Rapper Ray Luv is remembering the time he sold "crack" for less than a week with his close friend Tupac Shakur.
In Dear Mama, a new docuseries about Shakur's life and career, Luv recalled his friendship with the legendary rapper and their financial struggles — which caused them to turn to sell drugs. Although, it didn't go as planned.
"We sucked at selling crack," Luv, 51, said in the first episode of the series. "We were the worst crack dealers in the history of crack dealers."
He continued, "He sold crack for like five days. I think I sold crack for seven, mostly because I couldn't sell my crack which is weird."
The "Last Nite" rapper went on to explain that they weren't cut out for the gig — and Shakur's good heart got in the way.
"We knew very quickly that that was not going to be our way out. Because capitalism requires that your empathy level is relatively low," he said. "And his (Shakur's) empathy level was a little higher than most people. He didn't believe in hurting or killing Black people. So if a person is smoking crack with their daughter or their son, he's not gonna recover from that."
Elsewhere in the episode, audio clips of Shakur explain that his mother Afeni Shakur, who is also a subject of the documentary, was his "hero."
"My mother is really my father and mother. She's really strict on us but now I can see how it paid off because I could talk to my mother about anything. Like, I could say, 'Mom, I'm really curious about this drug.' She would go, 'I did it and this is what happened so I don't think you should do it.' So she is my guide through life," the "California Love" rapper said in a vintage clip.
"She's human, she makes mistakes and we get in our tiffs and everything. But it's good," he concluded.
His mentor and first manager Leila Steinberg then went on to explain that he had trouble expressing his trauma — which was partly due to his mother's addiction — and it later shined through in his music.
"He was like me. We hide behind a smile and fake like we're alright. He couldn't really expose how broken he was. But everything he ever wrote is a roadmap to understand the condition," Steinberg said.
Watch the five-part docuseries — which draws parallels to Shakur's career as a hip-hop icon and his mother's activism — Friday on FX. It will be available to stream on Hulu the following day.
