Napoleon responds to Angie Martinez interview telling Fat Joe the reason she didn’t release Tupac interview. The iconic hip hop interviewer told the rap legend that she felt the interview would lead to the death of Tupac Shakur.
“The tapes are in a safe, secure place now. But they weren’t for many years. Before that, they were in my laundry room and it was actually Jay-Z that told me to put it in a safe place,” she recently told Page Six while discussing her new show, “Untold Stories of Hip Hop” on WE tv.
“I was in a meeting at Roc Nation and we were talking about my archives because I have all my old interviews on tape. They were literally in boxes in my laundry room and Jay said: ‘Get them out of the room now. Somebody help her get them out of that room now because if there is a flood or a fire it will be destroyed.’”
Martinez interviewed Tupac Shakur back in 1996 when she was a radio personality on Hot 97. To this day, she has only aired 12 minutes of the two-hour interview.
“So people at work helped me digitize the tapes so I can make sure I have them forever.”
Meanwhile, she now has the physical copies in a secret location. “They are in a safe in an actual vault where you would need specific access to get to them,” she explained.
Napoleon who is a former member of Tupac’s group, The Outlawz, believes Martinez did the right thing in not releasing the interview during that tumultuous time in hip hop. Napoleon explained that he was there when the interview was conducted. “I think she made a wise decision,” stated Napoleon despite Angie Martinez probably losing out on money on what would have been her biggest interview.
“I think it was really wise of her not to release it” and Napoleon wishes the record labels would take the same responsibility when releasing music that contains violence. “Probably hit em was that first interview” as Napoleon reveals that Tupac held nothing back on the industry and artists. Check out the Art Of Dialogue interview above.
