Karl Kani, one of the most influential fashion designers of streetwear in the 90s, got a special gift from Tupac. In a new interview, Kani explained that Tupac did not charge him anything to do an advertisement.

"My first interactions were with Daz and Kurupt and Snoop [Dogg]. I met Tupac a couple years after that," Karl Kani said of how he linked up with Pac. "Those guys came down, it was nothing but love. They did ads for my partners in Cross Colours and we decided we wanted to go with Tupac in our advertisement. So, I did my ads with Tupac in 94, 95."

Karl Kani stated that when he sat down to discuss doing the ad with Tupac, the rapper let it be known why he would not be charging anything to do it.

"We connected at the Hotel Nikko. I sat down and talked to the man cause I really wanted to meet him cause he was wearing a lot of my clothing," Kani explained. "After ten minutes or so in the conversation, I asked him how much would he charge me to do an ad and he kind of got real quiet. He didn't say nothing for a minute. He's like, 'Yo man, I ain't gonna charge you cause you black. You my peoples, man. I'm just gonna do it out of love.' I was like cool, game on. Two weeks later, the man kept his word and went to New York to do a photo shoot before Above the Rim came out."

Check out the entire interview above to hear about Karl Kani's experience opening up his first store in South Central and how he started working with Tha Dogg Pound.

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