Whether you’re familiar or not with the mythology of the 2Pac and Hughes Brothers feud, this new Sway interview with director Allen Hughes (Menace II Society, Dead Presidents) re-frames a bit of hip hop history. The backstory in brief: 2Pac was originally supposed to have been cast in Menace but reportedly discovered that he’d been dropped from the film while watching MTV.
A few months later, on the set of a Spice 1 video (where else?), 2Pac encountered and stepped to the brothers. Allen reportedly got hit, Albert allegedly ran off. Then the directors filed a civil suit against him. At the time, 2Pac countered to Vibe: ‘The Hughes Brothers did all my videos. After I did Juice, they said ‘Can we use your name to get this movie deal? I said ‘Hell, yeah.’ When I got with John Singleton, he told me he wanted to be ‘Scorsese to your DeNiro.’ For starring roles I just want you to work with me. So I told the Hughes brothers, I only wanted a little role. But I didn’t tell them I wanted a sucker role. We was arguing about that in rehearsal. They said to me, ‘ever since you got with John Singleton’s shit, you changed.’ They was trippin’ cuz they got this thing with John Singleton. They feel like they competing with him.”
Flash forward to about the 9:40 moment of this video, when after 20 years of silence, Allen Hughes finally recounts his side of the saga. He talks how 2Pac started to become Bishop after watching Juice, how New Line refused to finance Menace II Society until they got a platinum recording artist in the film, how 2Pac wanted to play a white man in the music video for “When My Homies Call,” and what really went down on the set of Menace II Society. If you’re still down, this is mandatory viewing. That said, where is there a Waffle House in Oakland?
