- Joined
- Jan 2, 2025
To be fair, 2Pac has lots of really well-written and cool songs and verses, especially for someone whose lane was mostly gangster shit. The reason why that line and diss track were so revered–beyond the iconic nature of both artists and their resultant murders–is primarily because lyrics like that were so simple, but so direct.
Back then, disses would rarely be as direct as this. Most of them still aren't. In fact, a sizable percentage of them initially kick off because an artist thinks someone was dissing them with a line, which often isn't the case. Hell, Canibus was an up-and-coming dude with a lot of hype who hopped on a song with LL Cool J. LL Cool has a mic tattooed on his arm. Canibus said in his verse, "Yo, L. Is that a mic on your arm? Let me borrow that!" He meant no disrespect, but Cool J thought it was a insult somehow and had it edited out. He then re-recorded his own vocals to the track to actually diss Canibus on the song. It ignited a huge beef and back-and-forth war with Canibus essentially black-balled from the industry by Cool J.
Part of what caused Pac and Biggie's rift is 2Pac believed Biggie knew about or had a part in his shooting in New York. Not long after, Biggie releases a song called "Who Shot Ya?" It was allegedly unrelated and had nothing to do with Pac's shooting, but obviously if the guy is suspicious and you release a song like that, it's going to be controversial. Again, is it a subtle diss to Pac, rubbing his face in the shooting, or just a standard generic "I'll shoot you" New York rap song?
The most direct diss I remember him having to Pac was this line for a Busta Rhymes song. It's a clear reference to Pac, but that's literally all it is. And it wasn't even released. Busta thought it was too much and would drag him into the beef. For another comparison, here's Mobb Deep's diss to 2Pac that dropped during the height of the beef. If you skim those lyrics, there's like barely 2 references to Pac–one is calling him Tu-NOT lol–and then mostly random filler. This is how rap beefs often went. So clearly, even for gangster rappers with gang ties, there was more subtlety than direct insults.
And then there was Hit 'Em Up. It was the opposite of all of that shit to the fullest degree.
Biggie often rapped about fucking bitches, as did Pac. One of Biggie's most famous songs is Big Poppa, the hook references being a player (Pac mocks this during part of Hit 'Em Up, too), etc. So beyond the standard, "It is I who fucks more bitches, sir!", it was actually true. He really did fuck Biggie's wife Faith, which infuriated Biggie, obviously. And he didn't reference it subtly to leave questions. Before he even raps it, the first shit he says is, "That's why I fucked your bitch, you fat motherfucker." Biggie referenced it self-deprecatingly down the line, joking that "If Faith had twins, she'd probably have two Pacs." Because wtf else can you do besides try and joke about it.
Pac called everybody out by name, said he was going to kill them, and left an insane outro where he disses a bunch of other people directly. "Fuck Mobb Deep. Fuck Biggie. Fuck Bad Boy as a staff, record label, and as a motherfucking crew. If you want to be down with Bad Boy, fuck you, too!" I grew up not knowing who the fuck "Chino XL" was, only that Pac hated him because he says, "Fuck Chino XL" on the outro, too.* He makes fun of Prodigy of Mobb Deep for having sickle cell anemia. I think Pac was shot a week or so after Mobb Deep recorded their diss then died another week after that. Hit 'Em Up was only released a month prior to his fatal shooting.
* Chino was actually very clever, too, and quite intelligent (member of Mensa). He died relatively recently, but I became a fan of him later on, too. I felt like mentioning him because he'd constantly reference rappers directly in his punchlines, pissing people off. 2Pac was rumored to have been raped in Riker's Island jail, which was what Mobb Deep directly dissed him for in the track I referenced above. It's almost certainly bullshit, started by Wendy Williams, IIRC. Anyway, Chino XL had a line where he said, "By this industry, I'm trying to not get fucked like 2Pac in jail." This was what caused 2Pac to diss him, believing he was referencing him being raped. Chino claimed he wasn't implying he was raped, just referencing how he'd be trying NOT to get raped and wasn't. So another beef started on a misunderstanding, though that one's kind of reasonable to misinterpret, haha. Anyway, Chino then released this, which was about as direct as it gets and 100% referenced him being raped.
Tangentially related, but this killed me when I was a teenager. It's still funny.
Anyway, I agree there's nothing special to those lyrics in the song. It was just an insane response compared to what people were probably expecting. He didn't really go for some clever diss. He just went nuclear, haha. I know most probably dislike rap ITT, but I was a huge fan in my younger years of specific artists. I haven't actively listened in over a decade, but there's some shit out there on the braggadocio/shit talk style that I consider Library of Congress preservation level writing. Most of it, especially popular clubby shit, has been terrible for a while. I'm unsurprised rap has less popularity now. Holler.
Last edited:
SHOCKING
elected black women being corrupt!?
