California rapper 2Pac (real name Tupac Shakur), as well as being known for his gangsta persona, was also known for being quite funny behind the scenes, and in an interview on Sway In The Morning, film and music video director Allen Hughes of the Hughes Brothers unveiled a strange but funny pitch 2pac once gave for a music video.
Allen detailed how he met Pac when the rapper was a part of the group Digital Underground. Allen (with his brother) had directed and filmed several music videos with the group and became relatively amicable with Shakur over the years. Even once Shakur left the group, the rapper continued to have a business friendship with the brothers.
Shakur first called upon the Hughes to direct and film his music video for ‘Trapped’ in 1991. In 1991, Shakur was not living in Los Angeles and was not a part of Death Row. Furthermore, he was not even on bad terms with Biggie Smalls but was living in Oakland.
Shakur has spoken before on how his time living in Oakland shaped him, and although the rapper had lived in several places, he always let it be known that the Bay Area, Oakland primarily, taught him “the game” of the streets. Having to enter the streets, deal with delinquents and more, for better or worse, it changed Shakur’s mindset.
As Allen and his brother dealt with Tupac more, he revealed that with Shakur living in Oakland, their rapport deteriorated when the rapper began behaving erratically. However, the Hughes continued working with the rapper despite the erratic behaviour, and soon enough, they got the opportunity to produce their own full-length feature film, Menace II Society.
The only reason the brothers cast Shakur in the movie, however, was because the film’s investors, New Line Cinema, told the brothers they had to get a platinum recording artist in order for them to green-light it. Explaining how Shakur told him, Hughes told Sway, “we were getting ready to shoot another music video for him, and I didn’t like the track, and we didn’t really want to shoot the video. But, I’m there to get him in my movie.”
He continued to explain the bizarre request. As they were preparing for the music video, (according to Hughes), Shakur stated, ‘In this next music video we do, I want you guys to make me into a white man…I want you to go get a whole suit and a wig, I want to put makeup on, and I wanna be a white man in the video.’
Hughes recalled how he responded to Shakur by saying, “But it’s called, ‘If My Homie Calls’. Where’s the white man? I just don’t get it, Tupac.” According to the director and filmmaker, Shakur was smoking a lot of weed, so he simply said, “OK, let me just get past that. We’ll just shoot the video and see what happens, right?”
However, that pitch never came to fruition and unfortunately, neither did Shakur’s role in Menace II Society. Shortly after the bizarre request, Hughes parted ways with Shakur, and the rapper was recast. However, the twin directors remember both Shakur and that moment in particular fondly. You can watch the final product of ‘If My Homies Call’ in the video below.
