Can talk about your recent encounter with police brutality at the hands of the Oakland PD?

2Pac: For everyone who doesn't know, I... an innocent young black male was walking down the streets of Oakland minding my own business and the police department saw fit for me to be trained or snapped back into my place. So they asked for my I-D and sweated me about my name because my name is Tupac. My final words to them was 'f--- y'all' . Next thing I know I was in a choke hold passing out with cuffs on headed for jail for resisting arrest. We're currently letting the law do its job by taking it through the court system. We had to file a claim. We're in the midst of having a ten million dollar law suit against OPD. If I win and get the money then the Oakland Police department is going to buy a boys home, me a house, my family a house and a 'Stop Police Brutality Center'.

Let's talk about the movie 'Juice'. How did you get involved?

2Pac: Money B had an audition for the movie. Sleuth [road manager] suggested I also come along. I went in cold turkey, read, God was with me...The movie is about 4 kids and their coming of age.It's not a hip hop movie. It's a real good movie that happens to have hip hop in it. If it was made in the 60s it would've depicted whatever was 'down' in the 60s...My character is Roland Bishop, a psychotic, insecure very violent, very short tempered individual.

What's the message you hope is gotten out of the movie?

2Pac: You never know what's going on in somebody's mind. There are a lot of things that add up. There's a lot of pressure on someone growing up. You have to watch it if it goes unchecked. This movie was an example of what can happen...In the movie my character's, father was a prison whore and that was something that drove him through the whole movie [this aspect was deleted]. It just wrecked his mind. You can see through everybody else's personality, Bishop just wanted to get respect. He wanted the respect that his father didn't get. Everthing he did, he did just to get a rep. So from those problems never being dealt with led to him ending four people's lives.

Do you intend on continuing making movies?

2Pac: It depends on whether or not there are any good parts. I want to challenge myself.

What is your philosophy on hip hop? I've heard you say you don't to see it diluted?

2Pac: Well when I said that, it made me think. It brought me to myself. Now I have a different philosophy. Hip Hop when it started it was supposed to be this new thing that had no boundaries and was so different to everyday music. Now it seems like I was starting to get caught up in the mode of what made hip hop come about. As long as the music has the true to the heart soul it can be hip hop. As long it has soul to it, hip hop can live on.

What are your plans for the next year?

2Pac: To strengthen the Underground Railroad. I have a group and a program called the Underground Railroad...The concept behind this is the same concept behind Harriet Tubman, to get my brothers who might be into drug dealing or whatever it is thats illegal or who are disenfranchised by today's society-I want to get them back into by turning them onto music. It could be R&B, hip hop or pop, as long as I can get them involved. While I'm doing that, I'm teaching them to find a love for themselves so they cxan love others and do the same thing we did for them to others. Right now we're twenty strong. The group is going to be one that constanly evolves. The people that are in the UR are coming from all over, Baltimore, Marin City, Oakland, New York, Richmond-all over.

Is there anything else we should know about Tupac?

2Pac: Yeah, the group Nothing Gold is coming. My kids are coming out with a serious message...NG is a group coming out that I produce.. All the stuff I say in my rhymes I say because of how I grew up. So to handle that, instead of going to a pyschiatrist, I got a kids group that deals with the problems a younger generation is going through. They put them into rhymes so its like a pyschology session set to music. It'll make you come to grips with what you actually do.. If you're a black man, you're going to really trip out cause they really call you out and have you deal with them...NG will make us have responsibilty again. Kids are telling you to have responsibilty...

TUPAC INTERVIEW CONTINUED