Tupac Shakur Quotes

I just think that rap takes way more slack than the video games and the movies. We don't make guns. Smith and Wesson makes guns. Like, white people make guns and bullets, and all we're doing is rhyming and putting words together.

Men are allowed to write songs about people and women are allowed to write songs about women.

Just because a rapper is white, I don't feel the need to attack them.

I was never a singer; I can't play any instruments; I had no training. Plus, I was brought up in a time when all the great rock stars were male. I didn't have any template for what I was doing. I did what I did out of frustration and concern.

I don't like the fact that there are so few women in rap.

I think that, by and large, the predominant voice we hear in rock music is a white male voice.

People are so confused about race and hip-hop that people didn't even consider the Beastie Boys one of the greatest rap groups of all time because they were white.

I'm proud of everything I do, but I think I'm the most happy about becoming a rapper. It was my entrance into everything. That helped me get into acting.

It infuriates me that the work of white American writers can be universal and lay claim to classic texts, while black and female authors are ghetto-ized as 'other.'

I felt bad about the controversy because they stopped playing my songs on American radio stations. But there was nothing wrong with what I did. Now everybody sings the national anthem the way they want.

In my film 'Queen', there was a funny moment with the bra. My director called and said they are blurring the bra. They said it is vulgar. Our director was furious about it. We are artistes... We see props as they are. A woman's bra is not a danger to the society.

We opened the door for women rappers.

I don't have any beef with any rapper.

I'm worried about being pigeonholed as an artist, especially a female one, but I think, essentially, it's the music which people judge you by.

For the most part, it's straight white men running these labels and publishing companies.

The music industry wants safe rock stars, people who are totally homogenised.

There's a lot of other rappers that aren't what they claim to be, and they get a pass because they're black.

Why can't we actually sing and get respected as good singers and songwriters without having our boobs and butt hanging out?

In the beginning it was very frustrating, being told girls don't sing this kind of music, and, 'Maybe you can try with pop or songs that are more romantic.'

The representation of women in hip-hop has long been so flagrantly unkind.

All we ever wanted was for Tupac to have the opportunity to tell his story.

People have said it's hypocritical for me to call myself a feminist and make the kind of music we are making, because we signed to a major in the U.K., and that system objectifies women. Or people have complained that I don't dance. But I like the idea that I can stomp around the stage if I want.

We went through an era of big dance records, an era of hip-hop being the biggest thing on the planet. The people who really break through are the people who are not afraid to express themselves in how they feel.

When we were doing shows in the mid-'90s, the audiences were 95% black. What's happened now is the gentrification of hip-hop. A lot of cities passed ordinances that made it hard for black audiences to gather in large groups. Clubs are more open to hip-hop now 'cause it's the same crowd that goes to rock shows.

I got a lot of crap for being named SZA but not being affiliated with Wu-Tang, and being a girl.