Few artists have had as potent and lasting a legacy as Tupac Shakur. Through countless posthumous albums, tributes and movies, the West Coast rapper's music and message has lived on nearly 15 years after his untimely death.

But it's rare to get a new perspective on Pac provided by the rapper himself. In a vintage interview, posted in full and uncut at worldstarhiphop.com, the iconic MC speaks on his life and career while imprisoned at New York’s Clinton Correctional Facility in 1995.
While serving out his sentence on sexual assault charges, Pac speaks for nearly 45 minutes on a variety of topics, from his unproduced screenplay he wrote while in solitary confinement (Live 2 Tell) to his belief that prison time doesn't lead to good music to being targeted as a "gangsta rapper" by political figures C. Delores Tucker and Bob Dole. The firebrand MC even expressed disappointment that his third album, Me Against the World, did not receive award recognition, and he explained how he uses his music as prophecy.
"The only thing that can stop me is death, and even then my music will live forever," Pac said.

(Photo: Ron Galella/WireImage)