“Behind every sweet smile, there is a bitter sadness that no one can see and feel.”

“I said, I’m gonna write a song about the women like my mom, women like my sister, who I think represent the strong black women, and I did that. Now I’mma write about the women I see everyday and that was ‘[I] Get Around.’ If I just write songs like ‘Keep Ya Head Up’ it would make me seem more than what I am, but I’m just a normal man.”

“What makes me saying ‘I don’t give a f***,’ different from Patrick Henry saying ‘Give me liberty or give me death?’ What makes my freedom any different than Bosnians or who ever [America] wants to fight for this year? They should give money to the ghetto.”

“Don’t live to fight, fight to live.”

“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.”

“Why can’t [the President] take some of those people off the street and put them in his White House? Then he’ll have people from the street to help him with his ideas. They haven’t been homeless forever; they’ve done things for society.”

“I want to grow. I want to be better. You grow. We all grow. We’re made to grow. You either evolve or you disappear.”

“Until it happened, I really did believe that no Black person would ever shoot me. I believed that I didn’t have to fear my own community, You know, I was like I represent them. I’m their ambassador to the world, they will never do me wrong.”

“Every time I speak I want the truth to come out. Every time I speak I want a shiver. I don’t want them to be like they know what I’m gonna say because it’s polite. I’m not saying I’m gonna rule the world or I’m gonna change the world, but I guarantee you that I will spark the brain that will change the world.”

“I set goals, take control, drink out my own bottle. I make mistakes but learn from every one. And when it’s said and done, I bet this brother be a better one. If I upset you don’t stress; never forget, that God isn’t finished with me yet.”

“If you let a person talk long enough you’ll hear their true intentions! Listen twice, speak once.” -Tupac Shakur

“We can never go nowhere unless we share with each other.”

“You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could’ve, would’ve happened…or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the f*** on.”

“Never surrender, it’s all about the faith you got; don’t ever stop, just push it ‘till you hit the top and if you drop, at least you know you gave your all to be true to you, that way you can never fail.”

“The same crime element that white people are scared of black people are scared of. While they waiting for legislation to pass, we next door to the killer. All them killers they let out, they’re in that building. Just because we black, we get along with the killers? What is that?”

“Even the genius asks questions.”

“I shall not fear man but God, though I walk through the valley of death.”

“I am not a perfectionist, but still I seek perfection. I am not a great romantic, but yet I yearn for affection.”

“Even warriors put their spears down on Sundays.”

“There’s no way I could pay you back but my plan is to show you that I understand, you are appreciated.”

“You just can’t be calling us fakers and pretenders and non-creative and say we can’t freestyle.”

“No matter who committed the crime, they all yell at me. And the media is greedier than most. You could sell ‘em your soul and they’ll be on ya till a nigga’s a ghost.”

“I feel like Black Jesus got his hands on me and guides me through life to put me where I’m supposed to be.”

“You can never “just be friends” with someone you fall in love with.”

“Follow your heart, but take your brain with you.”

“It takes skill to be real. Time to heal each other.”

“Out of anger comes controversy, out of controversy comes conversation, out of conversation comes action.”

“America wants its respect.”

“I worked hard all my life as far as this music business. I dreamed of the day when I could go to New York and feel comfortable and they could come out here and be comfortable.”

“The only time I have problems is when I sleep.”

“If you could walk a mile in my shoes you’d be crazy too.”

“I didn’t choose the thug life, the thug life chose me.”

“No matter what these people say about me, my music doesn’t glorify any image. My music is spiritual when you listen to it. It’s all about emotion, I tell my innermost, darkest secrets.”

“Don’t change on me. Don’t extort me unless you intend to do it forever.”

“They got money for the war but can’t feed the poor.”

“What people do for the struggle of power is madness.”

“Imperfection is inherited, therefore we all sin, but fighting the war of sin is the greatest war of all because we all die in the end, no matter how hard we fight.”

“I’m not perfect. But I’ll always be real.”

“I know death follows me, but I murder him first.”

“Ain’t a woman alive that can take my momma’s place.”

“This fast life soon shatters, cause after all the lights and screams, nothing but my dreams matter.”

“Unconditional love. Talking bout the stuff that don’t wear off, it don’t fade. It’ll last for all these crazy days, these crazy nights. Whether you wrong or you right, I’ma still love you, still feel you, still there for you. No matter what, you will always be in my heart with unconditional love.”

“I know what good morals are, but you’re supposed to disregard good morals when you’re living in a crazy, bad world. If you’re in hell, how can you live like an angel? You’re surrounded by devils,trying to be an angel? That’s like suicide.”

“I don’t want it if it’s that easy.”

“It don’t stop ’til the casket drop.”

“I am a hard person to love but when I love, I love really hard.”

“I did not wanted to become the victim, so became the bully.”

“Don’t believe everything you hear. Real eyes, realize, real lies.”

“We was young and we was dumb, but we had heart.”

“Is it a crime to fight for what is mine?” -Tupac Shakur