Tupac Shakur came for Biggie’s throat on the 1996 diss track “Hit Em Up,” arguably one of the most disrespectful Hip Hop records ever recorded. With every lyric he uttered in the song, the fired up ‘Pac made it crystal clear he had a problem with The Notorious B.I.G.
“First off, fuck your bitch and the click you claim,” he rapped at the time. “Westside when we ride come equipped with game/You claim to be a player but I fucked your wife/We bust on Bad Boy niggaz fucked for life/Plus Puffy tryin’ ta see me weak hearts I rip/Biggie Smalls and Junior M.A.F.I.A. Some mark-ass bitches.”
While members of Biggie’s camp such as Diddy, Lil Kim, Junior M.A.F.I.A. were understandably heated, their boss apparently forbade them from responding to the diss. During a recent Instagram Live conversation with Fatman Scoop, Lil Cease recounted Big’s reaction to the track and explained why they all stayed silent.
“That’s why Big didn’t make a record,” he says in the clips. “At the very beginning, Big didn’t rush in and make a diss track. He was like, ‘Nah.’ He told everybody, ‘If you make a record, I’m not fuckin’ with you. Don’t call me, don’t fuck with me. If you respond to anything, you will be cut off.’
“So none of us could do it — Junior M.A.F.I.A. was ready to respond, Kim was ready to respond. But Big was like, ‘Nah, we not doing that.’ I just think Big was tryin’ to leave it open, so he could really just, ‘Yo, what’s up dawg? Like come on nigga, you talkin’ to me. What’s up?'”
But ‘Pac and Biggie never got the chance — both Hip Hop legends were shot and killed before they were able to make amends. ‘Pac was ambushed at a Las Vegas intersection in September 1996 and Biggie was gunned down in Los Angeles six months later. But Cease is confident Biggie wanted to squash their beef prior to his murder.
“They never got in touch with each other, he never ran into him,” Cease continued. “They never had those type of situations where that opportunity could present itself. I think that’s why Big never really spoke on it, never really made records about it because I always felt like he knew there was room to fix it — and he wanted to fix it.
“I know that was his sign he wanted to fix it by not escalating it. At the end of the day, your pride’s your pride. Niggas was mad that he wasn’t responding, our street niggas that was around us that really get busy in the streets, they was like, ‘Yo, come on, dawg’ and Big was like, ‘Nah, chill. I’m not doing it.’ But if shit come our way, we gonna make sure we on point and we gonna handle our business.'”
Lil Cease Says Biggie Thought JAY-Z Was A Better MC
“Hit Em Up” was written as a response to Biggie’s “Who Shot Ya?” record, which was released a few months after ‘Pac was shot on November 30, 1994. ‘Pac assumed the song was directed at him and used his anger to fuel “Hit Em Up.”
Revisit the video above.
Man lil cease and his lies almost majority of the tracks on Life after Death has shots thrown at pac FOH
Big did respond on a song for Busta Rhymes, but the label wouldn’t release the song because of the 2pac disses, but the vocals were released on Born Again, the song where he says “round and round, upside down”. And as much as people like to act like Biggie was a stand up guy now that he’s gone, “who shot ya” was definitely a Pac diss.
No it was not…that song was recorded before the beef….
“Who Shot Ya?” was written for an underground Brooklyn MC who was dissing Biggie all the time in his songs. Dude was supposedly shot and Biggie dropped that subliminal gem on him. Alotta ppl don’t know Biggie used to drop subliminal diss tracks on alot of underground Brooklyn rappers. Supposedly though, his 2nd verse on Shaq’s song “Can’t Stop The Reign” and “Long Kiss Goodnight” from Life After Death” are diss tracks to Pac.
kick in the door was aimed at Nas
Jeru, Rae-n-Ghost, and OGC….
Knee deep wit killas/about million dollar figures…..
Big didn’t specifically say Pacs name in anything really. I was so influenced by Pac in my teens that I didn’t fuck with Big til my 20s n now I’m late 30s, yea… lame af
Same lol
i respect that they portray their brother as someone who wasnt going to reply but he did on life after death multiple times
plus i seriously doubt he wasnt cursing pac out around his homie after hit´em up and the faith situation
Everybody around the world was screaming those lyrics ,one of the most popular songs in the clubs lol
Yeah true, but I gotta say they were small disses, they weren’t like Pac’s…Pac was coming at him trying to smoke him out the lion’s den or something…and mind you, I’m a Pac fan moreso than biggie. I love them both, but I was a bigger advocate of Pac’s music. But truth be told, biggie didn’t publicize this beef like Pac did. But I get what you’re saying bro!
The history here is definitely nostalgic…this was one of the best eras of hip hop, but also where things took a hard turn after both their deaths…and it maybe the sacrifice of hip hop. I wish it would all just pass and reincarnate a new age of hiphop, which it did, but kill this shit and reincarnate again lmao
Come Friday!!!!
World wide PAC is well known and the only reason bigs names keep coming up is because PAC is so relevant , they won’t be bigs without PAC but there will always be PAC without bigs…
Come no pac was a god piggie make swing not rap so if piggie responde to hit en up pac just make another song more brutal more GANGSTA and piggie star the problem with who shot ya so pac react
When I was a teen, that’s all we ride to was Pac.. Bigg got play in my ride bt the life I was living was more what Pac talk about in his song. Not saying I didnt feel Bigg shit bt Pac always been that N, from the jump…
RIP my G, rap havent been the same without u… smfh
Fk Biggie.
Shit I’m “EASTCOAST” but I dig both sides… Pac gain a problem that big didn’t understand, in fact they both were set up period… Law enforcement was definitely involved… Rest Easy Pac/Bigg
But on god, pac was black jesus
I was old enough to understand what went on. I met 2pac twice before he made Me Against The World. I am still there and I speak to some of his real associates. His real friends are here in the Bay Area. Not in LA.
From what I am hearing is that 2pac wasn’t in to that beef like the way it was portrayed. He made hit em up because he was told to do that by Suge.
Members of Outlaws have even said it in interviews. Especially the Closest Outlaw to 2pac, Muta… Muta said pac didn’t want nobody messing with biggie. That he told him to his face that he didn’t want to hurt Christopher.
The real people responsible for the two dying is the magazines Vibe, The source, Rollingstone and the other spin-off mags. They printed the magazine article’s hyped it all up and that’s what wouldn’t let up. They would purposely put one or the other on the cover…. With that articles of there personal lives were printed. Talking about so and so baby mom was doing this and that. Really being irresponsible those magazines were. I don’t understand why they weren’t hit with lawsuits. Those magazines still exist it’s just they know that shit was their fault and now they won’t do that shit. They dodged major lawsuits.
I don’t care what anyone else believes. I got this straight from real sources that know what went on. This is the truth. Who ever still want to run with it as real and say he said this or he said that. U just stirring the same pot that for both killed. That’s irresponsible.
I feel that.. Actually people don’t know… They just catching on now, how strange the people in the world get about $ and fame. Some mistake it for power. I believe suge was an insecure young man, because of his hate and anger. He may have paid the magazines to front. It was all senseless. They both were GOOD people. May they continue to rest peacefully.
My opinion is that Lil Cease is not being 100% truthful. Biggie & camp all subliminally took shots at 2Pac. Even Busta Rhymes says there was material he heard directed at 2Pac. DJ Clark Kent says that even Jay-Z made some music responding to 2Pac – and Jay says in an interview that he wasn’t the type to let 2Pac slide on the disrespect.
“Long Kiss Goodnight,” for example, was likely aimed at 2Pac. Also, it’s been said that the whole Mad Rapper schtick was Bad Boy making a parody of 2Pac. It’s sad that they both died. But it’s wack that Biggie & them always tried to make it look like they were all angels. They were antagonistic in some of their moves.
My opinion is that Lil Cease is not being 100% truthful. Biggie and camp all subliminally took shots at 2Pac. Even Busta Rhymes says there was material he heard directed at 2Pac. DJ Clark Kent says that even Jay-Z made some music responding to 2Pac – and Jay says in an interview that he wasn’t the type to let 2Pac slide on the disrespect.
“Long Kiss Goodnight,” for example, was likely aimed at 2Pac. Also, it’s been said that the whole Mad Rapper schtick was Bad Boy making a parody of 2Pac. It’s sad that they both died. But it’s wack that Biggie and them always tried to make it look like they were all angels. They were antagonistic in some of their moves.
The fact of the matter is that biggie was suppose to respond back! All of them was suppose to get crazy and this is why I respect them Queens nikkas because they were the only ones to respond back for New York at the time. I hated that Biggie never responded back to 2Pac. As much as I loved Pac, and mind you I ain’t start fucking with Pac until his death. But I’m talking about after the beef started because I loved him during his “Keep your head up” dayz, but it wasn’t till after his death, while I was in Comstock in ‘96 was when I started to really pay attention and hear every single song and was wowed. But I love Biggie and wished both would’ve had an opportunity to iron things out??