Too $hort didn’t want 2Pac to be part of street life
Bay Area legend Too $hort recently explained why he chose not to let 2Pac be around his crew. During an interview on 85 South Show, $hort said he feared that his homies would introduce Pac to gang life.
“I’ve been platinum before most n-ggas,” he said. “Shock G was the leader of Digital Underground, but 2Pac was the little homie in the crew. But 2Pac started coming of age and I looked at him, I liked the n-gga. But I’m an East Oakland n-gga, right? And I seen him, he used to always keep his little thing, he was not a punk. He was ready for whatever. He was a real one.
“But I was like, ‘I cannot bring this n-gga around my homies ‘cause it’s going to be like oil and fire.’ When 2Pac got to L.A., he went 10,000 mph. I knew it! I was like, ‘I cannot bring this n-gga around my homies,’ so I literally made a conscious effort to not ever bring 2Pac to — he found his way to Richie Rich; he gave ‘Pac the town.”
He continued, “I said I wouldn’t do it ‘cause I wouldn’t want that guilt. I can’t bring ’em around them n-ggas ‘cause the kind of n-ggas I was running with the time, they would have been like, ‘Oh you wanna be a G? Come on n-gga, let’s go be a G.’”