Their worlds seemed destined to collide. They were two of the most
talented hip-hop rappers on the scene. And they both were dedicated to
exposing the truth of the tribulations of life on the streets, social
injustice and the racial divide. But the biggest difference between
Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls: They represented different coasts.
What exploded into arguably the biggest rivalry in music history, ended
up in the death of both artists, just as their careers were
skyrocketing. Tupac (also known as 2Pac) was gunned down on September 7,
1996, and died six days later, while Biggie (also known as the
Notorious B.I.G.) was shot and killed six months later on March 9, 1997.
Neither murder has ever been solved.
But one thing that there’s no question about is that they started off as friends.
Tupac entered the music scene two years before Biggie
Born in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City as Lesane Parish
Crooks, Tupac’s single mother moved the family often in an attempt to
escape the high-crime areas. They first went to Baltimore and then to
Marin City, California. It was there that Tupac’s love and talent for
poetry was bred. He eventually broke into the music business, first as a
roadie and dancer for the group, Digital Underground. He eventually he
took the mic in 1991, with his debut album, 2Pacalypse Now, released that year.
Meanwhile, back in New York City, Christopher “Biggie” Wallace, was
raised in Brooklyn, spent his teen years attending prestigious high
schools (where English was a strong subject), dealing drugs in the
streets and rapping for fun. “It was fun just hearing myself on tape
over beats,” he said in his biography for Arista Records.
But a demo he made found its way to Source magazine, which
spotlighted the young talent — and he was soon represented by Sean
“Diddy” Combs (also known as “Puffy Daddy”). His first single, “Party
and Bulls**t” came out in 1993.
Biggie asked Tupac to be his manager
By that year, Tupac was already a platinum-selling artist, so Biggie
asked a drug dealer to introduce him to Tupac at a Los Angeles party,
according to a Vice excerpt of the book Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap by Ben Westhoff.
“'Pac walks into the kitchen and starts cooking for us. He's in the
kitchen cooking some steaks,” an intern named Dan Smalls who worked with
Biggie recalled of the meeting. “We were drinking and smoking and all
of a sudden ‘Pac was like, ‘Yo, come get it.’ And we go into the kitchen
and he had steaks, and French fries, and bread, and Kool‑Aid and we
just sittin’ there eating and drinking and laughing...that's truly where
Big and ‘Pac’s friendship started.”
There was mutual respect between the two, as well as their friend groups. According to the Vice
excerpt, EDI Mean, a friend of Biggie’s, said, “We all thought he was a
dope rapper.” The story reports that Tupac gave Biggie a Hennessy
bottle as a gift. Biggie would crash on Tupac’s couch when he was in
California and Tupac would always stop by Biggie’s neighborhood when he
was in New York.
In essence, they were like any other pair of friends.
And the potential greatness of their combined talents was also evident.
At the 1993 Budweiser Superfest at New York City’s Madison Square
Garden, they freestyled together. Biggie often turned to Tupac for
advice in the business — and even asked him to manage his career. But
Tupac didn’t mix business with friendship: “Nah, stay with Puff. He will
make you a star.”
upac believed Biggie had a hand in his 1994 gun down
While there were some smaller kerfuffles between Tupac and Biggie, the
first big fallout happened when they were scheduled to work on a project
together for another rapper, Little Shawn.
Tupac arrived at Times Square’s Quad Recording Studios on November 30,
1994, and was getting ready to head upstairs to where Biggie and Combs
were. But instead, Tupac was gunned down in the lobby and shot five
times, according to the New York Times.
He survived the attack but believed Biggie might have something to do
with it, even though they did make it upstairs to see them right after
the incident. “Tupac said the crew looked surprised and guilty, but
Puffy claimed they showed him ‘nothing but love and concern,’” according
to the Vice excerpt.
When Tupac joined Death Row Records, the East Coast-West Coast rivalry was cemented
While Tupac was incarcerated for another incident, he came to believe
Biggie knew about the attack ahead of time. The west coast rapper
reached out to Suge Knight, who offered him a place on his Death Row
Records roster. Tupac accepted, cementing the rivalry between Knight's
label and Combs’ Bad Boy Records. “Any artist out there that wanna be an
artist, stay a star, and won’t have to worry about the executive
producer trying to be all in the videos, all on the records,
dancing—come to Death Row!” Knight proclaimed at that 1995 Source awards show.
There was never proof that Biggie or Combs knew about the incident. But a
couple of months later, Biggie’s B-side single was a track called “Who
Shot Ya?” which led to Tupac’s response with the song, “Hit ‘Em Up.” In
it, Tupac claimed he slept with Biggie’s wife, Faith Evans. According to
Vibe, Evans denied the claim, saying, “That ain’t how I do business.”
The punches continued to be thrown throughout their short lives, each
side blaming the other for the deaths (while other theorists believe
they may still be alive).
But after Tupac’s death, Biggie wanted to put an end to the coast-to-coast fighting. “We two individual people, we waged a coastal
beef...one man against one man made a whole West Coast hate a whole
East Coast. And vice versa. And that really bugged me out,” he said in
an interview. “I've got to be the one to try to flip it... because Pac
can't be the one to try to squash it because he's gone.”