There will never be a shortage of great new Tupac stories that will continue to be revealed even decades after his death. The late musician lived a life of extremes that often pushed those around him to their wits edge, too, which is something Chris Tucker can attest to.
The comedian was a guest on The Late Late Show with James Corden when the topic of music videos came up. Tucker quickly offered up how he almost met with death or at least extreme injury while working with Tupac for the legendary “California Love” video shoot back in the mid-90s.
At the time, Pac was “Out on bail fresh outta jail” when he linked up with Hype Williams to shoot the visual for the lead single to his All Eyez on Me album. A young Tucker was among those cast in the Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome-inspired clip where was basically a shrill-voiced hypeman. Apparently, he was doing his job a little too excited and another participant in the shoot, actor Michael Clarke Duncan, had to save his life.
“It was fun and dangerous at the same time,” Tucker said. “Tupac just got out of jail and Suge Knight was walking around with a Rottweiler. I didn’t know if I was gonna get bit or what. I almost fell off a jeep. Michael Clarke Duncan saved my life, my good friend. He saved my life! I was so young.”
He continued by going into more detail. “I was on the jeep and I was acting,” Tucker said. “I was over-acting… and they went over a dune in the middle of the desert and I was like ‘Ah!’ and Michael said, ‘Come here, little boy, come back here,’ and I said, ‘Thank you, God. Thank you!’ He saved my life.”
Again, hanging with Tupac consisted of a lot of thrill-seeking. Gauging from the behind-scenes-clip below, Tucker had a good time on the set with the Death Row crew. And now, watching him “over-act” in the actual music video takes on a whole new meaning when we realize we almost lost the brother all for the sake of creating a lasting memory set to music.
