Lil Xan reflected on his past comments about Tupac Shakur in a chat with AllHipHop’s Chuck Creekmur. The platinum-selling rapper, who overcame drug addiction, admitted he was not doing well when he called Tupac’s music “boring” in an infamous 2018 interview.
“That interview should’ve never even been aired ‘cause I wasn’t in a good place during the interview,” Lil Xan told AllHipHop. “I was angry at that time. And all that came down to was a result of me just trying to get the interview done quicker. I was like, ‘Next question. Next question.’ And then they just give me questions and I’m messing around.”
He continued, “I think Tupac is a legend. I don’t have to explain myself to anybody, but I grew on a lot of old school West Coast, a lot of old school East Coast. But after that, that was just a little mishap. It was the result of me not being as mature as I am today, inexperienced with interviews a lot too.”
Years later, Lil Xan saw a silver lining in his controversial interview. He believed his youthful dismissiveness helped start an important conversation in Hip-Hop.
“If you would ask me if I could go back and rewrite that, I wouldn’t though,” he said. “Because what that did, now that I’m seeing it, it started an interesting conversation in Hip-Hop. I did get a lot of backlash, of course, but as the years have gone by since that moment, it started what I think is a very good conversation in Hip-Hop. Why do these new cats in Hip-Hop that weren’t even born when someone like Tupac was around, why do they have to idolize them like the older people?”
Lil Xan added, “They can appreciate the craft and the music. It’s good. It’s amazing. It’s better than good. But if you think about it like that, that’s some hating stuff right there.”
Check out AllHipHop’s interview with Lil Xan below.
