You’ve even had US president Barack Obama riffing on them at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ dinner-dance. A month rarely goes by without some rap tune referencing one or both. There’s also Ronin Ro’s Have Gun Will Travel, a spectacular look at the mad, sinister and dark world of Tupac’s Death Row Records label and its former chief executive, Suge Knight.Įvery conceivable angle has been covered, uncovered and covered again. There are Greg Kading’s Murder Rap and Randall Sullivan’s LAbyrinth books, both about the investigations into the killings. Since their violent murders, a small industry has popped up to tease out every aspect in the intriguing story of two slain rappers. There are, though, very few legacy icons to or about Biggie he didn’t have the same face for the camera. Biggie Smalls was one of the best rappers to ever grab a microphone, the big-boned man with a glitzy feeling for a great hook. Tupac was the tormented poet and sensitive thug, the Bob Marley of hip-hop, the rebel with many causes. You picked a side and you were in one camp or the other: you were down with Pac or you were down with Biggie.Įach was a hugely appealing, charismatic star who came with a dozen aliases. were the men, supposedly poles apart, who were driving the momentum. It was a time when hip-hop dominated the pop-culture dialogue and Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. They were hip-hop’s most prominent figures during that crazy period in the 1990s when a spat between different groups of rappers on both coasts of the US defined the genre. You can understand why the pair still command interest. It is one of countless pieces of graffiti or homage to him around the world. You won’t find makeshift shrines containing posters of any of the latter three on the Tallaght bypass, as is the case with Tupac.
There are many other rappers who met violent deaths, yet no one has seen fit to eulogise Big L, Soulja Slim or Proof in the same way. You’d think we would have run out of interest or found other pop-culture figures to mythologise, but the men born Christopher Wallace and Tupac Shakur are still highlighted like no others.
Even now, more than 15 years since they were killed six months apart in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, the ballad of Biggie and Tupac continues to be played. Biggie beef is very on brand for Ray J lol.This story never seems to end. Pac said himself he did in “Hit Em Up” so to say it leads to Ray J is a STRETCH!” One concluded, “Ray J starting the Tupac v. He was raised around THAT environment? Then shieeeeeettt lol he’s still cool with Suge to this day aswell.” Meanwhile, another noted, “No because ray j really ignited the beef with tupac and big like this man is a messy b**ch and i love him.” One pointed out that the beef between the two started 2 years earlier, “Their beef began nearly 2 years earlier when Tupac got shot otw to the studio session with Biggie & Diddy. The next one posted, “I keep hearing how Ray J is certified in the streets and forgot this and how this connects him to death row etc. Whether Ray J said something or not is irrelevant in his murder.” Ray J May not have started the Pac/B.I.G beef but he brought the kerosene.” One user tweeted, “Ray J is a infinity stone confirmed” while another noted, “I’m just making the point that Tupac’s actions lead directly to his death. Speaking on the same, one said, “Ray J is the perfect example of the butterfly effect his life has changed the entire world we live in.” Another shared, “Bruh. ‘Ray J is the perfect example of the butterfly effect’Īs soon as the thread went viral on Twitter, a few users supported the theory while a few did not. He says he saw Faith sitting on Tupac’s lap in the studio Snoop’s cousin is running around Death Row