Young Noble, rapper and member of The Outlawz And unfortunately he was taken out before that could happen. It was a metamorphosis it was like he was ready to fight out of his cocoon and turn into a butterfly. I’m tired of all this drama.” Even in the seven short months that I shared with him, it seemed like he was transforming, even in that short time period. In one of our last conversations he said, “In six months from now, no one’s going to recognize me because I’m gonna be done with all this bullshit. The biggest travesty with the timing of his death was that had he lived another three to six months, he would have completely shifted not only his trajectory, but his environment. And it was our job, as far as production was concerned, to help him fulfill those dreams. And at 25, it just seemed like he had such a clear picture of where he wanted to go. He was such an anomaly, such an ingénue, that you couldn’t help but sort of become his surrogate, his lap dog you would do anything he needed done. Working with Death Row was not easy, but being in Tupac’s presence in and of itself made it all worthwhile. Working with Tupac was challenging in many ways, because we had to deal with the people that were around him. And Tupac busted through all of them and said, “That’s what I’m talking about! Look at that mother-er! He didn’t give up and he stood up against all you mother-ers! He’s a crazy Iranian!” And from that first meeting, I was known as the Crazy Iranian. I had a long leather trench coat on, but I didn’t give a f- if it got wet. I was 30 years old and liked to get in trouble a little bit, so I grabbed ‘Pac’s gun and started squirting the Outlawz, and next thing I know we’re all chasing each other around the yard, and within a minute all the Outlawz had surrounded me and I was in the middle of them trying to squirt all of them. You guys got some cute women.” And then he got a call and it was Suge and he put his water gun down on the table and started having an argument with Suge trying to get some money, and the Outlawz kept the water fight going. I went out there to meet him and he was like, “Hey, I heard about you, you’re Iranian. ‘Pac and the Outlawz were in the backyard having a water-gun fight. I remember the first time I met him, I was told to go meet him at this Malibu beach house. I was production partners with my then-girlfriend Tracy Robinson, who had been a production assistant on “Pour Out a Little Liquor.” And when he got out of Dannemora, he sent Molly Monjauze to find Tracy and at that point I sort of came with the package. Tupac Credits: “2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted” and “Made Niggaz” video director, 7 Dayz documentary director, book on Tupac photography Gobi Rahimi, music video director and Tupac’s personal videographer At this anniversary of the late icon’s death, Billboard spoke with six of ‘Pac’s collaborators - mentors, colleagues, video directors, fellow rappers - each of whom met the rapper at a different point in his life, to hear stories of their friend and colleague, the one that they knew that his millions of fans may not have gotten to see. But there was more to Tupac that the world didn’t always necessarily get to see. In those intervening decades, Tupac has become one of the symbols of hip-hop, known the world over for his lyrics, message and image. Twenty years after Tupac’s death, his music is just as relevant and vital as it was when he first released it. Now, 20 years later, it’s almost jarring to look at the world and realize that the exact same issues that Tupac spoke so passionately about are resonating again so loudly in the United States Kendrick Lamar‘s March 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly, presented almost as a long letter to Tupac, lays out that synergy.
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