On November 21, 1995 2Pac and Tha Dogg Pound teamed up with other Death Row affiliates to distribute 2,000 turkeys to needy families at the Brotherhood Crusade Headquarters in Los Angeles.
2Pac had been long involved in drawing attention to the issues faced by communities he cared about, and his Thanksgiving Day turkey distribution continued the long tradition of rappers giving out food to needy communities. (Some outlets have the date as Nov. 22, while most have the date as Nov. 21).
"I learned that fear is stronger than love. And no matter how much love I got for my peoples, man, if somebody else making them scared, my people gonna do me in. And I learned that a lot of people support me for just being me," he said in an interview with Kevin Powell. "And I have to give back. And a lot of people look up to me to give back. So I have to be able to give back. But I can’t give back if I’m broke. So I have to be about my business and my money now. Before I wanted to talk and explain what I’m doing. I’m not doing that no more. Nobody’s gonna understand me. I just came up with that. After reading what people was writing in VIBE. Ain’t no need for me to make people try to understand me. I’m gonna be out here and do my music, do some movies. Try to give back to the hood any way I can. I’ma give out food every Christmas, I’ma give out turkeys every Thanksgiving. I’ma have a Mother’s Day program."
