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The East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry was the most famous feud ever in the early-mid 1990s between artists and fans of the East Coast and West Coast hip-hop scenes. Seeming focal points of the feud were West Coast-based rapper 2Pac (and his label, Death Row Records), and East Coast-based rapper The Notorious B.I.G. (and his label, Bad Boy Records).
East Coast vs West Coast
Hip hop had begun in New York City, which remained the undisputed capital of hip hop until 1992, when Dr. Dre's The Chronic became one of the biggest-selling hip hop albums in history. Dre was on Death Row Records, headed by Suge Knight, and he soon built up a roster of stars like Warren G, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Doggy Dogg that reigned on the charts, and Los Angeles replaced New York as the center for hip hop. The biggest stars on East Coast were Puff Daddy's Bad Boy Records crew, which included Busta Rhymes, Mase and the Notorious B.I.G.. Puff Daddy had founded Bad Boy in 1993, and it soon outsold Ruthless Records. The rivalry intensified as hip hop continue to enter the mainstream in the United States and abroad; more money entered the industry and raised the stakes. The focal point soon came to a head with Tupac Shakur on the West Coast and Notorious B.I.G. on the East. Shakur claimed to have slept with Faith Evans, Notorious B.I.G.'s wife and herself a rapper, and he responded with "Stupid niggaz mess wit Big Poppa/motherfuckers get roasted if you fuck wit B.I.G.".
On September 7, 1996 Tupac Shakur was shot several times in Las Vegas, dying a few days later. On March 9, 1997, the Notorious B.I.G. was shot and killed in California. Both murders remain unsolved, and numerous theories (some of them conspiracy theories) have sprung up. These include, most notoriously, that Shakur's death was faked. In 1997, several rappers, including Busy Bone, C Low, Doug E. Fresh and Snoop Doggy Dogg met at the request of Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam and pledged to forgive any slights that may be related to the rivalry and deaths of Shakur and Biggie. Soon after the death of Shakur, Death Row Records folded as Afeni Shakur, Tupac's mother, sued the label for allegedly cheating her son out of millions. Label head Suge Knight ended up in jail for unrelated probation violations. Lady of Rage and Nate Dogg have also filed suits against Bad Boy with similar allegations. Puff Daddy has also had multiple legal troubles, including a much-publicized case resulting from a shooting in a New York club; he has been acquitted, though fellow rapper Shyne was not.
Background
Hip hop had originated in the streets of New York, and the city remained rap's foremost musical scene until the early '90's. During this time, acts such as N.W.A. and The D.O.C. began garnering attention for the West Coast. In 1992, former N.W.A.-head Dr. Dre's The Chronic became one of the biggest-selling hip hop albums in history, followed shortly by Snoop Doggy Dogg's debut album Doggystyle in 1993.
Dre was then on Death Row Records, headed by Suge Knight, and the label built up a roster of high-profile acts such as Tha Dogg Pound as well as Snoop and Dre that reigned on the charts. Los Angeles begun to rival New York as hip hop's center of attention; this had already, and somewhat inevitably, created a tension between certain industry heavyweights on both coasts, each hungry for control of an increasingly lucrative market. Signs of the tension first appeared when East Coast rapper Tim Dog released the diss track "Fuck Compton." "Fuck Compton" was a huge underground hit and caused ripwaves in the hip hop scene at the time; it was aimed at NWA, and made explicit that Tim Dog was "cool with Ice-T" - another LA rapper. However, it enraged many rappers hailing from Compton and the Los Angeles area, sparking a flurry of retaliatory disses from Comptons Most Wanted who dissed him on "Whos Fucking Who", DJ Quik who dissed on "The Last Word" & "Way 2 Fonky", Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg who dissed him on the track "Dre Day" and the skit "The $20 sack pyramid".
The Rivalry
2Pac vs. The Notorious B.I.G. In 1994, two young rappers from New York were garnering much attention: Tupac "2Pac" Shakur and his close friend The Notorious B.I.G. Biggie was signed to Bad Boy, a label which had just made waves with its first release, Craig Mack's Project: Funk da World. In 1994, just before the release of Biggie's debut Ready to Die, 2Pac was shot and robbed in a recording studio, just downstairs from Biggie and his entourage.
The next day, Shakur was convicted of a 1994 sexual assault on a female fan. While he was in jail, he began hearing about Bad Boy's success with Ready to Die and began to suspect the group of setting him up. His exact allegations, as given in an interview for Vibe magazine, state that when they saw he was shot they offered him no help; he also accused B.I.G. of knowing the robbery was going to happen and failing to warn him.
During his incarceration, members of 2Pac's group Dramacydal allegedly went to a Mobb Deep concert. They then visited 2Pac, maintaining that the duo had snubbed them at the concert; through his friends, 2Pac sent out a message to Mobb Deep threatening violence. Mobb Deep immediately responded with the track "Drop a Gem on 'Em." The track's official release was on the Hell on Earth album in 1996, though it had been circulating on mixtapes and radio in New York long beforehand.
Suge Knight vs. Puff Daddy
In 1995, Death Row CEO Marion "Suge" Knight mocked Bad Boy CEO Puff Daddy at the Source Awards in August 1995, announcing to the assembly of artists and industry figures: "If you don't want the owner of your label on your album or in your video or on your tour, come sign with Death Row," a reference to Puffy's tendency of adlibbing on his artists' songs and dancing in their videos.
Despite Puff Daddy himself attempting to defuse the situation with a speech later in the evening, a performance by Death Row artists Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg was booed by New Yorkers in attendance, to which Snoop responded "The East Coast ain't got no love for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg?" This would only increase tensions between fans of both coasts.
Things escalated when Suge was at a party for Southern producer Jermaine Dupri in Atlanta, Georgia. During that time, a close friend of Suge's was fatally shot outside. Suge accused Puffyof having something to do with the shooting, deepening Knight's grudge against Puff. Later that year, Suge would approach 2Pac, offering to pay his bail if the rapper would sign with Death Row Records. Shakur agreed, and when he was released began taking numerous shots at his former friends and their record label with Suge backing him.
In the video for Tha Dogg Pound's single "New York, New York," Snoop Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound were shown knocking over New York skyscrapers and landmarks, to which many East Coast artists and fans took offense. This led to suspicion that the song itself was targeted at Bad Boy Records and New York in general. Popular New York artists Capone-N-Noreaga and Mobb Deep released a response called "LA, LA" aimed at the artists on the original song.
Death Row vs. Bad Boy
From late 1995 into early 1996, 2Pac would appear on numerous tracks aiming threatening words at B.I.G., Bad Boy and anyone affiliated with them. During this time, though Biggie never directly responded, the media became heavily involved and dubbed the rivalry a "coastal rap war," covering it endlessly. This caused fans of and from both scenes to take sides with one set of artists or another.
The Notorious B.I.G. would release a track called "Who Shot Ya" in late 1995; Tupac interpreted it as Biggie mocking his shooting, and claimed it proved that Bad Boy had set him up. In early 1996, 2Pac released the infamous diss track "Hit 'Em Up," in which he claimed to have had sex with the Notorious B.I.G's wife Faith Evans and threatened the lives of Biggie and Puffy. The song was viewed as taking the feud to another level. On the song he also dissed Mobb Deep and New Jersey rapper Chino XL.
2Pac would later go on to diss Chicago rapper Da Brat, her label So So Def, and New Jersey group The Fugees as well. During this time, he met Nas and purportedly told him he didn't have to be involved in the situation; however, a Nas radio freestyle seemingly dissing 2Pac and several direct Nas disses from Shakur to Nas would both eventually turn up. On the introduction to Shakur's later album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, he would bill Nas as the leader of a conspiracy against him which included several of the artists he was beefing with.
Though 2Pac, his group The Outlawz, Snoop Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound had all been involved in the beef, several Death Row artists refused to follow along. Lady of Rage stated in an AllHipHop.com interview that 2Pac called her "the weak link on Death Row" for not dissing Bad Boy. Death Row co-founder Dr. Dre also ran into trouble with 2Pac for, among other things, denouncing the beef to do a track with Nas on It Was Written. Pac's close friend Snoop Dogg even purports that the two weren't speaking during Pac's final days, because Snoop stated in an interview that he liked Biggie's music.
Jay-Z would also become embroiled in the rivalry when, in an appearance on Jay's debut album Reasonable Doubt, Biggie said "If Faith have twins she'd probably have two Pacs (get it, 2-Pac's?)" in reference to the allegations that she had cheated on him with the rapper, though it's unclear if he was dissing her or 2Pac himself. Shakur took it as a diss and, since it was on Jay-Z's song, went on to diss the up-and-coming rapper as well.
End of the Feud
In March 1996, at the Soul Train Awards in Miami, there was a confrontation in the parking lot between the respective entourages of Bad Boy and Death Row in which guns were drawn. Although an armed standoff was all it amounted to, it was becoming readily apparent to hip hop fans and artists that the situation was progressing into a serious issue.
Not long after, at the Vibe awards in New York, Nas and 2Pac also confronted each other outside the venue. Though accounts from Suge, The Outlawz, Snoop Dogg and Nas himself vary somewhat, most agree that 2Pac said he would remove the disses to Nas from his next album if Nas would in return refrain from dissing him. Nas kept his end of the bargain, although Tupac would be killed presumably before he was able to remove the disses.
On September 7, 1996 Tupac Shakur was shot several times in Las Vegas, dying a few days later on Friday 13. Then on March 9, 1997, Notorious B.I.G. was shot and killed in Los Angeles, California. Both murders remain unsolved, and numerous theories (some of them conspiracy theories) have sprung up. These include, most notoriously, that Shakur faked his own death. Aftermath of the Beef The outcome of the feud would shake the culture of hip hop; it changed the way rap rivalries were viewed, especially when the media was deeply involved. In 1997, several rappers, including Bizzy Bone, Doug E. Fresh and Snoop Dogg met at the request of Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam and pledged to forgive any slights that may be related to the rivalry and deaths of Shakur and Biggie.
Following the death of 2Pac, most of Death Row's prominent artists left the label; Afeni Shakur, Tupac's mother, sued the label for allegedly cheating her son out of millions; and Suge Knight ended up in jail for unrelated probation violations. This bad turn for Death Row led, in turn, to a long lull in the mainstream popularity of West Coast rap. In 2005 Suge was released from prison, but his attempts to revitalize his label were largely futile.
Bad Boy was affected as well, to a lesser degree; artist Mase achieved a good deal of success before his early retirement, and Puff Daddy (now Diddy) himself earned considerable commercial success. More recently, Bad Boy has struggled as a record label due to a lack of marketable talent and allegations that Puff is more concerned with his other ventures (i.e., Sean John clothing).
There has not been a rivalry of such magnitude in rap since this one; that may be due largely to the fact that, seeing the outcome of this episode, artists and prominent industry figures have stepped in to help cool down subsequent battles to prevent them from reaching this level.
During the late 1970s, hip-hop emerged in the streets of New York City, which would remain the forefront of the genre throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. The origins of the conflict were arguably initiated in 1991 when East Coast based rapper Tim Dog released “Fuck Compton,” a scathing diss track aimed at N.W.A. and other Compton artists including Compton's Most Wanted and DJ Quik.
See also
Notes
- Cooper 2005, p. 62
References
- Cooper, Kim (2005). Lost in the grooves. Routledge. ISBN 9780415969987.
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