Top 50 Tupac Quotes

Everything Tupac said was introspective. He was really honest with himself about himself. He knew his flaws, but he also had such love for his work and his people.

You know, Tupac would go into the studio and make like six or seven songs in one day. That’s how he operated. He was real quick with his pen.

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

I was a big hip hop girl, and still am, I listened to artists like Wu Tang, and K’Naan, but I was a particular fan of Biggie and Tupac.

I think people have gotten to know Tupac much better since he’s been gone than they did when he was here.

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.

I’m a Tupac man myself. And my all-time favorite song, Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.’

You know, Tupac is very near and dear to my heart. He started my career as an actor.

I’ve got an extra-specific story about Dr. Dre. I saw him when I was 9 years old in Compton – him and Tupac. They were shooting the second ‘California Love’ video. My pops had seen him and ran back to the house and got me, put me on his neck, and we stood there watching Dre and Pac in a Bentley.

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.

Tupac was the first artist that I really related to.

I loved B.I.G., but not like I liked Tupac, because he was an actor, so I related to him.

With Biggie, I thought his flow and his swag was better than Tupac’s, but I thought Tupac’s passion and ability to relate to the average person was better than Biggie, and I thought Nas was kind of like both, with a lot substance going but a lot of swag.

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

I would say Tupac influenced me the most to start rapping, but as far as a female icon that I’ve looked up to since I was six or seven is definitely Gwen Stefani.

When I was growing up, it was ‘All Eyes On Me’ by Tupac and ‘Doggy Style’ by Snoop Dogg. I’ve met Snoop and he’s the best. They say you shouldn’t meet your idol – that definitely doesn’t apply to him.

I wanted to be like Tupac.

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.

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

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.

My dad’s Nigerian, and I remember going to Nigeria, and all of these kids and adults and everyone in-between knew who TuPac was. They had TuPac t-shirts, TuPac posters, TuPac cassettes… everyone knew TuPac, and sometimes that was the only English that they spoke, was TuPac lyrics.

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.

I often say that I want to write like Tupac rapped. I could listen to his album, and within a few minutes, I could go from thinking deeply to laughing to crying to partying.

As I got older, I really got into Tupac’s poetry, his books and just learning about his life and what he was into.

I think that Tupac was the trendsetter, the high mark. What we hope his music will continue to do is to at least encourage people away from mediocrity, because he was not a mediocre artist. When he was alive, people competed. There was a lot of competition, and a lot of the artists were better for it.

I speak my mind. That’s what we loved Tupac for.

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.

It’s all about the family tree, there’s a family tree. You know Melly Mel birthed KRS-One, KRS-One I think birthed Tupac.

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

I submerged myself in his life. Before I went to sleep at night, that’s what I was watching. The videos would literally be going on while I was sleep; that’s what I was hearing in my sleep. I woke up in the morning, Tupac.

The thing is, I’ve always wanted to be a star. I’ve always wanted to be an Elvis Presley or a Tupac – like, a huge icon.

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.

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

Tupac is definitely a legend.

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.

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

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

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

Tupac is my favorite artist, and he had mad style.

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.

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.

Even after his death, Tupac is as powerful as he was when he was living.

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

Tupac is huge; he’s an inspiration. Arguably, he’s probably the biggest, most analyzed and loved artist of all time.

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.

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!

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

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

I fell in love with hip-hop a little bit late; I grew up on Another Bad Creation and Kris Kross. But my mom got me a TV in my room, and I remember seeing Biggie’s ‘Give Me One More Chance,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, this is how a house party looks!’ I really, really fell in love with it when Tupac created ‘Dear Mama.’

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.