As the CD played, the debate raged on for almost half an hour before Travis said, “Look, whether he’s dead or not, those are still some words we need to live by.”

“Why? We ain’t no thug niggas,” Jackie said. “We’re college students listening to Mr. Makaveli puttin’ it down thug style.”

“True that. I was just thinking about puttin’ y’all out so I can study for an economics test,” Ronnie said.

“Yeah, yeah, I know that,” Travis said. “But listen to what Pac’s sayin’. You can’t tell me some of that shit don’t apply to us.”

“He damn sure right about that, Jackie,” Ronnie agreed.

“Rule one: Get your cash on, M.O.B. That’s money over bitches ’cause they bleed envy,” Travis stated with passion. “Ain’t no truer shit than that.”

Both Travis and Ronnie turned to Jackie.

“As long as we can all agree the term ‘bitches’ don’t necessarily apply to women only,” Jackie said. “’Cause you know sometimes you niggas can be bitches too.”

“Agreed,” both Travis and Ronnie said.

“What about rule two, Tee?” Jackie asked, referring to Tupac’s second rule in “Blasphemy”. “You tryin’ to say you need to watch us? Like you don’t trust us?”

“No, that’s not what I’m sayin’. You two are like blood to me. I know none of us will ever betray the other. What I’m sayin’ is that you gotta watch your homies, because everybody you roll with that you may think is your friend, ain’t.”

“True that,” Ronnie said as he poured himself another glass of Henny. “Everybody you think is cool, ain’t.” He passed the bottle to Travis. “But we still eight rules short.”

Travis poured himself a drink and filled Jackie’s glass. “So, we’ll make up our own rules.” He got up and walked over to Ronnie’s desk to get a piece of paper. He returned to his spot and began to write. “All right, we got rules one and two. What else? Remember, these are our rules. Shit that applies to us and what we’re tryin’ to do. It ain’t gotta be that outlaw immortal, thugged-out shit.”