During a recent appearance with two of his fellow Mount Westmore members, Ice Cube got very candid about Tupac’s early days as a roadie for Digital Underground.
The “It Was A Good Day” rapper revealed on the People’s Party podcast to host Talib Kweli that he met Pac as an eager talent on-the-rise who was heavily inspired and influenced by N.W.A.. He later indicated that he wanted to make music derivative of theirs.
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Cube, 53, reflected, “We had real cool commerade. He would always tell me like, you know, ‘This Digital s**t is cool, man, but I want to do records like y’all. Cause where I live at, sh*t is f**ked up. You know what I’m saying? I want to talk about how the sh*t is.’”
He added how he nudged the slain rapper to showcase his talent, which is how Pac wound up on classic Digital Underground records like “Same Song” and “I Get Around.” Cube considered the Above The Rim star to be a “fun dude with a lot of energy” and later recalled comical moments like Pac teaching himself how to drive and his rise to becoming an acting sensation.
“I just remember him before he started really f**king with Death Row and got into that. He would f**k with John Singleton. I didn’t do Poetic Justice, so John went and got Tupac to do it. It was real cool to see John taking another rapper under his wing and turning him into a f**king star,” stated Cube. “That’s what he had did it with me, did it with Pac. He did it with Busta Rhymes. It was just cool to see another rapper in the game getting his shot on the big screen.”
E-40 also spoke on his friendship with Pac. “I called Pac and he hit me back. ’40, what’s up?’ And that was all I needed to hear. That was 1992. That’s all I needed to hear was his voice and we was locked in.”
Watch the full interview below.
