Sway’s Tupac Interview Recalled: I Would Have Done It Differently

Sway’s Tupac interview is recalled by Sway himself who wished he would have done things a bit differently as he interviewed hip hop’s top star.

New Jersey native rapper J-Ness recently linked with Sway where the two recalled the infamous Tupac interview. “I go back and I listen to that interview you did with Big. I listened to that interview you did with ‘Pac. Especially that ‘Pac one, that was crazy. He was saying a lot,” J-Ness told Sway in the behind-the-scenes footage.

Reflecting on the iconic interview, Sway expressed regrets when speaking with J-Ness. “The ‘Pac interview, I wish I knew what I know now, I would have done it differently,” said Sway. “I was cheerleading ‘Pac. It was like yeah ‘Pac, ‘Didn’t they do this?'”

The interview conducted for 106.1 KMEL’s Sway and Tech’s “Wake Up Show,” took place on the set of Tupac’s video shoot for “How Do U Want It.” Although Sway and Tupac knew each other dating back to Shakur’s debut album “2Pacalypse Now” and during ‘Pac’s Digital Underground days, they had not seen one another in years.

According to Sway, Tupac was hit with a gag order by Suge Knight who did not allow Shakur to speak to the media at the time, but would be given the opportunity under one condition.

“We decided to talk to him and we approached the label and utilized our friendship to try to get to him and the label’s response was, ‘Well you can interview Pac, but it’s gonna cost you $25,000. Keep in mind this was in 1996 and nobody had $25,000 to pay for an interview,” explained Sway.

Thankfully Sway had a mutual friend in Leila Steinberg who made the connection happen. As Tupac was shooting the video for ‘How Do U Want It,’ Leila contacted Ron Hightower who was directing the video. “She said, ‘Pac wanna talk to you. But you gotta sneak onto the set,” recalled Sway on AllHipHopTV back in 2016. “We snuck onto the set of How Do U Want It and we started having this conversation.”

The interview was kept in the vaults for months as it was intended to hit the airwaves along with Tupac’s Makaveli debut album. The interview was finally released the night Tupac passed away on September 13th as a special Tupac edition on 106.1 KMEL.

On that tragic day and even till this day, Sway cannot bear to listen to the interview. “I never listened to it. I couldn’t sit and listen to it. Even when we played clips I turned it down. It’s hard to hear my voice next to his like that and remembering what his energy was like,” said on SiriusXM back in 2016 on the 29th anniversary of Tupac’s passing.