MC Eiht

In 1993, Tupac Shakur was picked to play Sharif, a college-bound Muslim, in “Menace II Society”, however, after disputes with the directors about gaining a hardcore role, he decided to ditch the movie. In an interview with MC Eiht, who played A-Wax in the film, he explained to DJ Vlad why Tupac gave up the infamous role. “Pac had a problem with that role because it didn’t depict him like the rest of us.” He said, “In our circle everybody was gang banging killers, except him.”

MC Eiht opens up about celebrities and their gang affiliation during this interview with DJ Vlad. The Compton native and Crip member talks about knowing Tupac and explains how his connection with gangs led to his demise. The rapper says that Tupac began stamping himself with the Mob Piru in hopes to show loyalty, but says the star didn’t have to prove anything. “It’s certain things that you don’t do just to want to belong.” He explained that it was always Pac’s choice, but nonetheless, he didn’t have to pursue that lifestyle, “They shouldn’t like you no better if you were a rapper or if—hey, now you got to put this rag in your back pocket.” Nearly 20 years after Tupac’s death, singer Chris Brown is now in a similar position for his affiliation with Bloods. The Tappahannock, VA. native was thrown into immediate stardom as a teen, and now at 26, he’s a multimillionaire, with many accolades, linked to one of the biggest gangs. Although Brown is scrutinized, MC Eight says gangbanging has changed since his young days. “It’s not a life and death situation. When I gangbanged it was a life and death situation. I didn’t get to go to Grammy parties when I was gangbanging and even when I started rapping, I was still affiliating myself. So it was more for me being accepted going back to the block as to getting invited to some body’s party.”

MC Eiht exclusively spoke to DJ Vlad about Suge Knight’s successful days as a rap mogul to now facing a murder charge for a deadliy hit-and-run. The Compton native suggested that Suge’s success may have gotten him caught up in his recent trial, “Money and power will side-track the s*** out of you if you ain’t the type of mother f***** who knows how to handle power and money.” Despite seeing most people in the industry get swallowed up by their fame and fortune, he says people should remain grounded and remember their roots.

Though MC Eiht and DJ Quik are now amicable with one another, they had an infamous beef that lasted nearly six years. In a recent sit-down with VladTV, the “Streiht Up Menace” rapper gets candid about the vicious back and forth he had with Quik. Eiht cites the tension between him and Quik as a byproduct of the pair’s rival Blood and Crip affiliations. The Compton rapper says the beef popped off after the release of his song, “Def Wish.” Eiht spits the line “Biting me quick will mean you get my d*** sucked quick.” Though Eiht claims “he never knew who he was,” because Quik was a Blood many took the wordplay as a direct shot at the rapper. DJ Quik later responded to the line on his demo tape with a personal threat to Eiht, whom Quik wrongly thought called him out. The beef ensued for years afterwards and it hit a new level when DJ Quik mentioned MC Eiht’s neighborhood in a song. Things between the two men got so heated that MC Eiht remembers Suge Knight and his crew pulling him over to talk about the beef, but it was only to assure him that things weren’t going to get out of hand. During the conversation MC Eiht also spoke about ending his beef with Quik and recording a song with him later that night, which you can hear about in the above clip.

In this exclusive clip rapper MC Eiht recalls hearing his first rap song, becoming a part of the movement, and how his new career tied into his gangbanging ways. In comparison to today, the early 90’s was a gangster rapper’s time to shine, and MC Eiht made sure his name was put in that category. He began listening to a variety of New York-based hip-hop after hearing “It’s Like That” by Run DMC, the first hip-hop track he’d ever listened to. “And then from there when I first heard Eric B and Rakim [“Eric B. Is President”], that’s when I knew rap music was real,” he explained to DJ Vlad. “So I started thinking about, you know, how can some young gangbanging dudes from Compton even fit into this world?” The rest, as we all know, is history.