QuoteMass Incarceration

"My definition of thug comes from half of the street…" — Tupac Shakur

c. 1994(Approximate date)· Tupac Shakur (speaker)

My definition of thug comes from half of the street element... And half of the Panther element. Half of the independence movement. Saying we want self-determination... That came from my family and that's what thug life is. It's a mixture.
Speaker
Tupac Shakur
Occasion
1994 interview (Benjamin Svetkey / Entertainment Weekly), audio via Blank on Blank

Tupac defining THUG LIFE not as criminality but as a fusion of street survival and Black Panther self-determination.

Sources & citations

  1. 1.blankonblank.orgwebsite