Tupac Shakur’s Unheard 1996 Interview Is Coming to Netflix After 30 Years

Thirty years after recording one of Tupac Shakur’s final interviews, radio personality Angie Martinez is ready to share the conversation in full. Netflix will release The Tupac Tapes with Angie Martinez on November 27, a four-part video podcast featuring previously unheard recordings of the rapper, alongside commentary from figures who knew him and experienced the hip-hop culture of the 1990s.

The interview took place in 1996 at Shakur’s Los Angeles home, just months before his death. Martinez was then a young radio host in New York, working during one of the most contentious periods in hip-hop history, when tensions between East Coast and West Coast artists dominated the industry.

Their conversation began with an unexpected invitation. Shakur had approached Martinez about appearing in his music video for I Ain’t Mad at Cha. She declined, concerned about the tensions surrounding the rapper at the time. During their subsequent conversation, however, he explained that his disagreements were not directed at New York as a whole. Martinez wanted to give him an opportunity to clarify his position, and Shakur invited her to his home for an interview. When she arrived, he had ordered New York pizza for her.

Only selected portions of their conversation were broadcast. Martinez deliberately withheld the more confrontational remarks, fearing they could intensify existing rivalries and potentially put people in danger. She later recalled sitting in the editing room, physically cutting the recording tape with a razor blade as she decided what could responsibly be aired.

A few months later, on September 13, 1996, Shakur died at 25 after being shot in Las Vegas. Martinez was on the radio that day and personally delivered the news to her listeners. Following his death, she became even more reluctant to release the remaining material, concerned that the recordings might be interpreted as his final public statement.

For three decades, the tapes remained in her possession. Her decision to release them now reflects a change in how she believes the conversation should be heard. Rather than presenting Shakur’s most provocative remarks without explanation, Martinez has developed a series that examines the circumstances surrounding the interview and the cultural tensions of the period.

The original recordings will be accompanied by discussions with 15 guests, including Wu-Tang Clan member RZA, Outlawz rapper E.D.I. Mean, radio personalities Charlamagne Tha God and Joe Budden, journalist and filmmaker Dream Hampton, and former NBA player Matt Barnes.

Martinez deliberately brought together participants with different perspectives and relationships to Shakur. She wanted conversations that would challenge familiar interpretations of the rapper rather than simply repeat stories that have circulated for decades.

The series also revisits Martinez’s own experience as a young woman in radio, navigating an industry in which interviews, public statements and personal rivalries could have serious consequences.

Looking back at the recordings, Martinez says she is particularly struck by Shakur’s youth and the emotions beneath his anger. She hopes audiences will see him beyond the mythology that has developed around his life and death, acknowledging his extraordinary talent without overlooking his contradictions and mistakes.

Martinez also serves as an executive producer of the project. For her, releasing the tapes is about making a significant piece of hip-hop history accessible to the public, with the perspective that three decades of distance can provide.

The Tupac Tapes with Angie Martinez premieres on Netflix on November 27, 2026.