Three months before he was gunned down in Las Vegas, Tupac Shakur sat down with Angie Martinez for an interview that never saw the light of day. Nearly three decades later, that tape is finally getting its moment, and it’s landing on Netflix.
The Tupac Tapes with Angie Martinez is a four-part video podcast series built around that long-shelved conversation. Netflix has locked in Friday, November 27 as the release date, which gives fans about two weeks to brace themselves.
Martinez isn’t doing this alone. Netflix announced on X that she’ll be joined by a crowded room of voices “to reflect on Tupac’s life, legacy, and lasting impact,” including Big Boy, Joe Budden, Charlamagne Tha God, RZA, Monie Love, Ed Lover and Wallo.
The guest list runs deeper than the radio and podcast heavyweights. Former NBA player Matt Barnes, Bootleg Kev, DJ Hed, activist Erica Ford, writer and filmmaker Dream Hampton, and Aiyisha T. Obafemi are part of the lineup too.
Two names jump out. E.D.I. Mean is a member of the Outlawz, the group Tupac built around himself, while Lil’ Cease came up under The Notorious B.I.G. as part of Junior M.A.F.I.A.
Having voices from both sides of rap’s most bitter rivalry in one project gives the series a shot at something more layered than a straight tribute.
Martinez makes sense as the person holding the keys. She spent years as one of the defining voices on New York radio, first at Hot 97 and later at Power 105.1. Getting Tupac on tape in 1996, when the coastal tensions were at their ugliest, was no small thing.
The timing isn’t random either. Duane “Keefe D” Davis was charged in 2023 with murder in connection with Tupac’s shooting, and HotNewHipHop editor-in-chief Alexander Cole pointed to a recent verdict involving Keefe D as a driver of renewed interest in the rapper’s life.
Not everyone is ready to crown this before hearing it. Cole himself hedged, writing that “only time will tell” if the interview lives up to the mythology.
An interview that has been whispered about for almost 30 years carries a lot of expectation, and unreleased material rarely matches the legend built around it.
There’s also the question of how much of the runtime belongs to Tupac versus the panel. Fifteen guests across four episodes is a lot of commentary, and plenty of fans will mostly want to hear Pac speak in his own words, unfiltered, one more time.
For now, the tape is the draw. Tupac was 25 when he died on September 13, 1996, and every recording from that final stretch has been picked apart for clues about where his head was.
This one has been sitting in the vault the whole time, and in two weeks people will finally hear what he told Angie.
