Tupac Shakur
Will my enimies flee when they see me? Belive me, even thugz gotta learn to take it easy!Collection: Thug
Papa wasn't man enough, couldn't stand up to his responsibilities. Instead of taking care of me, he'd rather live lavishly.Collection: Family
I am not a perfectionist, but still I seek perfection. I am not a great romantic, but yet I yearn 4 affectionCollection: Romantic
Why isn't it hip-hop when I do it? Everybody else can have beef within the music, talk about differences and it's ok. It's music, it's hip-hop, it's ground breaking. When I do it, it's war.Collection: War
If I was white I would have been like John Wayne... I feel like a tragic hero in a Shakespeare playCollection: Hero
Dear Mama, don't cry, your baby boy's doin' good, Tell the homies I'm in heaven, and they ain't got hoods. Seen a show with Marvin Gaye last night, it had me shook, Drippin' peppermint Schnapps, with Jackie Wilson, and Sam Cooke.Collection: Baby
Death or success is what I quest, cause I'm fearless.Collection: Death
Here's a message to the new borns, waiting to breathe: if you believe then you can achieve. Just look at me, against all odds 'though life is hard, we carry on, livin' in the projects, broke with no lights on. To all the seeds that follow me- protect your essence, born with less, but you still precious.Collection: Believe
I struggle to be rugged and raw dude, trying to survive in the trials and lawsuits, Everybody wants to test me, WHY ME?Collection: Struggle
I'm used on every level. I have no friends. I have no resting place. I never sleep. I can never close my eyes. It's horrible.Collection: Sleep
They say it's the white man I should fear, But it's my own kind doin' all the killin' here.Collection: Men
We don't need no more rappers, we don't need no more basketball players, no more football players. We need more thinkers. We need more scientists. We need more managers. We need more mathematicians. We need more teachers. We need more people who care; you know what I'm saying? We need more women, mothers, fathers, we need more of that, we don't need any more entertainersCollection: Basketball
It's like if you plant something in the concrete and if it grow and the rose petal got all kinds of scratches and marks, you ain't gonna say, 'Damn, look at all the scratches and marks on the rose that grew from the concrete.' You're gonna be like, 'Damn, a rose grew from the concrete?'Collection: Music
I smoke blunt to take the pain out and if I wasn't high I'd probably blow my brains out.Collection: Suicide
Strugglin' and striving, that's how the dough come.Collection: Politics
And now i'm like a major threat, 'Cause I remind you of the things you were made to forget.Collection: Rapper
What people do for the struggle of power is madness.Collection: Struggle
I wonder if heaven got a ghetto?Collection: Death
I turn to a life of crime cause I came from a broken family.Collection: Reality
Ever since I was an itty bitty kitty, been drinking liquor out of Mama's titty.Collection: Drinking
I love William Shakespeare. He wrote some of the rawest stories. I mean look at Romeo and Juliet. That's some serious ghetto expletive. You got this guy Romeo from the Bloods who falls for Juliet, a female from the Crips, and everybody in both gangs are against them. So they have to sneak out and they end up dead for nothing. Real tragic stuff.Collection: Real
If you walked by a street and you was walking a concrete and you saw a rose growing from concrete, even if it had messed up petals and it was a little to the side you would marvel at just seeing a rose grow through concrete. So way is it that when you see some ghetto kid grow out of the dirtiest circumstance and he can talk and he can sit across the room and make you cry, make you laugh, all you can talk about is my dirty rose, my dirty stems and how am leaning crooked to the side, u can't even see that I've come up from out of that.Collection: Dirty
Misplaced hate makes disgrace the races.Collection: Hate
Gotta start teaching the children that they can be just what they want to be, there's much more to life than poverty.Collection: Education
They claim that I'm violent just cuz I refuse to be silent.Collection: Rapper
I find any great man, black or white, I'm going to study him, learn him so he can't be great to me no more.Collection: Men
Why am I fighting to live, If I am just living to fight Why am I trying to see. When there aint nothing in sight Why am I trying to give, When no one gives me a try Why am I dying to live, If I am just living to die?Collection: Fighting
I didn't get that power from gunz..coz there's no gunz in jail..I got that power from books and from thinking and strategizing...... That's what I want little niggaz to see.Collection: Book
I'd love to go back to when we played as kids, but things change. And that's the way it is.Collection: Kids
In a position to make a difference, politicians and hypocrites they don't wanna listen.Collection: Hypocrite
Let me say for the record, I am not a gangster and never have been. I'm not the thief who grabs your purse. I'm not the guy who jacks your car. I'm not down with people who steal and hurt others. I'm just a brother who fights back. I'm not some violent closet psycho. I've got a job. I'm an artist.Collection: Hurt
This duo inside of me causes the perfect opportunity to live and learn twice as fast as those who choose to accept simplicity.Collection: Thug
Only God can judge me.Collection: Rapper
I'd rather die like a man, than live like a cowardCollection: Death
I wake up in the morning and ask myself; is life worth living? Should I blast myself?Collection: Morning
I feel like our future is our confidence and self-esteem.Collection: Self Esteem
I was looking for a father, he was gone. I hung around with the thugs, and even though they sold drugs, they showed a young brother love.Collection: Family
There's no way I could pay you back but my plan is to show you that I understand, you are appreciatedCollection: Pay
Evil's lurking, I can see him smirking.Collection: Evil
You get time to appreciate things. Perspective, you start looking at things differently.Collection: Appreciate
When my Mama asks me will I ever change, I tell her yeah... But it's clear I will always be the same until the end of time.Collection: Thug
Got shot 5 times but I'm still breathing... living proof there's a God if you need a reason.Collection: Thug
I believe in God. Whatever supposed to happen supposed to happen. But I can not live in a jail cell. That's why I don't rob people and stick up people.Collection: Believe
It takes skill to be real. Time to heal each otherCollection: Real
My music is not for everyone. It's only for the stong-willed, the [street] soldiers music. It's not like party music- I mean, you could gig to it, but it's spiritual. My musi is spiritual. It's like Negro spiituals, except for the fact that I'm not saying 'We shall Overcome.' I'm saying that we are overcome.Collection: Spiritual