In an appearance on the Dreg Ones podcast History of the Bay, Bay Area rap legend Too Short admitted that he tried to "avoid" 2Pac so that he wouldn't be a bad influence on him.
At the 1:24:00 point of the two-hour podcast, as seen above, Too Short spoke about his memories of meeting 2Pac and recalled a time he rode around with him and the Dangerous Crew member Shorty B. "2Pac and Shorty B jumped in the truck with me, and I noticed that he had a pistol on him," he said. "I was just thinking to myself, I carry guns a lot... I'm from Oakland and I just wouldn't let a Oakland n***a or any other n***a know that I got my thing on me at the time. It's just something you just don't do."
After noticing that 'Pac had a gun on him, he came to the conclusion that he couldn't "get really close" to him. "I knew what he was getting into and I was like, 'If my guys catch wind of his ambition, they're going to cling to him,'" he continued. "He could find his way anywhere he wants in the world, but I'm not bringing him to where I'm at... I could tell that he wanted the streets."
He suggested that because of the way 'Pac carried himself, he couldn't bring him to certain places in Oakland. "I personally avoided ambitious 2Pac, because he probably would have ended up in some fucked up spaces around me," he said. "You got to be in the right state of mind... He did it, bro, he went to L.A. he ended up in those circles. ... He was like, 'I want to be that gangster revolutionary,' like everything. 'I want to be the ladies man, I want to be the biggest rapper.' He had that ambition. I was like, 'get that shit away from me.' I didn't want to be a bad influence on 2Pac, and that was just my choice."
Watch the full interview with Too Short up top.
