ANGEL KELLY-RACE, SEX AND SPIRITUALITY: FINAL- REMEMBERING TUPAC SHAKUR

A TRANSCRIPT OF 

ANGEL KELLY-RACE, SEX AND SPIRITUALITY

PAMELA MOORE'S INTERVIEW WITH MARY E. LA LUNA, ARTSEES DINER, FEATURED HOST FOR BLOGTALK RADIO,  SEPTEMBER 4, 2013.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/artseesdiner/2013/08/27/angel-kelly-race-se...

 

In this final instalment, Pamela Moore AKA Angel Kelly remembers her personal encounter with Tupac Shakur; and discusses plans for her future Music Promotion.

Tupac's Image by  By Gringolivier - Own workhttp://www.olivierdevaureix.com/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18829621

Interviewer: Before we leave, I have just one question to ask of you.  I know you have met some very, very interesting and amazing people. And I just want you to talk to me, a little bit, about Tupac.

 

Tupac...Tupac (thoughtfully). Wow! You wouldn't believe it but coming up on September 13, which I understand this year (2013) is going to be on a Friday... ( it was a Friday 13th, in 1996, when Tupac died). He was shot on September 6th, right after the Video Music Awards, and he meant a lot to me. He's another one who I want to say that God put in my life. 

I went to California, after I'd left for four years, and while I was there, I was entertaining returning to the business. A mutual friend, who knew Tupac, got an invitation for us to his party after the Soul Train Awards in 1996, this was March. I went to the party and watched him perform, and watched Snoop Dogg perform. This was incredible because it was the year that he came out with his double album "All Eyez on Me" and this is after he had gotten out of jail. This is when he had signed with Suge Knight, Death Row Records. 

His music was just incredible off of that album and I was just in awe watching him from the VIP, I was happy, that was good enough for me. I was good.

So we are out of the party, and in the car, and I'll be dag gummed if a white Rolls Royce doesn't pull up next to my friend's truck. And he knew him, my friend!

( You know how we say we know people when we really don't know people?)

And at the time, I thought, " yeah, he knew, as in he just got the tickets."  I never really talked to Tupac but I'll be dag gummed if this guy pulls up to him and he told him "This is Angel Kelly, and Angel, this is Tupac." He was like, "Angel, wow!" and I was like "Tupac, wow!" 

Because I'm the biggest fan! You understand, I was so starstruck, I could not believe I met Tupac. 

He said, "where y'all going?".

We said, "to the party." 

"Well follow us."

So we followed 'em. Long story short, we weren't able to go to his After Party, couldn't get in. It was packed, that was so stupid. So I was a little disappointed. But then, I was, like, "I got to meet him, so now I can tell my friends." 

 

We got out of my car at my friend's apartment, and all of a sudden I turn around and there's this white Rolls Royce, and it had no entourage, no bodyguards, it had nothing but this bald-headed, chocolate beautiful little man. And he pulled it into the garage of my friend's house, covered it up with a cover so people wouldn't know ( but people were hanging out of their apartments once they saw that it was him). But this is Hollywood, right? So they didn't freak out. 

Do you know I spent the next three days at my friend's apartment getting to know Tupac, talking to him about the things he loved, and him asking me questions because we came to find out is that he was a fan..he was a fan of mine! I was a fan of his, and we were just in awe with each other.

And when he asked me why was I here  in LA , I told him that I was thinking of going into the business but I don't like the money they're offering. They're not giving me incredible consideration about what I am giving up to do it. So I don't feel comfortable.

And he just looked at me and said, " You know what?  If you're not happy, don't do it."

 

Just simple. Like that. If you're not happy, don't do it. 

 

No encouragement to go into it. If anything, he said to me, " I'm going to show you other ways to make money." 

And I have an incredible little necklace, a Death Row necklace that I got that very same year, after meeting him, I got it on Mother's Day. I only had my daughter then, my first child; and I have it around my neck as I speak to you. I kept it, and people that knew him would call and check on me , you know, "how are you doin'?"; "just want to see everything's good with you." I thought that was so special. And he made me feel so special. 

When I came home from that trip, I wound up getting on a plane and going back to LA, because the people who worked for him contacted me and said "he wants to put you in one of his videos." Which was called "How Do You Want It."

 

And I came back to LA, literally one day later, after I'd just got home. He put me up in a hotel, made me feel like a Queen, and I never even saw him. Remember these were people he sent to make sure I was good.  And then there was the call for shooting the video, and I was to come down into the lobby.

When I came down to the lobby, there  were my friends, Nina Hartley, Jeannie Pepper... all of these other adult film stars that I knew, that hadn't seen me since I left the business. He went and got all of those girls together, so that they could be in the video as well. Long story short again, we have a ball shooting the video.

 I remember him looking at me, 'cos we just had a trailer full of me and my friends ... all of the $500-an-hour models were in another trailer. All they could do was look down at us because we were - here we go- "Porno stars". You know, they were "so much better than us", and we were just "little whores".

But for some reason,  we were just going to bed at night, alone, and being treated really special by Pac, you hear me? We kept hearing them say all kinds of things, these models, I will never forget. On the last day of the shoot, he got out of there in front of everybody, and spoke his mind about the way these folks were treating us. That if they had the nerve to even judge us, they might need to look at themselves first. But he's letting them know, that's how he felt. "Unless you know these people - have you sat down and even talked to these girls? Do you know anything about these girls? Then how are you gonna pass judgement on them?"

 The record company, not Death Row, but the distributor that he had that distributed his music - well, they had something to say about it.

And they ended up making another video - the video he spent his own money on, making, with us in it. You can see it, you can find it, but that's not the one.  Interscope Records I believe it was.  They  didn't want any "porno stars" in their video. 

So then I get the phone call, I'm here (Memphis) I'm on my way to Church on that Sunday (on the weekend of) the 7th. I hear on the radio that Tupac Shakur has been shot. And I couldn't believe it. So I got on the phone to D-Man, the guy who would call and check on me all the time. 

He called me back, and said it was true, then he told me that it didn't look so good. He told me how badly he was hurt, he knew that Pac wouldn't want to live like that anymore. 

I never saw any of those pictures on the Internet of his body after he died. But hearing it from them, they were telling me how bad off he really was.

So I just started adjusting in my head that things were going to be different for him now, and that I still care about him.

I just got totally disillusioned two days later when I heard it on the radio that he had died.

It was Friday the 13th, at about 3pm when I heard the message.  And it hurt me so bad, Miss Mary. Because that time that I spent with him,  I cried and cried.

I asked the Lord, " why would you bring him into my life, to take him away so violently? So abruptly, that noone could know what has happened between us, as far as all the things that he said to me? Why would you do that Lord?"

Do you know, I turned off Hip-Hop music. That was 1996, and I turned off Hip-Hop music, all the way until 2002. 

It was not too long after the 9/11 tragedy that I honestly started listening to anything else other than gospel. I would only listen to gospel music after he died, for that whole period. 

 

Interviewer: From the little bit that I do know, and what I used to inspire my students one particular year, is that he was a poetic genius. 

Anyone dying too young is too soon, it just breaks my heart. But he is among the ones I believe, who would have transformed and would have really changed what we know. Obviously things happen in their way, but I believe in his particular case there was a snuffing out, too soon, and I often wonder what would he be doing and how would he have transformed and changed the world around him. 

 

You know he'd be 43 this year? His birthday is June 19, I don't forget for one minute. So the Lord won't let me forget.  He was 25 when I met him.

So some of the things that he taught me about music and the love of music; and really understanding Hip-Hop. I learned that from Tupac. And I cannot even begin to explain to you that when I hear a Hip-Hop artist perform, I can say, "They have it or they don't". 

I hear it, and I can't even explain why. 

That's what led me into promoting. Looking at those independent artists and giving them a chance to be heard. From what I learned from Tupac about the music industry.

I feel he was a Godsend from the Lord, the Lord sent him. He had a gift. The words he spoke were the words in his mind, the life that he led, the things he saw through his eyes. I do believe that some of those things were the words that the Lord gave him to share, just like a preacher, do you hear what I'm saying? 

 

Interviewer: As we are winding down, I wanted to share with you, just real quickly. Something I'm going to pose to you, and I want to say this publicly, is that one of the aspects of ArtSees Diner - and I've been around for five years; I've met some amazing musicians from around the world. I love, and even if  I don't love it, I respect all musicians and musical forms....

 

Absolutely.

 

I promote Christian artists through "Be Transpired, Be Transformed."  I have my Blues Show on Tuesday nights. I have a musical feature covering every genre - except for Hip-Hop. And I've had Rap and Hip-Hop artists come to me and want me to promote their music. 

The problem is that it is such a specialized art form, and there's a rigid approach to the art, there really is. 

So I am looking for - and I had never even thought of you, until now - but I am looking for someone who will run a Hip-Hop/Rap Hour.

And what I want is to have a competition. I've encountered artists from around the world and my goal is to have a night where in a two-hour show, we actually have a variety, from all around the world.

We play their music, people listen and they vote. We have a running vote, an opportunity for them, too.

And I think that the AK Enterprise winner could be substantial. 

 

So I think that we need to talk, the next time we do something together, I invite you to be my Guest Host. You have the knowledge, you have the background, you can be the host and I think that people will be overjoyed. 

 

Oh Miss Mary that sounds so incredible. I don't believe it. 

 

So I think we should get going, I think we should get started on this. There's enough people out there, if we start putting out the feelers now...

 

I tell you what, don't be surprised if they start hitting you up....

 

I've got a lot of people. I've encountered a couple of nice young men from New Jersey; there's a number of different promoters out there who are pushing these artists.  The one thing is, they are very guarded with their music, they are very protective. So I wish that we had Friday 13th September  open because we could do it in honor of. ...

Oh wow! That, or birthday.

 

So let's start talking, and we'll look at that.....

In the meantime, it's pretty much time to say goodnight. 

 

Thank you so much Miss Mary for having me.  I truly appreciate it. I really enjoyed it. I appreciate your patience on my end, I had my kids here; I did a little grocery shopping... I promise you, I did all of this while I was talking with you. 

The life of a mother, you know what I'm saying? I know you can understand. 

 

Interviewer: The life of an entrepreneur businesswoman who is ready to fly! So get those angel wings out there and let's go!

 

Alright, that sounds wonderful, I look forward to talking with you. Let's make that happen. Whatever you say, I'm for it!

 

Well my friend, you are a blessing and I have completely and totally enjoyed our talk together. 

 

Thank you again, and I look forward to talking to you again real soon. 

 

ENDS.....

 A TRANSCRIPT OF 

 

ANGEL KELLY-RACE, SEX AND SPIRITUALITYPAMELA MOORE'S INTERVIEW WITH MARY E. LA LUNA, ARTSEES DINER, FEATURED HOST FOR BLOGTALK RADIO,  SEPTEMBER 4, 2013.