September 13th, 1996 & March 9th, 1997: two dates that live in infamy for any fan of Hip-Hop. These were the days that as Nas would much later proclaim, “Hip-Hop was Dead” for us. Two of our biggest and brightest lyricists, were both shot down in cold blood, in the same type of manner: as they were each sitting in the passenger seat of a vehicle, killed by an unidentified driver in a passing car. And to pour salt into the wound, both murders still remain unresolved to this very day, either because of lack of evidence or just flat out cover-ups by either police or the parties involved. Every one has their theories as to how or why it happened. Did someone from the East Coast take out ‘Pac, and did someone from the West Coast take out Biggie in retaliation? Were the murders completely unrelated, and instead, just a coincidence? Was Suge Knight involved? For that matter, was Puffy or his people involved in eithershooting? Did the misunderstanding begin on that faithful night when Tupac got shot in the recording studio that Biggie and his people were at? From that moment, Tupac blamed Biggie for the incident, claiming that it was “planned;” when in fact, Biggie claimed that he had nothing to do with the matter. In addition, Biggie release a song shortly after called “Who Shot Ya,” which Tupac believed was directed towards him, glorifying the incident. Ever since then, Tupac went out of his way to publicly speak out against Biggie- culminating in the picture of Tupac “hugged up” with Biggie’s then wife, Faith Evans. It makes you wonder…..Could all it have taken was a phone call, or perhaps a face to face meeting, to straighten out their misunderstanding? A chance for them to work out their differences, away from the entourages, the “he-said, she-said,” and the hype of the East Coast/West Coast rivalry. If so, maybe…..just maybe, both men would still be alive, making music to this day.
Since I like to keep an open mind about most things, I’m not going to begin to speculate the circumstances of either death. I wasn’t there. In fact, I was a student at Central Junior High when I heard about the news of both deaths. Yeah, everyoneremembers where they were when they heard that both of them had died. At this point, my generation had never really experienced the loss of our musical heroes; nonetheless two of them within 6 months of each other. Looking back, does it really matter what side you were on, East Coast or West Coast? It all seems rather pointless now, doesn’t it? To be feuding over what side of the States you’re from. And for people to really be choosing sides….Not to mention that the whole thing never made any sense to begin with because both rappers were actually from New York. Tupac was born in East Harlem, and Biggie, being from Brooklyn. The only difference is that Tupac moved from New York to Baltimore when he was a kid, and then later toCalifornia when he was 17. The irony of it all is that Tupac actually lived on the East Coast for longer than he was ever a West Coast resident.
It’s staggering to think of the influence that both of them left, despite having been still “fairly new” to the game themselves. Both rappers never lived past the age of 25 (Tupac being 25 at the time of his death, and Biggie being 24, respectively), and both of their public careers never really made it past 5 years. It really is a shame when you think of what they could have accomplished had they lived longer. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that we may never know exactly what happened. We may never get closure as to the “hows” or “whys” of either of their deaths, but I like to believe that maybe….just maybe, the two of them have “peaced” it up in heaven in all the years since. After all, they used to be friends once upon a time……
Until Next Time……