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“When you got a story as real as mine you can’t leave nothin’ out”.
In his trademark laid-back cadence and unmistakable flow, one of the greatest storytellers and most influential rappers of all time gets nostalgic on wax over a Hit-Boy production, when reminiscing about a story made in the streets.
For those who don’t already know, we’re talking about the one and only Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, the track is Death Row East off of his critically-acclaimed follow-up album to 2020’s King’s Disease, and the topic of discussion is his and the late Tupac Shakur’s tumultuous relationship.
Let’s Take You Back to ’89
Before looking at the events that ultimately transpired between two of hip-hop’s all-time greats through a fresh lens, we need a crash course on how we got there first.
To do this, it’s important to understand each artist’s origin, which coincidentally enough has its beginning in 1989. This was smack dab in the middle of what has subsequently come to be known as hip-hop’s “Golden Age”.
A time period between the mid-1980s to mid-1990s, which saw the hip-hop music genre birthed in the Bronx go mainstream on the back of its diversity, quality, innovation and begin to emerge as the global phenomenon you know it as today.
Apart from the acts that dominated the era, such as Run-D.M.C., LL Cool J, Public Enemy, and others. The underground was bubbling up, with the likes of The DOC and De La Soul making their debuts, while the son of a jazz musician going by the moniker of “Nasty Nas” recorded his demo.
Strictly Dope
At the very same time, on the other side of the country in California, a young 19 year old Tupac Amaru Shakur began recording music under the stage name MC New York.
After Shakur’s mother Afeni moved her and her adolescent son and half-sister to the Bay Area in 1988, Tupac like many impoverished inner-city teens, quickly grew disenfranchised with his situation and began selling drugs on the streets, seeing it as a way out of his bleak economic circumstance.
Fortunately, our story begins rather than ends there. As it was also during this troubled time that Tupac made friends who would help spark his interest in rap music.
One of these homies – Ray Luv, he would end up forming a short-lived rap group called Strictly Dope, alongside a mutual friend of the two by the name of DJ Dize and several others as well.
The group would perform at neighborhood talent showcases and wherever else they could land a gig.
These early performances along with help from a friend and soon-to-be manager, Leila Steinberg would secure Shakur an audition with Atron Gregory, manager of the rap group Digital Underground, which he would end up joining the following year.
Live at the Barbeque
While Pac was making moves out on the West Coast and getting a hand up, Nas was creating a buzz of his own beyond the Queensbridge Houses development he grew up in, thanks to a friend and neighbor.
During his early teen years, Nasir and neighbor, Willy “Ill Will” Graham would frequently listen to hip-hop records together and even form an MC and DJ duo under the monikers “Kid Wave” and “Ill Will”, respectively.
The two would eventually meet producer Large Professor, who would hook Nas up with a guest feature on the Main Source song “Live at the Barbecue” off the album Breaking Atoms, which Large Professor produced.
This contribution would garner Nas comparisons to another highly skilled New York-based MC, Rakim, and earn the nouveau rapper a record deal with Columbia Records only a year later.
East Coast-West Coast Rivalry
“At the highest moment, that’s when the devil comes for you”.
These words, attributable to actor Denzel Washington couldn’t be more apt for this story. With both artists’ careers now flourishing after their respective major label debut albums – Illmatic and 2Pacalypse Now received critical as well as commercial success, a deadly incident would occur in the winter of 1994 that would forever change both men’s lives and put them on a collision course.
While in New York to appear in court for a sexual assault case, Tupac, his manager at the time Freddie Moore, and friend Randy “Stretch” Walker headed over to Quad Recording Studios in Times Square to record a guest verse for an artist being managed by James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond.
As the story goes, the trio were about to squeeze into an elevator to take them up to the 10th floor Quad Studio space. This is when they were approached by three masked gunmen in the lobby who demanded their money and jewelry.
Tupac didn’t go along with the assailants’ commands and instead began shouting obscenities at them, this predictably did not end well, with one of the men firing their weapon…not once, not twice, but five times.
All five discharged bullets ended up hitting Tupac in various parts of his 5’9.5″ frame and he was also relieved of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry.
Accounts of who, what, and how vary wildly to this day. With just about everyone and their hip-hop loving uncle having an opinion. But what we do know is that Tupac was now wounded, imprisoned, after having been convicted of first-degree sexual abuse, alone, and not in the best place financially, let alone physically or mentally.
This is when a figure that some in the music industry have referred to as ‘the devil himself’ entered the picture. Providing some much-needed financial relief to Tupac and a way out of prison, in the form of $1.4m in bail money.
What followed Tupac’s release from Clinton Correctional Facility in New York state and subsequent signing to Death Row Records, the West Coast label co-founded and headed up by Marion “Suge” Knight, the man who bailed him out of prison, were accusations aimed at East Coast-based Bad Boy Records, its founder Sean “Puffy” Combs, main act the Notorious B.I.G., and “anyone else down with Bad Boy”.
Insisting that they were in fact the ones who had set him up to be robbed and shot at Quad Studios the prior year.
Among those “down with Bad Boy” at the time, was Nas, who had just caught a lyrical stray in what would infamously become known as the East Coast-West Coast beef.
The Message
While all of this was transpiring in 1995, Nas had begun working on his sophomore album, It Was Written. After switching managers and doing a slew of guest verses on other’s albums to help build anticipation.
The studio album was finally released in July of ’96, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, and to this day remains Nas’s best-selling album.
But in the midst of this success and Nas’s ascent to mainstream popularity, there were dark clouds starting to form in the shape of Tupac Shakur, who was now deeply entrenched with Death Row and the violent culture its CEO cultivated.
Tupac, growing ever paranoid and not knowing who to trust during this time according to some accounts, took offense to the opening line of the song “The Message”, the second track off the newly released It Was Written:
“Fake thug, no love, you get the slug, CB4 gusto”
This prompted Tupac to clap back at Nas on a track called “Against All Odds”:
“This little nigga named Nas thinks he live like me
Talking out how he left the hospital took five like me
You living fantasies, nigga I reject your deposit”
As we would only much later come to find out, Nas recorded a verse on an un-released Uni-Bombers track entitled “Real Niggaz” in ’96 that hit back at Pac. However, the original line from “The Message” was misinterpreted by Tupac, as per Escobar himself and never meant as a slight towards Makaveli the Don.
Squashing the Beef
After having nearly parallel careers for half a decade and in-directly becoming embroiled in a bitter feud. The stage was finally set for two of the greatest contemporary poets to finally meet face to face and that stage was the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards.
Ever the consummate storyteller, Nas touched on this fateful encounter on his latest album King’s Disease II:
“Back when Jungle told Pac, “It’s on” soon as we walk up out this
Picket signs, Outlawz outside the music hall
Bunch of ghetto superstars really down to lose it all”
This is in reference to Nas’s brother Jungle and his run in with Pac at the award show, which would directly lead to a confrontation later that same night between Tupac, his Death Row crew and Nas, Jungle, and their Queensbridge entourage at nearby Bryant Park after the award ceremony wrapped up.
In Nas’s own words, this is what went down:
“Where I was coming from really wasn’t an all love place ‘cause there was a rumor Makaveli was coming out, so I really wanted to check the temperature with him. It was necessary for us to address the situation. We had to step to our business. We had a great convo. He thought I was dissing him on the song ‘The Message’ and I heard he was dissing me at clubs. It was back and forth and like, ‘Nas we brothers man, we not supposed to go through this”.
Others that were in attendance that night, like Outlawz member Napoleon, have recounted similar versions of the encounter.
Photo by Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives
What happened next would put an abrupt and tragic end to a possible collaboration at minimum and a budding friendship at most, with Tupac being fatally shot and killed on Sept. 7, 1996 in Las Vegas.
Just three days after him and Nas made an amends of sorts in a Manhattan park and only a day prior to Nas’s own scheduled flight to Vegas to meet up with the All Eyez on Me rapper to formally squash any lingering beef or bad blood between the two.
Artists, rivals, peers, acquaintances, and two of the greatest rappers to ever grace a mic is how Nas and Tupac’s relationship can best be summarized.
FAQs
Answer: The two icons first crossed paths at a Tupac performance at New York City’s Palladium concert hall on July 23, 1993. The proof of this encounter has recently made the rounds online in the form of a rare black and white photo taken by legendary hip-hop photographer Al Pereira.
Answer: Nas and Tupac became embroiled in hip-hop’s deadliest beef – the East Coast-West Coast rivalry. Although Tupac and
The Notorious B.I.G. were the protagonists in this tale, verbal jabs were taken by Tupac at other East Coast artists, including Nas and vice versa during this period. The two had no prior history other than a chance meeting after one of Pac’s NYC shows in 1993.
Answer: The tragic truth is that Nas’s relationship with the West Coast legend came to an end before it ever really got started. The pair met in the flesh for the second time at Radio City Music Hall during the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards. When speaking about this encounter, Nas has said that Pac said to him “Me and you are brothers. Me and you are never supposed to go at it”.
A follow up conversation was set to take place in Las Vegas two days later, until Nas got word that Tupac was gunned down and it never ended up taking place.