• Beef Breakdown #0: The Prelude
• Beef Breakdown#1: Nicki Minaj & Cardi B
• Beef Breakdown #2: Taylor Swift & Kanye West
• Beef Breakdown #3: Eminem & Pretty Much Every Single Popstar
• Beef Breakdown #4: JAY-Z & Kanye West
• Beef Breakdown #5: Eminem & Ja Rule
• 👉 Beef Breakdown #6: Tupac & Biggie

What’s up guys—-@Jetski_Wavez here, and I’m back with another Beef Breakdown! There weren’t as many votes as last time, but most people voted for a breakdown of Tupac and Biggie’s beef, so let’s do it!

1993

Ya know, Biggie and Pac were once great friends. They first met when Biggie asked a local drug dealer to introduce him to 2Pac, and he ended up at a party at Pac’s house! Then, as an intern put it, Tupac showed them:

the greenest vegetables I’d ever seen

Now they were high and screwing about in the garden—-they were playing with unloaded guns (as you do), and Pac fed them steak, French fries, bread, and Kool-Aid. And that was the beginning of Biggie and Pac’s friendship!

Biggie would crash at Tupac’s house, and Tupac would give him advice—-the two even freestyled together at the Budweiser Superfest, but Biggie still wasn’t too well known outside of Brooklyn.

Soon, Big asked Tupac to become his manager and replace Puff Daddy. However, 2Pac said no—-”He will make you a star,” was what he said.

Tupac even said that he influenced Biggie directly:

I trained the nigga, he used to be under me like my lieutenant. I used to tell the nigga, “If you want to make your money, you have to rap for the bitches. Do not rap for the niggas,” The bitches will buy your records, and the niggas want what the bitches want.

Some solid advice. Anyway, Big took this advice, and transitioned into making tracks which appealed to the women—-”Big Poppa” is an example:

Soon as he buy that wine, I just creep up from behind / And ask what your interests are, who you be with?

Soon, however, Tupac was, some might say, getting involved with the wrong people—-to shoot the film Above the Rim, he began to hang out with some infamous tough guys from Queen; Haitian Jack and Jimmy Henchman began to show Tupac the high-life, bringing in celebrities like Buju Banton and Madonna (who Pac dated briefly). Biggie knew about these guys’ reputation, and he warned Tupac—-however, Tupac loved Haitian Jack’s swag, and he was getting introduced to some of the local gangstas.

November 1993

Things went downhill when Tupac took a 19-year-old called Ayanna Johnson to his hotel one night. They met again four days later, but instead, she found Haitian Jack, Jack’s road manager “Man Man” and another unknown man. She claimed that they had gang-raped her; Tupac said he left the room when the other guys entered and fell asleep. Regardless of whoever was right, Tupac, Haitian Jack, and Man Man were arrested. Guns were even found, and Tupac said they were Biggie’s.

Tupac was charged with sexual abuse, sodomy and weapons possession, but Tupac blamed himself for “doing nothing” to protect Ayanna. But before the trial, Haitian Jack’s case was removed from Tupac and Man Man’s, and somehow, he got away with pleading guilty to a couple of misdemeanors, and he avoided jail time. Tupac said he was a snitch, and he had been set up. He felt completely invincible—-calling out a gangster with a reputation wasn’t the smartest idea.

1994

Tupac gets shot, and the friendship ends

Lil’ Cease, a friend of Biggie, called Tupac to the studio, and he got there completely stoned. However, instead of meeting up with Biggie, he was shot, beaten and robbed. Afterward, he found Biggie and Puff Daddy inside the studio, and he believed that Biggie set up the shooting. This was the end of their friendship.

“He owed me more than to turn his head and act like he didn’t know niggas was about to blow my fucking head off. You don’t know who shot me in your hometown, these niggas from your neighborhood?

Only a few days later, Tupac, who couldn’t pay the $3 million bail, served his jail sentence for sexual abuse, and he vowed to destroy Bad Boy Entertainment, which was Biggie and Puff’s label.

While Pac was serving time, however, Biggie recorded the infamous “Who Shot Ya”.

Who shot ya? Separate the weak from the obsolete
Hard to creep them Brooklyn streets
It’s on nigga, fuck all that bickering beef

Some say that this is a clear shot at Pac, while others say that Biggie recorded this song way before Tupac was set up, so it’s not. Nobody knows.

While Pac was in prison, he asked Keisha Morris (his wife who he had married while incarcerated) to give Suge Knight, the head of Death Row Records, a message: he was broke, and on top of the lawyers’ fees, his mother was losing her house. Suge Knight gave him $15,000, and Tupac said that he wanted to see him.

Death Row seemed to be the way out for Pac—-David Kenner, Death Row’s lawyer, vowed to help Tupac with his case, and he worked on getting him out on an appeal bond. Death Row was more than a label; it was a family, and Tupac was soon becoming part of it.

1995

Suge headed to NYC, and the Source Awards was held in Madison Square Garden, which was where he spent $100,000 on the opening-act’s stage show, including life-size jail cell replicas. He picked up the award for the best soundtrack for Above the Rim, and he said this:

Any artist out there wanna be an artist, and wanna stay a star, and don’t have to worry about the executive producer trying to be all in the videos, all on the records, dancing—come to Death Row.

This was a definite shot at P. Diddy—-he was well-known for starring in his artists’ videos, and even saying all sorts of things (check Biggie’s “Playa Hater”, Mase’s “Feel So Good“ for examples) in their videos.

As expected, Suge Knight was booed, but why did this happen?

It was Tupac.

Before the awards show, Suge visited Tupac, where he agreed to join Death Row, and he also expressed his anger at Biggie:

“I need you to ride with me because I’m going to destroy Bad Boy Records. I believe they had something to do with me getting shot.

1996

Pac dropped “How Do U Want It”, which was the A-side—-the B-side was the infamous “Hit Em' Up”, where, alongside the Outlawz, Tupac viciously took shots at lots of East Coast rappers, which also upheld the East Coast vs West Coast rivalry:

First off, fuck yo' bitch and the clique you claim
Westside when we ride, come equipped with game
You claim to be a player, but I fucked your wife
We bust on Bad Boys, niggas fucked for life
Plus, Puffy tryna see me, weak hearts I rip
Biggie Smalls and Junior M.A.F.I.A. is some mark-ass bitches

Lil' Kim, don’t fuck around with real G’s

The whole song takes shots at everyone on Bad Boy Records, and some say it’s one of the greatest disses ever.

Unfortunately, Tupac was shot multiple times after attending the Seldon vs. Tyson Heavyweight title fight, and he died later (this was linked to the infamous Bloods vs Crips war); Biggie was killed in a drive-by shooting (some claim that it was Suge Knight who put the hit out on him). No matter what happened between the two, the two are both legends. RIP to both.

And that’s that!

What do you think?

Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Thanks a lot for reading this, and I’ll be back for next week! Remember to vote as well!

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Vote here!!

You forgot the part where 2Pac escaped to Cuba and in fact survived.

@Jetski_Wavez Wow awesome job man!!
I couldn’t stop reading this it was so interesting I’d always heard about the beef between Pac and B.I.G but I never really knew what went down, so thanks on clearing it up for me and once again a job well done man!

This is dope @Jetski_Wavez! By the end of his career, ‘Pac was basically beefing with every East Coast rapper🤫

that beef was some crazy shit

Sucks it ended up the way it did

Awesome @Jetski_Wavez !!

A violent and intense beef on such amazing times. Had the whole country bubbling with the East vs West conflict. I picture a cold, nightish and partylike New York rivaling a hot, beachlike Los Angeles. Both of them equally in love with people, flashes and fame. Both of them deeply criminal and just… hardcore gangsta. I’m not convinced this idea I have of how it was like is accurate. Oh well…

A comparison between Pac and Biggie often ends up in that specific cliché: “Biggie is more technical, Pac is more artistic”/“Biggie as a rapper, Pac as an artist” and etc.

I don’t really like these dichotomies and I would say Pac was a little bit better on this one. What does it for me, really, is “Hit ‘Em Up”. One of the most, if not the most angry, berserk and brutally destructive diss track I’ve ever listened to. The “whole Junior MAFIA clique”, along with Bad Boy Records, felt it.

Guys, I need a few more votes! Here’s the link again:

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