Netflix will release “The Tupac Tapes with Angie Martinez,” a four-part video podcast series built on previously unreleased portions of Martinez’s 1996 interview with Tupac Shakur, on Nov. 27, the company said on Nov. 11. The Tupac Tapes are rated TV-MA.
Martinez recorded the interview at Shakur’s Los Angeles home months before he was killed in 1996. She has held the unreleased material for 30 years, and the series turns that restraint into its selling point. The open question is whose permission the release needed besides hers.
How Angie Martinez Got the Tupac Interview
Shakur reached out to Martinez about appearing in his “I Ain’t Mad at Cha” video, according to Netflix’s account. She declined, and he later invited her to his home for the interview.
Martinez said she kept parts of the tape private on purpose. “I felt a responsibility to protect something that was never meant to become his final statement,” she told Netflix. She also described the day he died. “I was actually on the radio the day Pac died, and I remember having to tell our listeners the news,” Martinez said.
Why Martinez is Releasing It Now
Martinez framed the decision as a matter of history. “They’re a piece of hip-hop history, and I don’t think they should just sit in my possession forever,” she said. The series pairs the tape with conversation. The guest list includes Charlamagne Tha God, Joe Budden, Big Boy, dream hampton, RZA and Wallo. “He was only 25 years old when he died,” Martinez said.
Netflix’s announcement does not say whether Shakur’s estate took part in or approved the series. Martinez owns her recording and spent three decades deciding what to do with it, and that is the fair case for her. The tape still captures a man speaking at the height of a feud he did not live to see end, and how much of that he would have wanted aired is a question only his estate can now speak to.
Netflix’s Push into Video Podcasts
The series fits a strategy Netflix began last year. On Dec. 16, 2025, iHeartMedia announced a deal to bring video versions of its podcasts to Netflix, including “The Breakfast Club,” which Charlamagne co-hosts. “Netflix has a leading video-first service,” said Bob Pittman, iHeartMedia’s chairman and CEO, at the time.
“The Tupac Tapes” pulls from that bench. Charlamagne is on Netflix through the iHeart shows, and Budden runs his own podcast network. Netflix is assembling a lineup of hip-hop talk voices and giving them a 30-year-old tape as the occasion. Netflix has not said whether all four parts will be released at once. “The Tupac Tapes with Angie Martinez” premieres on Netflix on Nov. 27.
