Former MTV VJ Simon Rex recalls interviewing Tupac as he detailed his plans for the so-called West coast East Coast beef.
Simon Rex’s 2-year stint with MTV, led the California native to interview many celebrities, one of which was Tupac Shakur. “You gotta imagine there was no social media or internet, so the only place people would go to find out what’s cracking was MTV,” Rex said during a recent interview clip uploaded by TAFS.
“It was the last MTV interview of ‘Pac, he did shortly after and he was so cool man,” Rx recalled. “I will never forget. I was done working at some event and I smoked a blunt with my producer on MTV. S*** was crazy, 90s. Smoked a blunt. Then all of a sudden they said, ‘You gotta interview Tupac he just got here.'”
Although the interview was Tupac’s last interview on MTV, the interview took place four months before his demise. The inexperienced Rex quickly panicked. Not only was he about to interview the number one rapper in the world, but he was completely stoned. “I was like I am so stoned.’ They go, ‘So is he.’ Red light on and I’m like, ‘F***.’
During the interview, Tupac touches on the West coast East coast beef. “To kill this whole new vibe everybody wanna be on about it being a war between the east coast and the west coast. It’s really just a problem with two rappers and everybody wanna make it bigger then it is,” Tupac said. “Squash the drama and get back to money making. It’s all about making money and putting out music.”
Tupac loved MTV as much as the iconic channel loved him. Till this day MTV continues to release never-before-seen footage of the late rapper. The network also worked alongside Tupac’s mother Afeni Shakur for the 2003 documentary Tupac Resurrection.
The spontaneous interview lives forever in MTV history and for Rex he is appreciative to Tupac for “being cool” and “picking up the slack” during the brief interview. Rex was also a good sport when it came to Tupac “sonning” him as the interview came to a close.
“He made fun of me, but in a fun way. He was like, ‘Alrighty then.’ Sort of doing the White guy voice. He was like, ‘Alrighty then. I’m Simon Rex. Okay.’ And he started making fun of me,” Rex recalled in the two minute clip.
