This is an email I recieved from Sonny Coates, and he set me straight about that Dr.Dre lyric.  Here it is:

Ok, Dre says, "I ain't tryin to stick around for Illuminati. Gotta buy my own album by the year 2 g". What "Illuminati" is, is a secret socitey (like Ku Klux Klan, or the Freemasons) that are rumored to be directly linked to deep-seated racism, and the co-conspiring of the "New World Order". It's a touchy situation, believe me. I attend an all Black College and I hear this sh*t all day. The name has been tossed around in songs by such artists as MOBB DEEP (it's all in their new album and that LL COOL J song he had with them, Foxy Brown, Busta Rhymes, etc... "Illumanati trying to keep their eye on me..."), and The ROOTS. Wanna know more, look it up on the net. Baby, it's DEEP. If what everyone is saying, and according to all the symbols, EVERYONE of us is in for some BAD TIMES in the not so distant future. Matter of fact, DO look it up (Illuminati, New World Order), cuz it totally affects you too hermano.

As far as Tupac and his title (the Don Killuminati), shit, your guess is as good as mine. He had a lot of revolutionary lyrics and sentiment in the album, that has a lot to do with the whole thing. The "Don" part has to do with Italian Mob sh*t. You know, the Don is the head man, and the capo is the under boss. Obviously, putting two and two together, he's labeling himself (Makavelli) as the man who will lead us against the Illuminati (KILLuminati---anti Illuminati), or at least the things that they are "doing". Maybe he feels as though he's the "savior", so to speak. I wouldn't doubt it, he raised a panther, he utimately would feel responsible for some action like this, but he still had bad blood remaining so the album was unfocused (between beef with rivals, and liberation from capitalistic not to mention racist undermining). Anyway, it's time for me to straight crash, plus, I feel like somebody's watching me.

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last updated 11/24/96