I make it a point to see everything produced about Tupac. This film is far better than "Resurrection" or any of the other bios I've seen. For one thing, it correctly points out that whatever commitment Afeni Shakur showed to The Movement, she was still a lousy mother. It contains great in-depth interviews with Shock-G and others close to Tupac; and these detail his faults as well as his assets, portraying him as the brilliant, artistic, complex, individual he really was, not as a cardboard idol. If you want concert clips, this is not your flick. But if you want interviews with Tupac and his friends that you won't see elsewhere, check it out.
8 Reviews
A good documentary on the life of the rapper Tupac Shakur.
dr_eivind24 April 2003
This is a very good documentary on the life of Tupac Shakur. You get allot of information about his years growing up and the people around him.The documentary also got interviews with other rappers. If you're a 2pac fan you should see this film.
Tupac would've agreed.
Joker41519 October 2002
Tupac would've agreed of the making of this documentary. I believe this is the only documentary ever made of Tupac that ever gave him justice. This is a beautifully put together biography of Tupac's life with plenty of interviews and alot of people who loved him speaking about him and on him. This is definately a must see for tupac fans, and for anyone who has a chance to see this. Don't miss it.
The Best Tupac's history !
garik-1877 June 2002
I have seen this movie ! all fans need to buy it ! The best Tupac's history in this movie ! Go and buy it ! I promise, you'll like it ! The whole history of Tupac , picture gallery, extras, interviews etc. Pac forever. West Side for life ! Never before released audio recordings of PAC !
A good informative flick
y2jmann0111 December 2002
This is without question the best documentary since Beyond The Mat. It's informative, truthful, and intense. The language can practically go insane at some parts, but if you are mature enough, you will really enjoy it.
Good, but not that good.
ddarrynt17 July 2002
Thug Angel is QD3's/Afeni/The Shakur Estate's attempt to turn Tupac's bad public image around and show you all the good things about him, hence, Thug Angel. What the media portrayed to you wasn't Tupac, he wasn't a gangsta, he wasn't a bad person. He loved the community, he loved kids, he even turned his car around driving to the airport because he heard about a little girl getting mauled by a dog on the radio and went to the hospital to offer his support, now that's being REAL. But.... other than that, Thug Angel fails as much as it succeeds. The young 17/18 year old Tupac interview is great, he's talking about changing the world, making it a better place, talking about giving women respect, once he even heard a guy call a woman the 'B word' as he says, but then the next interview he's high off weed and hennessy and eating pizza and cussing women, it's the total opposite of what he just said and often you will find the stories and messages contradicting themselves a lot. The interviews, especially Treach's camera/bedroom incident are HILARIOUS, this isn't as good as maybe Thug Immortal, but still as Afeni milks Tupac for all he's worth, they still have about 24 hours of footage left to milk out, so expect a few more videos to come.
Selfexplanatory section of this documentary
ZeroedZero25 June 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Me and my buddies were all big fans of 2Pac during the beginning of the 90's and I must say that he invoke criminal behavior in all of us. Now this makes me wonder if all of it only was a deliberate global scam! I have provided words from the documentary that I have written down by pausing frame by frame. You decide how it sounds! Did someones want to inspire us with fabricated criminal drama?
Transcript Narrator: In 1989 when 2Pac attended a dance-function, he met Leila Steinberg. Leila were developing workshops in which young people could express themselves. They immediately connected and arranged to meet the next day. Steinberg: The first day we met, he ended up coming from the city to this place with me. That same day we did our little workshop that night and then from that night on he was a part of our group. He felt that I was like, the perfect package to get him where he needed to go. He told me what was going on at his house and within a couple of months I realized that his mother was so addicted that his house is too dysfunctional to have a career, to keep going to school so within a couple of months he ended up staying at my house. 7465 Bridget drive, and this is the apartment that I was living in with my husband and children and Pac and Ray came to stay with me here. He was the sloppiest messiest person I had ever lived with and dirty. He would never want to wash clothes. He wanted like buy new clothes to not have to clean up and wash that. At 17 he was wide-eyed and really believed that he could change the world. 2Pac: I think that those should go to school again. You know, I think that, I think that rich people should live like poor people and poor people should live like rich people and they should change every week. Steinberg: Our relationship was really a relationship that we searched for knowledge you know, we explored together. I'll just tell you a book right now, you know it has been along a long time. It's called "Ponder On This". The stuff we were exploring together; "Food for thought, Alignment, The Ancient Mysteries, Astrology, The Buddha, Challenge, Christ, The Impact of Color, Our State of Consciousness, Medicine, The Moon, The Occult Teachings, Rajneesh, Telepathy, The Kabbalah and the Tibetian book of the dead". He read roots a number of times. As you study 2Pacs lyrics you start to know and understand how much he incorporated his reading, even his last albums. So Pac would read a book like this, it's a pretty big book and he would attack peoples definitions. So what is cultural literacy and who defines it? Is it the white perspective or the multicultural perspective. 2Pac: There should be a drug class, there should be sex education, there should be a class on scams. There should be a class on religious cults. There should be a class on police brutality. There should be a class on apartheid. There should be a class on racism in America. There should be a class on why people are hungry but there are not. Steinberg: This right here is the first hall that 2Pac preformed in and it was a craft community building, and Pac did this with digital underground, packed the place. I had talked to *** and I wanted to get us a deal and he said that we would have to make a video. We decided to have our own mini-concert here on the grass so that we could show *** how tight we were. So all the kids in the building were our audience right here down on the grass, and that was the stage behind the trees and we had the "strictly dope" show.
Transcript Narrator: In 1989 when 2Pac attended a dance-function, he met Leila Steinberg. Leila were developing workshops in which young people could express themselves. They immediately connected and arranged to meet the next day. Steinberg: The first day we met, he ended up coming from the city to this place with me. That same day we did our little workshop that night and then from that night on he was a part of our group. He felt that I was like, the perfect package to get him where he needed to go. He told me what was going on at his house and within a couple of months I realized that his mother was so addicted that his house is too dysfunctional to have a career, to keep going to school so within a couple of months he ended up staying at my house. 7465 Bridget drive, and this is the apartment that I was living in with my husband and children and Pac and Ray came to stay with me here. He was the sloppiest messiest person I had ever lived with and dirty. He would never want to wash clothes. He wanted like buy new clothes to not have to clean up and wash that. At 17 he was wide-eyed and really believed that he could change the world. 2Pac: I think that those should go to school again. You know, I think that, I think that rich people should live like poor people and poor people should live like rich people and they should change every week. Steinberg: Our relationship was really a relationship that we searched for knowledge you know, we explored together. I'll just tell you a book right now, you know it has been along a long time. It's called "Ponder On This". The stuff we were exploring together; "Food for thought, Alignment, The Ancient Mysteries, Astrology, The Buddha, Challenge, Christ, The Impact of Color, Our State of Consciousness, Medicine, The Moon, The Occult Teachings, Rajneesh, Telepathy, The Kabbalah and the Tibetian book of the dead". He read roots a number of times. As you study 2Pacs lyrics you start to know and understand how much he incorporated his reading, even his last albums. So Pac would read a book like this, it's a pretty big book and he would attack peoples definitions. So what is cultural literacy and who defines it? Is it the white perspective or the multicultural perspective. 2Pac: There should be a drug class, there should be sex education, there should be a class on scams. There should be a class on religious cults. There should be a class on police brutality. There should be a class on apartheid. There should be a class on racism in America. There should be a class on why people are hungry but there are not. Steinberg: This right here is the first hall that 2Pac preformed in and it was a craft community building, and Pac did this with digital underground, packed the place. I had talked to *** and I wanted to get us a deal and he said that we would have to make a video. We decided to have our own mini-concert here on the grass so that we could show *** how tight we were. So all the kids in the building were our audience right here down on the grass, and that was the stage behind the trees and we had the "strictly dope" show.
Too sentimental
philpriestley18 August 2023
It's really hard to find an objective, unemotional examination of Tupac Shakur and his life. It really is. This documentary is another one of those very emotional takes - and you know it from the opening scenes, the overdub narration. It's really dripping in pathos. I find that hard because it needs to be scraped off to get to the truth.
The really difficult thing about Tupac is the 'black Jesus' tag. Since his death he has been repackaged and reimagined as this latter day Martin Luther King or Malcolm X character - and it seems to fit that he died young and was shot.
Look - Tupac was one of the most bipolar, manic, split personality dudes out there. At different times he wore crip blue and blood red. It wasn't a symbolic thing that was supposed to bring people together - he just went from one crew to the other and he was allowed to do that because he was Tupac and he was rich. There are countless stories about how he could be the nicest guy, he could impart wisdom, how he respected women and ask people to strive to be better... all true no doubt. There are lyrics that disrespect women, are abusive, stories of his behaviour that is impossible to condone, actions that he took that were beyond foolish and lacking in wisdom.
In death he has been painted as a martyr and a sacrifice. He has been claimed as a point of counter culture. He has been seen as a victim of the state (yeah he was too - why was the FBI following him and why did they feed him false information in prison that Biggie was behind him being shot?). As much as he was a firebrand of meaningful political concepts - he was used, he was prone to shallow and immature behaviour, he was deeply flawed, he was at time repulsive and cruel. Comedian Chris Rock makes a point that he wasn't assassinated - he got himself shot. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Malcolm X was assassinated, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. Tupac got himself shot out of his foolish emotional and egotistical behaviour.
How do we ever resolve this? It makes one of the most compelling characters of modern music culture. He is powerful - no doubt whatsoever he is hugely powerful. If you're looking for a documentary that really turns the corner on that conversation and gets that job done - I'm sorry to say that this isn't it folks. Why? Well it allows itself to get dragged into the tractor beam of sentimentality idolisation too much. It's too heavy in that direction and it's a great shame because it really does prevent it from getting under the surface of a fascinating topic and an incredible man.
(And yes - I do love a lot of Tupac's music and I respect him as a lyricist and as a rapper)
The really difficult thing about Tupac is the 'black Jesus' tag. Since his death he has been repackaged and reimagined as this latter day Martin Luther King or Malcolm X character - and it seems to fit that he died young and was shot.
Look - Tupac was one of the most bipolar, manic, split personality dudes out there. At different times he wore crip blue and blood red. It wasn't a symbolic thing that was supposed to bring people together - he just went from one crew to the other and he was allowed to do that because he was Tupac and he was rich. There are countless stories about how he could be the nicest guy, he could impart wisdom, how he respected women and ask people to strive to be better... all true no doubt. There are lyrics that disrespect women, are abusive, stories of his behaviour that is impossible to condone, actions that he took that were beyond foolish and lacking in wisdom.
In death he has been painted as a martyr and a sacrifice. He has been claimed as a point of counter culture. He has been seen as a victim of the state (yeah he was too - why was the FBI following him and why did they feed him false information in prison that Biggie was behind him being shot?). As much as he was a firebrand of meaningful political concepts - he was used, he was prone to shallow and immature behaviour, he was deeply flawed, he was at time repulsive and cruel. Comedian Chris Rock makes a point that he wasn't assassinated - he got himself shot. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Malcolm X was assassinated, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. Tupac got himself shot out of his foolish emotional and egotistical behaviour.
How do we ever resolve this? It makes one of the most compelling characters of modern music culture. He is powerful - no doubt whatsoever he is hugely powerful. If you're looking for a documentary that really turns the corner on that conversation and gets that job done - I'm sorry to say that this isn't it folks. Why? Well it allows itself to get dragged into the tractor beam of sentimentality idolisation too much. It's too heavy in that direction and it's a great shame because it really does prevent it from getting under the surface of a fascinating topic and an incredible man.
(And yes - I do love a lot of Tupac's music and I respect him as a lyricist and as a rapper)
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