you feel that you’re a leader?

I think so. I think I’m a natural-born leader because I’m a good soldier. I know how to bow down to authority if it’s authority that I respect. If Colin Powell was president, I’d follow him.

I wanna get into politics. That’s the way for us to overcome a lot of our obstacles. Nothing can stop power or recognize power but power. If Bosnia disrespects America, they gonna go to war. ‚Cause America wants its respect. And we sit down after they recognize that they should respect America. Before we can communicate, there has to be mutual respect. And we don’t have that.

Where’s Tupac gonna be in the year 2000?

I’ll be much calmer than I am now.

Why aren’t you calm right now?

You know-how would you feel if someone violated you? I was set up. I would rather have been shot straight-up in cold blood-but to be set up? By people who you trusted? That’s bad.

Why do you think so many young black men around the country identify with you?

‚Cause we all soldiers, unfortunately. Everybody’s at war with different things. With ourselves. Some are at war with the establishment. Some of us are at war with our own communities.

What are you at war with?

Different things at different times. My own heart sometimes. There’s two niggas inside me. One wants to live in peace, and the other won’t die unless he’s free.

What about the Tupac who’s the son of a Black Panther, and Tupac the rapper?

Tupac the son of the Black Panther, and Tupac the rider. Those are the two people inside of me. My mom and them envisioned this world for us to live in, and strove to make that world. So I was raised off those ideals, to want those.

But in my own life, I saw that that world was impossible to have. It’s a world in our head. It’s a world we think about at Christmas and Thanksgiving. I had to teach my mother how to live in this world like it is today. She taught me how to live in that world that we have to strive for. And for that I’m forever grateful. She put heaven in my heart. K.P.

Man who gang informants in Compton, California March 21 [10:00 EST] — Orlando Anderson, the say murdered rapper Tupac Shakur, put in a public appearance Thursday morning on CNN to profess his innocence.

„I want to let everybody know, you know what I’m saying, I didn’t do it,“ Anderson said in the CNN interview. „I been thinking that maybe I’m like a scapegoat or something,“ he added.

Anderson’s lawyer, Edi M. O. Faal was also on hand for the interview, saying, „This young man is almost acting like a prisoner now. He is very careful where he goes, he is very careful when he goes out.“

Anderson denies that he’s a member of the Crips gang, but police in his hometown of Compton disagree.

CNN did not ask Anderson about allegations that he was involved in another murder last April, and a subsequent shooting last October.

October 29 [12:30 EDT] — Following up on a project we first reported about on Tuesday, more details are now available concerning a new double album from slain rapper Tupac Shakur.

The album, called „R U Still Down? (Remember Me),“ will feature material recorded from 1991 to 1994 while Tupac was signed to Interscope Records. MTV News erroneously reported that the material would be culled from the vaults of Death Row Records, which signed Tupac away from Interscope in 1995.

As previously reported, the first single from „R U Still Down? (Remember Me)“ will be a track called „I Wonder If Heaven Got A Ghetto,“ and Amaru Records notes that Lionel C. Martin, who directed Tupac’s „Dear Mama“ clip will shoot a video for the song.

„R U Still Down?“ will be the maiden effort from Amaru Records, the label started by Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur, and also marks a joint venture between Amaru, Interscope, and Jive Records. As part of a new agreement, Jive will be the exclusive distributor of Tupac’s four Interscope albums, „2Pacalypse Now,“ „Thug Life,“ „Strictly For My N.I.G.G.A.Z.“ and „Me Against The World.“

Jan. 28 [8:00 EST] — According to one of Tupac Shakur’s former producing partners, the late rapper left behind an enormous catalog of unreleased material when he died in Las Vegas last September.

Johnny Jackson, who recently sued Death Row Records for royalties he claims he is owed for his work on Tupac’s „All Eyez On Me,“ told the „Los Angeles Times“ that Tupac finished work on more than 150 songs before he was fatally shot. Jackson reportedly told the „Times“ that the bulk of the unreleased material was recorded during the sessions for „All Eyez On Me.“

Some of the songs will trickle out in the near future on the soundtracks for „Gridlock’d“ and „Gang Related,“ two films the rapper completed before his death.

However, the „Times“ reports that future of the rest of the Tupac archive is not known.

September 8 [10:00 EDT] — Does the literary cannon that includes Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Keats have room for Tupac Shakur?

Maybe not, but the poetry of the late rapper will be the subject of scholarly debate at the University of California at Berkeley this fall.

According to the Associated Press, a junior will lead approximately 100 students through the pass/fail course this semester, and will examine the poetry that Shakur left behind after his death one year ago.

The AP also reports that the rapper’s mother, Afeni Shakur, is hoping to publish a collection of Tupac’s poetry.

August 26 [16:00 EDT] — Fans looking for more than just music from their favorite artists may want to check out new product lines of interview CDs and home videos, the former courtesy of the reborn Beserkley label, the latter through a new company called Beast Video.

Son of Beserkley, a label operated by Matthew Kaufman who started the original much beloved Beserkley in the early eighties with artists like Jonathon Richman, Greg Kihn and The Rubinoos, will be issuing interview CDs with the Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana this fall. The Smashing Pumpkins, a 3-CD set due in September, was one of the last band interviews prior to the firing of drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. The Nirvana disk, scheduled for October, features one of the last interviews recorded with the whole band just a few months prior to the death of Kurt Cobain.

The label has already released albums featuring rare Q & A sessions with Jerry Garcia, Jim Morrison and Oasis, all conducted by top journalists.

On the visual end, unauthorized documentaries on Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. will also be hitting the stores this fall. According to Beast Video, „Tupac: Words Never Dies“ and „Notorious B.I.G.: Bigga Than Life“ will be presenting in-depth looks at both the rappers‘ lives with previously unreleased concert footage and interviews purchased from radio and TV stations. Both videos are scheduled for release in early September.

According to the Billboard Bulletin, Beast also plans to release an unauthorized Spice Girls production in about a month.

December 10 [16:45 EDT] — Tupac Shakur’s biological father won’t be sharing in his son’s fortune.

The contributions of William Garland were „miniscule“ according to Judge Arnold Gold when it came to the care and support of his son as a child, thus the New Jersey trucker was not entitled to any part of the late rapper’s estate, much less the 50% share Garland was seeking.

According to a Nando News Service report, Shakur’s mother, Afeni, had strenuously fought the petition. Judge Gold heard mostly her testimony during a three-day trial that showed Garland’s contributions to his biological son’s upbringing were not much more than $820, a bag of peanuts and a ticket to the movie „Rollerball.“ Garland didn’t see his son for 15 of the rapper’s 25 years.

Shakur was shot in 1996. His estate remains tied up with various legal actions which could be worth millions by the time it’s all sorted out.

Jan. 28 [8:00 EST] — Only Alanis Morissette and Toni Braxton walked away from Monday night’s American Music Awards in Los Angeles with more then one trophy as each singer came away with two statuettes each. Meanwhile, Mariah Carey was shut out of the winners‘ circle, despite five nominations.

Morissette was named „Favorite Female Artist – Pop/Rock“ and her „Jagged Little Pill“ was voted „Favorite Album – Pop/Rock,“ while Braxton took home honors for „Favorite Female Artist – Soul/Rhythm & Blues“ and „Favorite Album – Soul/Rhythm & Blues“ for her „Secrets.“

Monday night’s AMAs spread the wealth to many artists and offered up few surprises. Late rapper Tuapc Shakur was named „Favorite Artist – Rap/Hip Hop,“ Smashing Pumpkins picked up and award for „Favorite Artist – Alternative,“ and Metallica were voted „Favorite Artist – Metal/Hard Rock.“

Perhaps the only real surprises of the evening were the omission of fan favorites No Doubt and the Fugees from the ranks of the victorious. Jewel edged No Doubt for the „Favorite New Artist – Pop/Rock“ crown, providing one of the night’s few touching moments.

„I went from living in a car to being here today. Don’t ever lose hope … it works,“ said the 22-year-old Alaskan singer, whose full name is Jewel Kilcher.

The ceremony’s performances packed a heavier wallop than usual, with appearances by Metallica, Bush, and the recently-reformed Motley Crue (who dusted off their 1983 nugget „Shout At The Devil„).

Artists who walked away from the AMAs empty-handed can gain retribution when the Grammy Awards are handed out in New York City on February 26.

Nominees for the AMAs were chosen based on radio airplay and retail sales, and winners were then voted on by some 20,000 average American music buyers.

If you’re keeping score at home, here’s a complete list of winners:

Pop/Rock
Favorite Male Artist – Eric Clapton
Favorite Female Artist – Alanis Morissette
Favorite Band, Duo, Group – Hootie and the Blowfish
Favorite Album – „Jagged Little Pill“ (Alanis Morissette)
Favorite New Artist – Jewel

Alternative Music
Favorite Artist – The Smashing Pumpkins

Rap/Hip Hop
Favorite Artist – 2Pac

Heavy Metal/Hard Rock
Favorite Artist – Metallica

Soul/Rhythm & Blues
Favorite Male Artist – Keith Sweat
Favorite Female Artist – Toni Braxton
Favorite Band, Duo, Group – New Edition
Favorite Album – „Secrets,“ Toni Braxton
Favorite New Artist – D’Angelo

Soundtrack
Favorite Soundtrack – „Waiting to Exhale,“ Various Artists

Adult Contemporary
Favorite Artist – Whitney Houston

Country
Favorite Male Artist – Garth Brooks
Favorite Female Artist – Shania Twain
Favorite Band, Duo, Group – Brooks & Dunn
Favorite Album – „Blue Clear Sky,“ George Strait
Favorite New Artist – LeAnn Rimes

Non-Competitive Categories
Award of Merit – Little Richard
International Artist Award – the Bee Gees