Music video director Stephen Ashley Blake says that he nearly got into a fight with Tupac while filming “Holler If Ya Hear Me” during an interview published on the 2PacForumChannel YouTube page Saturday (December 13). Blake also says the set was tense for other reasons.
“There was one sequence where he pulled a gun out on an officer and a little girl in the back seat goes free,” Blake says in the interview. “Originally, the way I shot that, he killed the cop and his badge fell down in slow motion. The record label was very nervous about that.”
Blake says he shot three videos for Tupac, including “Holler If Ya Hear Me” and “Brenda’s Got A Baby.” He said that during “Holler If Ya Hear Me,” the record label was on edge due to a then ongoing lawsuit.
“Somewhere in Texas there was a sheriff who was shot by someone who was listening to Tupac’s music,” Blake says in the interview. ”The victim’s family was suing Interscope Records. The record label was very cautious.”
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Blake says that Tupac had a message of overcoming police brutality, which was censored by the record label.
“One thing they told me I had to change, I had to cut that scene out,” Blake says. “I actually re-edited the scene to make it look like he didn’t kill the cop. Another thing I took out was the last image of the video, the police lights spinning around, flashing,and the last thing that the image was that cherry cut with the little girl holding the gun and a voice over of Tupac saying, ‘Revolution is the only way.’”
The song “Holler If Ya Here Me” dropped in January 1993 on the album Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.
In July 2014, a play about 2Pac called Holler If Ya Hear Me had an unsuccessful spell on Broadway. The play was inspired by Tupac’s lyrics and served as a non-biographical narrative about two friends living in the inner-city in the Midwest. The production was written by playwright Todd Kreidler and featured support from the late rapper’s mother, Afeni Shakur, who was one of the musical’s producers.
For additional Tupac coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
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