I’m not thuggin’ for me, I’m thuggin’ for my family, I pay all the bills, I feed my whole family, wrong or right, I do and I can’t stop.

In this statement, Shakur frames “thuggin’” less as gratuitous criminality than as a coerced role adopted under economic and social pressure. The emphasis on paying bills and feeding an extended family casts his actions as provision and responsibility, suggesting a moral calculus shaped by scarcity: “wrong or right” signals awareness of ethical compromise, while “I can’t stop” conveys entrapment—habit, environment, and expectations narrowing perceived choices. The quote also reflects a recurring tension in his public persona and lyrics: the desire to be understood as a product of structural conditions (poverty, violence, limited opportunity) rather than as a one-dimensional villain, even while acknowledging agency and accountability are complicated.