Exclusive Interview with Frank Alexander - Part 2
Tupac Amaru Shakur's Body Guard
Interview Date 4:00 p.m., Tuesday, January 1, 2002
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HitEmUp.com ~ Q: How would you describe Tupac and Snoops relationship just before the Vegas incident?

Frank Alexander ~ A: Uh, it got shady. It had gotten shady. Pac was pissed at Snoop. Their friendship was falling apart. At a time they was at a bar, they had a show that went on NBC. Pac and Snoop was suppose to perform "2 of America's Most Wanted." And Snoop didn't show, to the rehearsal which meant he wasn't gonna show for the show that night and Pac was pissed. They lived across from each other on different wings in the Penthouse and I remember askin' my homeboys that was with Snoop, and was like, I guess I'll see you guys later at the rehearsal and my homeboy goes; "naw, I don't think Snoop's wants to go to the rehearsal." I was like; "what"? He was like; "naw, he ain't going". So I didn't say anything and we get to the rehearsal and Snoop never showed up. So huh, Ice-T, who visited with Tupac did a Karen Carpenter song. It was like a uh,

HitEmUp.com: You don't bring me flowers. Replies ~

Frank Alexander: Ya. Hey, did you see that show? Continues ~

HitEmUp.com: No, I didn't see it; naw. Replies ~

Frank Alexander: Oh, ok. I have it. Anyway, it was real cool and they did a skit .. to that song and uh, Pac, you know had to do a solo without Snoop in it and he was pissed about it. And they went to New York and did the MTV awards and they got into it there Tupac said Snoop was a coward and wouldn't stand up for the West Coast. Snoop didn't want to fuel the fire and didn't want to get into it, you know, with that whole West Coast, East Coast. You can't really blame Snoop for that but Pac didn't like the fact that they're on the same record label and Snoop wouldn't stand up and the relationship deteriorated real quick cause see, that's the way Tupac was; there was no middle area with him. If you weren't down with him, you were against him. If you weren't riding with him, you were colliding with him, and that was no joke.

HitEmUp.com Q: In your book you mentioned that Tupac and Suge had a bit of a falling out and that Tupac threatened to have Death Row audited. Do you know anything about that alleged incident with Tupac being denied access to studio tapes and some peoples claim that Tupac wanted to leave Death Row?

Frank Alexander A: Uh, ya. All of that is true; all of it. All of what you said is true. We were on the set of Gridlocked and Tupac was having Death Row audited. We were in a meeting one time and they said; "don't let any more artists take anymore music out of the studio". No one could take music out of the studio. Uh, that was a security meeting. I went home this particular night and a security guard called me at home and said; "hey man, Pac is going off up here". I was like; "about what"? He said; "well he wants to take out, you know, some tapes and they told him that we can't let him go with them". So, I called Pac up and I was like; "What's up Pac"? And he was like; "Yo, Frank man, what's this shit we can't take our music up outta here man"? I was like; hey securities man, Suge said don't let no artists take no music outta there. And the guy that was on duty that day, they got into it and Pac was going off on him and they would always call me anytime something happened, they would call me. They had a lock down from artists taking music out of the studio. It was a no-no. They couldn't do it. Your gonna tell Tupac he couldn't take his music?

HitEmUp.com Q: We did an interview with Fatal and he mentioned that he (Tupac) wanted to start Makaveli Records distributed by Death Row Records. Do you know if that was true?

Frank Alexander A: I think that in order for Pac to have gotten his project off the ground he was gonna have to use Death Row to help him distribute it. Maybe it was something that he and Suge had talked about or something that he had known about that Pac had shared with him.

Frank Alexander Q: Fatal had gotten kicked out of the Outlawz; did he tell you why?

HitEmUp.com A: Cause he crashed the land rover?

Frank Alexander A: Ya, but not in that since but ya. It was a land cruiser. While everybody was asleep, in the middle of the night, he took the keys and got in the land cruiser and he wrecked it. Totaled it. Pac kicked him out of the Outlawz and sent him back to New Jersey the next day ... and that was the end of Fatal.

HitEmUp.com Q: I know Pacs welcoming of death must have made your job a lot harder but I wanted to talk a bit about the night in Vegas. To start off, you said that things were not prepared at all. There was no gun permits and so forth. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Frank Alexander A: Um, basically--- we had a meeting, a security meeting and we were told not to carry any weapons that day or that night. And there was no real reason given except for the fact that they were trying to have this benefit at the club in order for us to have the fight-after party. And everybody followed the instructions on that. We were told to either leave them in our room or leave them in our car. And me, knowing I was going to the club, stuck my gun in my car up under the seat cause that's where I was gonna go and park my car in the front. The plan was that we were going to leave our cars up in the front. We had three open spaces and our cars would be there. If anything jumped out our weapons was right there and we could get at them.

HitEmUp.com Q: Suge and Tupac went in the same vehicle. The ideal situation for me would be to have my body guard beside me. Did it seem odd for Tupac and Suge to ride together?

Frank Alexander A: It's ironic that you asked me that question cause in every single interview I've done, and I've done many; it's like everyone of you ask that exact question, word for word. Phrased exactly the way you asked it. Tupac and Suge got together occasionally, a lot. They would always ride together. I was getting in the car with them. I had the back door almost open and Pac reached in his pocket and handed me some keys and said; "go drive (Kidida's) car--- Quincy Jones' daughter--- go drive her car. Go with the Outlaws cause we are gonna be at the club drinking and uh, I want you to drive us back. And that time, I ended up not being in the back seat, otherwise, I would be dead and we wouldn't be doing this interview. Pac and Suge rode together a lot. You would see them ride just alone together.

HitEmUp.com Q: After the incident in the MGM with Orlando Anderson, was there any fear of retaliation after that?

Frank Alexander A: Um, No, no. There was a fight and nothing unusual about that or any other fight that happened at the time it happened. That's what happened. If you rode with Death Row, you were going to see some fights or be in some fights.

HitEmUp.com Q: I'm sure you've looked back some times and said; "what if, what if that had been done differently, what if that had been done different?" Do you think there's any thing that could have been done or do you think there could have been anything done or do you think it was just Tupac's time to go?

Frank Alexander A: Um, that's a favorite question again. That always comes up as well, as I stated before. It's just like, you and I can get off this phone and you'd be the last person that interviewed me and I could, you know, not wake up in the morning. That's destiny and there is nothing that you and I could do to change it. Tupac was born June 71' and he died September 96' and nobody could change destiny except for God and it was already planned. For Tupac's life to be as it was and to happen as it did and survive as he did, you know, you can't play with God. You predict yourself, you talk about death, you prophesize about death and if you keep talking about it, it'll come. You'll get it.

HitEmUp.com Q: You took a lot of heat being Tupac's body guard. You mentioned in your book, you were a scape goat. I imagine it must have been really, really difficult to go through. How did you handle it and what helped you get through it?

Frank Alexander A: Uh, as I say, I carried the burden of his death on my shoulders for a long time. I would say, for a year, and I just couldn't accept his death. I couldn't accept the way that it happened. I couldn't accept the fact that I wasn't able to do anything. It took two years before I was completely recovered from it and that was after speaking with his mother. But once I had spoken, she gave me her feelings about her sons death then it relieved a lot of pain and heartache that I was going through about this. And ya, I felt like I was a scape goat because I felt like Death Row turned their backs on me. I'm a stand up guy and they didn't know that. They didn't realize who I was and what I was made from and what I came from. They just never knew.

HitEmUp.com Q: How has going through this changed your life or changed you personally?

Frank Alexander A: I'm a Christian. It brought me closer to God. The circumstances surrpounding Tupac's death. Some of my own family members and a couple of my best friends and my girl friend--- Ex girl friend, all died within that same year. A leading incident with my little brother, my girlfriend killed herself; one of my partners, 36 years old, died of pancreatic cancer. One of my older brothers that um,  basically raised me--- you know, kept money in my pocket, had passed away from cancer. His son killed himself. I just started feeling all this death around me and I got to the point to where I just became suicidal, I wanted to die. One of my partners told me that God had a plan for my life. He has a purpose for all of our lives and as I continued to search and seek out the light and purpose in my life; the life that I was going to live. Then I went and seeked the Lord and asked; "what's going on and why is this happening"? You know, why do I feel like this, why do I feel like death is just around and I broke down and said; "I can't do it no more". I went to the Lord and I asked forgiveness of my sins and I asked him to take away all the pain and the worry and get stuff off my shoulders. As I say and immediately it lifted and things from 5 ½ years ago until now have become very clear. I can see a purpose that God has in my life. I've taken a baton from Tupac to reach out and be a voice for him and to talk about him and to tell what kind of brother he was and about what he was trying to do. He cared about families. He cared about the youth's. I'm a youth minister today. I share the gospel to the kids. I talk to the kids because people can relate to him through his music and that I was one of the last people that was physically with him everyday to where I could speak to him or speak on him or what he was trying to do. He was involved with this organization which was "A Place Called Home". And he was trying to put this place together for homeless kids that were living on the streets; teenagers, etc., to give them a home. That was some of the good things he was doing so, I was sitting at the time and trying to move in that direction and that's one of the purposes of this documentary Before I Wake, if you listen to "So Many Tears", where the title of that comes from, he starts the song out with a prayer. He goes; "if I should die before I wake--- there's the title,---

HitEmUp.com Uh-huh. Replies ~

Frank Alexander: ---that was the opening title and later on, we realized, later Continues ~ on in the editing studio that; "before I wake" was from "So Many Tears" and we had never realized it because it was just a working title that came out of the clear blue sky. But, uh, the documentary goes into a lot of the questions that you just asked me ... and even more so in the documentary. The lead detective in the case, Michael Dyson, who is a professor that just had a book that came out on Tupac. The lead detective that is still working on the case. The reporters that covered the case; Cathy Scott, has "The Killing Of Tupac Shakur" book out. There are a lot, a lot of really good interviews and a lot of good footage of Tupac in "Before I Wake". A lot of personal stuff that no one has ever seen because he allowed me to record this info--- record video tape that's going to be in there. This has Tupac up close and personal. You get to see the real funny side of him---

HitEmUp.com: Uh-huh. Replies ~

Frank Alexander: ---he is interacting with me and the camera. He's teasing me and stuff like that. You get to see him working on some of the songs that was unreleased. The documentary is off the hook - it's off the hook.

HitEmUp.com Q: What can we expect to take away from the documentary after watching it?

Frank Alexander A: Eighty million albums sold. Thousands and thousands of theories and then finally the TRUTH. You will walk away after watching that documentary saying: "Oh my Goodness, I need to go and get the book cause that's how it works in the movies". HitEmUp.com Laughing. Replies ~

Frank Alexander: That's for real.

HitEmUp.com Q: So, the documentary will be dropping January 15th?

Frank Alexander A: January 15th, 2002. At your favorite Video store.

HitEmUp.com Q: Is there anything else you'd like to say or address before I let you go?

Frank Alexander A: Um, nothing other than the documentary is seriously; on a serious note, it's gonna reveal a lot of things that people didn't know and that people weren't aware of, about Tupac. This whole thing is about Tupac and the true Tupac fans--- the true indeed, true Tupac fans will feel they got their money's worth. The entire $15.00 dollars--- $14.98---. You are gonna get more than your money's worth. It's 1:04 minutes of Tupac. A lot of insight--- a lot of insight to a lot of things that happened. A lot of things that you don't know about, didn't know about and then the movie will be this year and that's gonna be off the chains. Can't wait.

HitEmUp.com: I know I'm definitely looking forward to it and there is a lot of Tupac fans that feel the same.