Reverend Al Sharpton explains visiting Tupac in jail, speaking about “cleaning up the streets.”
Following the recent release of a phone conversation between late rapper Tupac Shakur and close friend Sanyika “Monster” Shakur, Reverend Al Sharpton has issued an exclusive statement to HipHopDX confirming the rapper’s claims of working together.
During the clip, Tupac mentions speaking with Sharpton in the context of a campaign to “clean up the streets.”
“[Let’s] have these streets cleaned from 6AM to 11PM,” he said. “Let that be for the kids. Let them be safe. No gunshots, no drug dealing…Then, we could get these politicians—I talked to Al Sharpton. He said he can get the police to chill out on those night-time patrols if [we] can get the streets cleaned.”
Issuing an exclusive statement to HipHopDX through his National Action Network today, Sharpton detailed visiting Tupac in jail.
“I visited him twice while he was in jail and negotiated with the warden to get him out of solitary confinement,” Sharpton said.
Tupac served time in the Clinton Correctional Facility beginning in February of 1995. The rapper served just short of a full year in the New York state prison for his alleged involvement in a sexual assault case before being released on appeal.
Sharpton also confirmed his dialog with Tupac following the rapper’s release from prison.
“After he was released,” Sharpton said, “we stayed in touch and we did have conversations about cleaning up the streets and fighting violence.”
Reverend Al Sharpton is a Brooklyn native and longtime civil rights activist. His National Action Network is a non-profit civil rights organization headquartered in Harlem.
