Despite Their Beef, Snoop Dogg Says The Notorious B.I.G. Was Hurt When Tupac Shakur Died
The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur’s beef will go down in history as the most ruthless and dangerous rivalry in hip hop. The two talented lyricists started out as friends before an unfortunate incident led to a full-blown war between two coasts. Despite such, B.I.G. was heartbroken to learn of Shakur’s murder. Shakur’s close friend and former label mate, Snoop Dogg, recently revealed a conversation between him and Biggie that took place in the aftermath of Shakur’s death.
The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur were friends turned enemies
Rumor has it that B.I.G. asked Shakur, who was already a successful rapper, to be his manager. From there, the two became close friends and had mutual respect for one another’s talent.
B.I.G. would crash on Shakur’s couch when he visited LA and Shakur would visit B.I.G. when he was working in New York. They even performed together once and it was Shakur who encouraged B.I.G. to remain with Diddy’s label as Shakur knew Diddy could help make B.I.G. popular.
Shakur was shot in a New York studio in 1994 and accused B.I.G. of being involved, which B.I.G. denied. The two spoke about one another in the media and released diss tracks about each other, with Shakur famously alleging he’d been intimate with B.I.G.’s wife.
Related: What Was Tupac’s Relationship Really Like With Biggie’s Former Wife, Faith Evans?
Shakur signing to Death Row Records in 1995 only intensified their beef, creating a rivalry between Bad Boy Record and Death Row Record and having two coasts feuding.
Snoop Dogg says The Notorious B.I.G. was hurt by Tupac Shakur’s death
Shakur was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in September 1996. Unfortunately, he and B.I.G. never had the chance to patch things up. Never making peace with one another is something that Snoop says severely impacted B.I.G. Snoop had the chance to talk to B.I.G. after Shakur’s killing and spoke about their conversation in a recent chat with Fat Man Scoop’s Instagram talk show.
“He [B.I.G. ] looked me in my eyes and he say something that, you know what I’m saying, he’s sad that Tupac is dead, but I can look in his eyes and I could see that he hurt. He didn’t even have to say it, I could see that he hurt behind 2Pac being dead,” Snoop explained. “This is not a man that’s happy or glamorized. This is his friend that’s dead, they had a misunderstanding and he could never get no justice for his emotions, but he’s showing me his emotions. And he explained to me how much he loved 2Pac.”
B.I.G. returned to California six months after Shakur’s death, despite the looming threat over his life from die-hard west coast fans of Shakur’s. While there, B.I.G. made amends with many west coast rappers. He also made it known that he wanted nothing else to do with the drama. He spoke of Shakur’s death in a 1997 interview with BET’s Rap City.
I was more shocked than anything, you know what I’m saying? But I wasn’t more shocked at him dying, I was more shocked at him…Pac is a strong dude you know, I know dude – he’s real strong so when I found out he got shot I was just like ‘Again?’ He [Shakur] always getting shot or shot at so he gon’ pull through, make a few records about it and it’ll be over, you know what I’m saying? But when he died, I was just like, ‘Woah!’ Even though we was going through our drama, I would never wish death on nobody because ain’t no coming back from that. So it kind of turned me down a little bit.
Biggie, Rap City
Sadly, B.I.G. would meet the same fate as Shakur when he too was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in March 1997. Shakur and B.I.G. were 25 and 24-years-old when they died, respectively.
