Angie Martinez is opening a long-sealed archive on Nov. 27, when The Tupac Tapes with Angie Martinez arrives on Netflix as a four-part video podcast event. The release draws on previously unreleased portions of her 1996 interview with Tupac Shakur, recorded just months before his death.
1996 in New York and Los Angeles
Martinez said she was a young radio personality in New York in 1996, and that Tupac Shakur was probably the most talked-about artist in the world at that moment. She said the interview began after he reached out about her appearing in his I Ain’t Mad at Cha video, and she was not comfortable doing that because of what was happening at the time.
She also said Tupac Shakur invited her to Los Angeles for an interview in his home, where he had New York pizza waiting for her when she arrived. That detail lands like a small peace offering inside a story that has mostly been treated as sealed history.
The tapes and the context
Martinez said she aired portions of the interview that she felt represented Tupac Shakur’s message, but held back the more inflammatory parts. She said the full tape stayed private because there were things in the conversation that could have hurt people, damaged relationships, and added fuel to an already dangerous situation.
“For three decades, Radio Hall of Famer and New York Times bestselling author Angie Martinez has held onto a piece of hip-hop history: previously unreleased portions of an interview with Tupac Shakur, recorded just months before his death.” She added, “There was so much tension surrounding him, especially in New York, and I wanted to hear directly from him.”
Charlamagne Tha God and RZA
The four-part release includes Charlamagne Tha God, Joe Budden, Big Boy, Dream Hampton, RZA, and Wallo as guests, which gives the project a discussion layer beyond the original interview tape. That matters because the new format turns one private archive into a broader record of how his words are being interpreted now.
Martinez said, “But almost 30 years have passed.” She also said, “The tapes were bigger than me,” and that the release gives her the opportunity to share them with context.
The real value here is not just that the tapes are finally public. It is that the release keeps the interview tied to the moment it was made, instead of letting a few disconnected clips stand in for the whole conversation. What arrives on Nov. 27 is a fuller account, and the most urgent open question is which specific unreleased remarks from Tupac Shakur will be heard for the first time.
