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In Jay-Z's interview with Hot 97 earlier this week, he was asked why so many rappers put out diss records these days. Jay's response was that they are all just imitating Tupac, who spent most of his final days putting out diss record after diss record. Jay, who now occasionally shouts Pac out in his songs and even went so far as to remake Pac's Me and My Girlfriend, was the target of many of Tupac's disses. In the latest issue of XXL Magazine, Jay-Z says that he had a song that responded to Tupac. He even performed it once at the Apollo, but no one has a recording of it. When Tupac was murdered, Jay shelved the song.
Its hard to deny that Pac was the most prolific rapper as far as disses go, despite 50 Cent's best efforts to claim that title, and every diss record that's been put out since he died is just a pale imitation of Hit Em Up. Let's take a look at the people that Pac managed to diss in the year before his death (its quite a list, so its possible I overlooked someone):
Biggie, Puff, Lil Kim and Bad Boy -- You all know the story behind this one. Pac and Big were friends early on in their careers, but Pac believed Biggie became jealous of his success. When Tupac was robbed and shot in front of a studio that Puff and Big were working in at the time, he thought that they had set him up. Things got worse once Pac hooked up with Death Row CEO Suge Knight, who wanted Bad Boy out of the picture so that he could set up Death Row East. From Hit Em Up, "Plus Puffy tryin' to see me, weak hearts I rip / Biggie Smalls and Junior M.A.F.I.A. some mark ass b*tches."
Dr. Dre -- When Tupac first signed with Death Row, he and Dre got along well enough, even working together on one of his biggest commercial hits, California Love. The relationship soured during Snoop Dogg's murder trial. Dre never went to court to show support for Snoop, and Pac saw this as a sign of disloyalty. Once Dre left Death Row, Pac released a couple of diss tracks calling Dre out for being gay and cheating on his wife. From Toss It Up, "Check your sexuality, as fruity as this Alize / Quick to jump ship, punk trick / What a dumb move to cross Death Row, now who you gonna run to?"
Mobb Deep -- Prior to his stint in jail, Tupac said in a Vibe interview that he was "giving up the thug life." When he heard Mobb Deep's Survival of the Fittest, which included the lyric, "Thug Life, we still livin' it," he felt that they were calling him out. When Pac's crew showed up to a Mobb Deep concert and repeatedly shouted "Thug Life" at the duo, Mobb Deep ignored them and Pac took this as yet another sign of disrespect. In Hit Em Up, Pac made fun of the fact that Prodigy had sickle cell anemia.
Nas -- Tupac always felt that Nas bit his style on It Was Written, which was a drastic change from what he talked about on his debut album Illmatic. From Against All Odds, "It was written, hey Nas your whole damn style is bitten."
Chino XL and Wendy Williams -- Most people had never heard of Chino XL, a rapper out of Jersey, until he rapped that his record label was, "raping him like Tupac in jail." Radio personality Wendy Williams also claimed that Tupac was raped in jail. Both of them got dissed by Pac for it, but only Wendy Williams had an entire song devoted to her. From Why You Turn On Me, "I'm putting Jenny Craig on you."
L.L. Cool J -- Pac didn't buy into L.L.'s new thug persona that he used on 14 Shots to the Dome, and he thought it was a diss when LL put out the track I Shot Ya with Mobb Deep. From My Niggas, "Send me to jail, but watch me bust on L.L."
The Fugees -- This beef started because "Haitian Jack" Agnant, Wyclef Jean's godfather, testified against Tupac. Haitian Jack was a key witness in the rape trials of both Mike Tyson and Tupac. Pac felt that he was an informant for the government and, presumably due to his relationship with Wyclef, began dissing the Fugees as well. From When We Ride On Our Enemies, "Heard the Fugees were trying to do me / Look I'll cut your face this ain't no movie / Then we'll watch the other two die slow."
Jay-Z -- Jay's appearance with Biggie on Brooklyn's Finest set this beef off. From All Out, "Out for Mobb Deep and Jay-Z, dead in the dust. I told you punks that I was after Biggie and you got involved, now we bout to bust on all of ya'll."
Though some of the artists listed above now shout Pac out, at the time they all responded with tracks of their own. At some point in the future I'll do a post cataloging all of the responses. For now, I'll just leave you with two of the responses:
Jay-Z and Sauce Money -- Dead Or Alive Part 1
King Sun featuring Doo Wop -- NY Love
11/2/2006 10:40:16 AM posted by Fresh