A lot of shade has been thrown at All Eyez on Me since it released in mid-June. Friends and associates of 2Pac have expressed their distaste for how his legacy has been handled, and fans even parodied the alternative history presented in the film through a barrage of memes on release weekend.
But at least one rapper feels a little differently. Young Buck stuck up for the film during an interview with DJ Smallz, and said he was amazed by how closely actor Demetrius Shipp Jr. resembles the rap icon. While joking about Shipp being a long-lost relative of 'Pac, Buck confessed that before Shipp came on the scene, he thought he was going to get the starring role.
"I think the guy who played Pac, we need to check his birth certificate," the rapper joked. "People don't know this, but I was supposed to play Pac. I was supposed to play Tupac Shakur. I didn't get as far as going and reading the scripts and things of that nature, but I actually was lined up as one of those guys that was considered to play 2Pac. I was almost told I was already given the role without the audition, until Pac himself came around."
Despite getting jacked for the role by Shipp, Buck sounded like he has no animosity about the situation, because he recognizes how rare it is to get a true doppelgänger for one of these films. In fact, he was also complimentary of the prep work Shipp did to play the part.
"That guy to me, we have a lot of people who look just like people, but c'mon let's just be real," he said. "The guy who played 2Pac, you couldn't find a better person to play 2Pac. The man looked just exactly like 2Pac, and I felt like he'd done his homework enough to play that role, and he'd done a great job."
Although some of the historical discrepancies in All Eyez on Me have been targeted by critics, Buck thinks criticism of the film has been a little too harsh. Though it may not have been the story everyone was hoping for, Buck said we should be happy to get any sort of perspective on 2Pac's life from people who were close to him.
"I feel like anything that we get that's based off of the story of a legend, that was able to be given to us from the people that were actually there, that's still their version," said Buck. "Your version may be different of what your experience was being amongst Pac, but this film was actually a film that was given to us by the guys who were amongst Pac, the version of what they felt."
The positive review matches a lot of what we've seen from Buck lately. After his latest mixtape was overshadowed by the release of Jay Z's 4:44, Buck took to Instagram to unleash a tongue-in-cheek rant at Jay, saluting his hustle while lamenting him shutting down the rap game for the weekend. While he won't want to make coming up short a habit, it's great to see that he can still keep it all in perspective.
You can see Buck's full thoughts on All Eyez on Me in the clip up top, starting around the :26 mark.
