![Ice-T Gets Emotional Reflecting On 2Pac's Demise: 'Death Row Trained [Him] To Be A Killer'](https://hiphopdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ice-t-gets-emotional-reflecting-on-2pac-demise.jpg?w=860)
Ice-T’s otherwise spirited Drink Champs interview was marked by a brief moment of poignancy when the gangsta rap legend reflected on the demise of 2Pac, saying Death Row Records was “training him to be a killer.”
During his lengthy interview with N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN, Ice-T was asked if he felt there was a difference between ‘Pac’s early career as a backup dancer and occasional MC for Digital Underground and his commercial peak when he was signed to Suge Knight’s infamous record label.
“Absolutely,” he answered. “When I first met ‘Pac and Money-B and all them, it was Digital Underground, so you got Shock G who’s a hundred percent different. I didn’t even recognize ‘Pac as militant or nothing like that, just as a dancer, friend, cool.
“And when he came out, I was like, ‘Yo, that’s the same dude!’ But I couldn’t disrespect him because his lyrics were deep, and I got to work on [Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z…] — me, him and Cube on ‘Last Wordz.'”
He added: “So what people don’t understand is, I love ‘Pac. But he’s an artist to me, he was just another artist. People are like, ‘Pac is a God!’ But ‘Pac is an artist. We were friends.”
Ice-T then recalled the time that Shock G — the Digital Underground frontman who was ‘Pac’s early mentor and who sadly passed away himself in 2021 — visited his house and pleaded with him to have a sit-down with the All Eyez On Me rapper during his ultimately fateful stint on Death Row.
“I had a story where Shock G came to my house,” he said. “I lived in the Hollywood Hills, Shock came to my door. I said, ‘Why the fuck you knocking on my door?’ He said, ‘I was up in the Hills, I asked does any Black people live up here.’ They said, ‘Ice lives right over there.’ So Shock knocked on my door.
“We sat down and he was like, ‘Ice, talk to ‘Pac, man. They feeding ‘Pac gunpowder. ‘Pac is not listening to me.'”
Ice-T then briefly paused his story as he began to choke up off-camera. However, he was able to quickly regain his composure and continued reflecting on 2Pac’s tragic and untimely ending.
“See the thing is, when you working with a rapper, you have to get a rapper in a state of mind,” he said. “Death Row was training ‘Pac to be a killer, which you heard in the music.
“But I did a thing for Mike Tyson which is like, you train a man to be a pitbull then you get mad when he eats the furniture. You see what I mean? So that energy bled into the streets, to his demise.”
During his previous appearance on Drink Champs back in 2017, Ice-T spoke more about his relationship with 2Pac and revealed he rebuked the late rapper the first time he heard “Hit ‘Em Up,” his infamous 1996 diss song aimed at Biggie.
“He was at my house with The Outlawz, a couple of The Outlawz, and he played me ‘Hit ‘Em Up.’ And I didn’t like it,” Ice said. “I was like, ‘You gon’ start some shit.’ I didn’t like him starting the beef. I said, ‘You going in on dude’s wife and all that.’
“Then at that time, he thought B.I.G. had shot him. You ain’t supposed to be handling that with a record. Really, are you? So, we kinda was on bad terms with that because he wanted me to ride with him, but I was like, ‘I couldn’t.’”
Meanwhile, fellow West Coast rapper Kurupt also recently reflected on 2Pac’s turbulent time on Death Row, revealing his 1996 murder was the reason he departed the label.
“Everywhere we was going we had to keep our eyes open, 10 toes on the ground,” he told The Art of Dialogue. “We had to stay heated and make sure that we protected ourselves. And then to go to Death Row and feel the same way as when we in the streets: we all kinda got burnt on that.”
“We all was a little tired of walking on egg shells,” Tha Dogg Pound member continued. “Because if we gon’ be here and it feels the same was as being on the streets, then what’s the difference? If a n-gga gotta come to the studio heated, what’s the difference?
“Dr. Dre set up the woo-wop, like, ‘It can be done, you can leave.’ When I saw Dr. Dre do that, then 2Pac died, that was the final straw for me. N-ggas is getting shot even with Suge. Now that is it.”
Pac was the same person before he got to death row, they weren’t training him. Hip hop has become tiring with people wanting their narrative to be the truth because of how they feel about a certain person or how they want you to feel about someone. Pac was rageful before he got to death row it was in his music and behavior, he was getting into fights going to jail, even shooting at cops. Pac had anger issues at time and maybe drugs and drink made it worse. The only thing death row did was enable his behavior. Pac was intelligent enough to know that his reckless behavior would lead to the worse for him. Death row gets to much credit. That back up dancer Pac had to fit into what Digital Underground was doing, he couldn’t fully be himself or talk about what he wanted to talk about, when you’re playing a small role in someone else’s big picture you gotta adjust to keep it rolling for you to get to where you want to go. I don’t think Pac was ever really a thug he was just a angry dude at times with a lot of talent who understood how to potray his talent through music and acting,
“The only thing death row did was enable his behavior”…the ONLY thing?? It was a pretty big thing, seeing as it lead to his demise.
Well said
Yep. Everybody has met somebody who might be next to somebody else that you wouldn’t think they would hang around, and they are totally different from around them. That was Pac. DU was a job and his homies, but dude came from that Black Panther background, and nobody was going to tell him shit or how to be. When he met Suge, he just met the match to his gasoline. Pac was always known to be in some shit every other month before he ever went to Death Row. His last year alive with them was probably his most calm and stable time in the music industry. Death Row just was with the shits off the mike just like him, so of course it was going to be what it was when they linked up. I think he even knew that, which is why he resisted hooking up with them when Suge first was trying to get him in like 93/94. After getting shot, that also probably warped his mindset to where he didn’t give a fuck and rolled with it.
He was going to be that way regardless is the point. He was way worse before he got to Death Row.
Yeah so we should listen to favorable opinions of children who never met Pac vs someone 15 years older than Pac that knew him and his homies well. Delusional. The truth hurts though so i get it. Whatever helps you sleep at night.
With the mothers black panther background it did rub off on to him i mean it had to she was his mother that carried its own baggage how about you have broken in to the game of course brothers be plotting all kinds of shit all of the time like when you talk pac his informative outbursts nobody listens really if it wasn’t for them maybe we don’t care as much but pac had something to say for some reason he didn’t give a fuck who was listening and how many these heffas be comparing themselves to pac there was only one
These people need to stop. Pac was calmer at Death Row than he was before then. He just was a wild motherfucker. Always was. Sometimes, I wonder if people read his rap sheet before the NY conviction. Pac used to stay in and out of jail every other month. He always had cases pending. He always was in some shit. Shorty B told a story about how he scooped Pac up by randomly off the street in ATL to go do that We Do This song with $hort, and Pac was about to throw a brick through the window of a business because some white folks working there disrespected him. Dude was just off the chain with that Panther spirit in him, and it was authentic, but it also got him trouble and eventually killed. We all know livewire people like that, and nobody is going to change them.
Nothin’ but respect and luv to Triple OG Ice T but Pac was a hellrazor long before Death Row