Benzino remembers his relationship with Tupac Shakur as being a positive one but says the events that unfolded after they recorded their song permanently damaged rap as we know it!!!
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00I knew Tupac personally.
00:03I was able to record a song called Killer with him and Freddie Fox in the studio live
00:08with him.
00:09That was a hell of an experience.
00:10I wasn't really expecting that.
00:12At the time, I was signed to Flava Unit, big up to Shaquem and Latifah, and I was able
00:18to actually record a song.
00:20It's on YouTube.
00:21It's called Killer.
00:22He came in, him and Stretch, rest in peace, his brother Mo Prim, and we did the song,
00:28man.
00:29It was pretty exciting.
00:30I've also had a chance to record at Quad Studios, so I am familiar with it right there being
00:38in Times Square.
00:39You go up on the elevator.
00:43Being that the source was actually covering that whole East Coast, West Coast thing, and
00:49this was the catalyst for that, I think TV One is doing a great job with Celebrity Crime
00:57Files and re-hatching the story because of all the information since then that has pretty
01:03much arose with different people because a lot of people weren't able to talk, or a lot
01:09of people were kind of scared to talk back then, so now we're in the time of interviews
01:15and podcasts, and everybody over the years have been telling their stories.
01:19I think they've felt a lot more comfortable.
01:22We lost two giants with him and Biggie in this industry.
01:26That was the night that hip-hop really, I don't want to say died, but it took a lot
01:31of the wind out of hip-hop when we lost Tupac and Biggie, and a lot of perspectives, a lot
01:36of stories, a lot of answers.
01:39You knew Stretch.
01:42He's become a mythical figure.
01:44He got slaughtered on Holler At Me, on All Eyes On Me.
01:49Tell me about Stretch.
01:50Who was he to you and to the space?
01:53The Live Squad was the group that he was a part of, and I was assigned to the Almighty
01:57Hours, so we were both assigned to Tommy Boy when I first met Stretch, and he was out of
02:02Queens.
02:03I'll never forget that his cover was the back of a shell casing, and it had Live Squad on
02:09it.
02:10That was a pretty dope image.
02:12Big Guy used to wear that hat, remember the hat?
02:15That was one of them Kangol joints, the old school hip-hop Kangol ones.
02:21I don't necessarily know how him and Pac actually hooked up, but I do know that he was very
02:26respected in Queens.
02:28I'm a street guy, of course, and it kind of reminded me of, when you listen to him, Big
02:34Psych almost, another outlaw, rest in peace.
02:38His style, his voice, he had a big voice, big personality.
02:43I just can assume that when you look at Pac and his history of hooking up with guys, he
02:49was drawn to guys with big personalities, big street guys with big personalities.
02:55When I started seeing him run with Stretch, I was like, wow, okay.
03:02I just think that Stretch ran with him real loyal, and I think he got caught up in the
03:09whole Tupac situation himself, and unfortunately, he was killed also.
03:1594 was a crazy year, because that's when we got the Source Awards, it was the first Source
03:20Awards, that's when he ran up there with all the outlaws.
03:25It's crazy because, and I say this, he ran up on stage with all the outlaws, Fado, Gaddafi,
03:33Psych, and Pac, they're all not with us now.
03:37When you look at it, that night was really, if you go back and look at that night, that
03:44was a special night that night, because that was one of his last big performances with
03:49all his guys.
03:50When you look at it now, they're not here.
03:53It's unfortunate, man.
03:56He was an amazing, not just artist or actor, just an amazing person, how he came up with
04:02his mom and the Black Panthers.