Tupac and the Outlawz

S = James G. Spady
N = Napoleon
K = Kadafi
YN = Young Noble

S: How did each of you meet Pac?
N: EDI and Kastro grew up with him as family cousins. Me, Noble and Fatal came into the clique through Kadafi, Pac’s half brother (May he rest in peace). Kadafi was Pac’s half brother. We were all from Jersey.
S: Kastro, what is your earliest memory of Pac?
K: The earliest memory of Pac? That’s my cousin, man. I been knowing him.
E: They Fam!!!
S: But you might see your cousin once a year. That doesn’t tell me how you met him orknew him. I got cousins I’ve never seen.
K: Nah. We grew up in the same household. Yeah!!! Yeah, that’s right, Sun.
S: When did you know he was rhyming.
K: I knew he was rhyming when he was probably… I don’t know what age. But it wasin the eighties. He always was like… You could tell he was something special. You know what I’m saying. He was always creative and talented. He used to act around the houseand write some little plays that we used to do for the family and shit like that.
S: But you didn’t know he was going to blow up like that, though, did you?
K: Yes, I did. I thought he was going to be something. When you’re young, youknow you don’t see the pinnacle of things. I just knew he was gonna be the one out of the family that would’ve did something before anybody else. No doubt about it.
S: Did he talk to you about that kind of stuff ?
K: I mean. I’m like seven years younger than Pac. So, I ain’t like, too much , care about
his dreams and stuff like that.
S: So you knew him when he got into the rap game heavy?
K: Nah, it’s the same thing. He was always like that. When we were in the same house he was the leader. We used to follow him. We wanted to be like him. So as far as I’mconcerned , ain’t too much changed. When we started Tha Outlawz, ain’t too much
changed. I always was like his little cousin. He always was like my big cousin. As he got older, he put me on to more things like a big cousin would do.
S: What did Pac tell you about the rap game?
K: He taught me everything I need to know, Brother.
S: What were the most important things he taught you about the music industry.
YN: Keep your publishing rights. That’s something Pac taught us, “Keep your publishing.”
S: So y’all already knew this going into the deal with Death Row?
YN: We had our minds set. We not letting nobody dictate what we do as far as ourbusiness. These are our careers. We are not going to just let anything happen to us.
Know what I mean? We learning though. Everybody gets had in the business. You gottago through that to learn your business. We young brothers, man. We trying to learn the
business just like everybody else.
S: Why do you think Pac emphasized, “Keep your publishing?”
N: You gonna have that for the rest of your life.
YN: You gonna get that money forever. So keep that. Your kids and stuff going tobe eating off that money. When I first met Pac, I met him in L.A. right after he gotoutta jail. But I grew up with his brother Kadafi. You know what I mean. We went toElementary school together. It’s like I already felt him. You know how it be, man. If I
grow up with you when your cousin come around, I automatically know you. It’s alreadyfamily. Pac wasn’t just a rapper to us, man. That was our teacher, our brother, our father. It wasn’t
even like that.
S: What had Kadafi told you about Pac before you met him?
YN: Well, he was just saying his brother was doing big things as far as the Rap go. Thiswas before Pac really came out with something. ‘Yeah. Yeah. Everybody say that.’ Butyou don’t. You know what I mean. Cause it’s a lot of people round the way wasn’t reallytrying to hear it, know what I mean, until Pac came out. I remember we seen Yak in theSource and he was modeling for Karl Kani and everybody was proud of him. Like, yeah...

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