Credit: Possan

The late MF Doom, while never quite breaking into the musical mainstream, was nonetheless one of the most unique, talented figures of his generation of hip-hop artists. He was respected by some of the best to ever do it, including one Tupac Shakur.

In 2004, Doom sat down for an interview with Canada’s Exclaim!, although it wouldn’t ultimately be published until early 2021, shortly after his death had been publicly announced. In the conversation, Doom reflected o the early days of his career, which was a period in which he enjoyed gigging the most.

“Man, some of my best shows are small shows,” he said. “The biggest shows that was ill back in the day was on the road with [Big Daddy] Kane, 3rd Bass and Digital Underground with 2Pac [as their guest]. [Queen] Latifah was on the road with us, too. Those shows were fuckin’ crazy, man.”

These memories got him talking about the sense of camaraderie that existed between hip-hop artists in those days, before money and status came to alter things for the worst. “Now it’s getting crazy,” he said. “People talking about shooting each other and all this dumb shit. It don’t make no sense.”

Doom cited the fact that there was, already by this point in 2004, “too much money floating around” hip-hop, which contributed to messing with artists’ egos. “Everybody feel like they gotta overthrow the next king,” he said. “We’re all kings of our own rep—and if we can understand that, it’ll get a lot better.”

Reflecting on the less ego-driven days of hip-hop, when he performed alongside Big Daddy Kane, 3rd Bass and Digital Underground, Kane recalled the good times he enjoyed with Tupac. “I used to talk to Pac a lot,” he said. “We used to be like the two extra guys going onstage.”

This was before Tupac had become a superstar, and, from Doom’s perspective, he was just a normal person. “Cool as hell,” is how Doom described him. “He was just a regular dude. He’d be like, ‘Yo, what you wanna do later? Let’s chill.’ Just joking around. He was always talking about his music, too. I remember he was telling be about his 2Pacalypse Now joint.”

It wouldn’t have been too much longer after this period that Tupac became a superstar, which was quite a shock. “Caught me by surprise!” Doom said of Tupac’s wild success. “’Cause he was just this cool, down-to-earth dude.”

Even after he’d become so famous, Doom claims that Pac never really lost his sense of normality. He bumped into him again at a barbecue one day, and, despite it all, Pac still acted like a regular person. “The first thing he asked me was, ‘Yo, you got a Philly? Got a Philly?’” Doom recalled. “I happened to have a Philly. So we twistin’ up, blazing right there, joking around: ‘What you been up to?’”

But, sure enough, other people at the barbecue then noticed Pac’s presence. “Next thing I know,” Doom said, “there is a line forming of people waiting to take pictures with this guy. A line of 20 people, all different ages and races. It was like, ‘Get out the frame, kid.’ That was the last time I seen him, yo. Word. My n—a.”