In an interview with Hell and High Water podcast host John Heilemann, film director Allen Hughes (The Book of Eli, Menace II Society) spoke about working with 2Pac. Hughes is currently working on Dear Mama, a five-part series about 2Pac and his relationship with his mother Afeni Shakur due this fall on FX.

When asked about the difference between 2Pac and his then Death Row labelmate, Snoop Dogg, Hughes said 2Pac wasn't a "street kid."

"It goes back to my definition of a gangster," Hughes said. "A gangster is the furthest thing from an artist as humanly possible you could be. Snoop understood having just beat a murder charge six months prior what the gravity of the moment. He knows what it is because he's a street cat." Allen goes on to explain his interpretation of Tupac. "Tupac on the other hand, while he came up in the urban, fucked up ghetto; he's not a street kid. He's an artist and activist and he's a performing arts kid. He's also delusional. I mean that not just as a pejorative, but in a positive way."

Hughes briefly worked with 2Pac on his film debut, Menace II Society, but fired him due to ongoing issues on set, which led to a physical altercation. "We would try to rehearse, and he would just say sh-t and do sh-t, get up, and he was just erratic," he said in a 2013 interview with Sway In The Morning.

Hughes has previously said even after the incident, 2Pac's star power couldn't be denied. “If ‘Pac had been in the movie he would’ve outshined everyone,” Hughes said in an interview. “It would’ve thrown the whole axis of the movie off if Tupac was in it, because he was bigger than the movie.”

Hughes went on to tell Heilemann 2Pac was undoubtedly a great artist.

"You have to be delusional to be a great artist, but you have to know when to hit that switch and he couldn't find that switch," Hughes said. "The thing that I think that he was addicted the most to is when he's in a room and he sees people reacting to what he's saying, especially any woman if they're smiling he goes to 10. He's so charismatic that he lost himself in his power to move a room."