DISGRACELAND - Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G.: The Media Did It

Episode Date: June 12, 2018

Who killed Tupac? Who killed Biggie? The answer has been right there out in the open for years. This episode looks at the lives and deaths of both rap superstars, the east coast/west coast beef and the media’s culpability in driving a highly sensationalized narrative that ultimately led to the murder of both men. To see the full list of contributors, see the show notes at www.disgracelandpod.com.   Sign up for our newsletter and get the inside dirt on events, merch and other awesomeness - GET THE NEWSLETTER Follow Jake and DISGRACELAND:   Instagram YouTube X (formerly Twitter)  Facebook Fan Group TikTokSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is exactly right. Double Elvis. Disgrace Land is a production of Double Elvis. Tupac Shakur was a bad man, insanely talented and charismatic, but nonetheless, an objectively bad man. Before his 24th birthday, Tupac Shakur had been arrested for beating another rapper with a bat,

for shooting a pair of off-duty cops, and had settled out of court for the shooting death of a six-year-old boy. In the mid-90s, he'd found himself in brief, broiled in a highly publicized rape case that had him looking down the barrel of a long prison sentence. And still, his talent and charisma could not be suppressed. But as he began turning out iconic appearances in major films, his legal troubles started breaking his bank. He was broke, and so he continued to do what he did best.

Make great music. That music you heard at the top of the show? That wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my Melotron called Bossanova. moving strings, MK2. I'm playing in that loop because I can't afford the rights to, I'll make love to you by boys to men. And why would I play you that slab of Motown-Filly cheese, could I afford it?

Because that was the number one song in America on November 30th, 1994, and that was the day that Tupac Shakur was shot five times in the lobby of Quad Studios. The day that launched the charismatic young artist into a devastating relationship, with the media, a relationship that would prove deadly for both him and his friend and fellow star, The Notorious B-I-G. On this episode, Bossa Nova Moving Strings, Motown-Filly Cheese, Tupac Shakur, media manipulation, and Biggie Smalls. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland.

For a promise of $7,000 in sweatpants money, Tupac Chor agreed to guest vocal on a forthcoming bad boy record single by Little Sean. The recording session in Manhattan's Quad Studios on November 30, 1994, would be the end to a very long day. Earlier, Tupac had appeared in court to face charges of sexual assault, and the pending verdict was not looking good. As he headed into the studio to make some quick dough with his manager, Freddie Moore, brother-in-law, Zan Turner, and friend Randy Watkins,

the smell of blood and vulnerability was in the air. Tupac's street smarts had him feeling uneasy going into the session. It had been arranged by a street dude who had been blowing up Pock's pager all evening, making sure he'd make it to the studio. Tupac was stoned and paranoid as he shuffled past the Times Square working girls toward the studio. His paranoia eased momentarily when Little Caesar yelled from the window and told Pock he was on his way down. He and CIS went way back.

But then he spotted a wrong. roughneck outside the building. 30-ish, male, wearing army fatigues. To Tupac, a clear indication that this dude was from Brooklyn. And his vibe was not good. His hat was pulled down real low, and he refused to acknowledge Tupac or his two associates as they entered the building. This is not normal.

Tupac was one of the biggest stars in the country. There wasn't a black man in America who didn't acknowledge Pock with respect to jealousy or both, and this just didn't feel right. And then as Tupac and his boys entered the building, the roughneck slipped in the door behind them. And he wasn't alone. Then, the dude behind the desk and the lobby they just entered got up. And now there were three menacing dudes in the building with Tupac and his boys. And they were packing.

They came up behind Pock, guns drawn, yelling for everyone to lie on the ground. And then they told Tupac to hand over his jewelry. And he refused, and bullets flew. Tupac was shot five times. One in the hand, two in the head, one in the thigh, exited through the scrotum. The attackers ran Tupac's jewels, all 40 grandworth, and disappeared into Times Square. Tupac dragged himself into the elevator and somehow made it up to the bad boy recording session. The elevator doors opened into a crowded studio, and according to Pock, slumped and bloody in the elevator, silence.

Everybody in the recording session, including the notorious BIG and Sean puffed out. Eddie Combs, they all just stared at Tupac, and nobody moved to help him, even though his arrival had been much anticipated, and they were all confused by his being there. It was at this point that Tupac thought, and maybe they were surprised to see him alive. Whatever the reason, there'd be time for speculating later. For now, there are more pressing matters like the bullet wounds in Tupac's head and scrotum. Time to act fast. First order of business, roll a joint. Next, Call your girls, your mama and your girlfriend, in that order. Then call 911.

And when the cops arrived, Tupac was greeted by Officer Craig McCurnan, the arresting officer in his sexual assault case. And when the cops saw Tupac's bullet-riddled groin, he greeted him with a smart ass. How's it hanging, Tupac? The media reaction the next day was varied. The tabloids reacted true to form. The New York Daily News gave a nuanced take, scrawling. rapper Tupac shot in the head across its cover.

A little known at the time business writer named Malcolm Gladwell grabbed the byline at the Washington Post in the middle of laboring through his 10,000 hours of experience. And inside his article, there was a particular quote of interest from Tupac's attorney. It reads like a quote from fictional Seinfeld attorney and Johnny Cochran parody, Jackie Childs. My instincts tell me that this looks like a setup, smells like a setup, and feels like a setup. The seeds of a beef were being sown, and the media was just beginning to smell a story. But the bombshell expose was yet to come. After the shooting, Tupac checked himself out of the hospital to appear in court for sentencing.

Sitting in a wheelchair, he accepted his four-year prison sentence. Four months later, from behind bars in Rikers Island prison, he gave Vibe magazine writer Kevin Powell his account of the Quad Studio shooting. and it was filled with innuendo, celebrity, and drama. And about the scene after being shot, he said, when we got upstairs, I looked around, and it scared the shit out of me because Puffy was there, Biggie's there, there was about 40 dudes there. All of them had jewels on, more jewels than me.

And this made me know it wasn't a robbery attempt. The money was upstairs. Everybody was like real standoffish. Puffy was standing back. I knew Puffy. And about the street dude who said, set up the session, Tupac recounted. He had this look on his face like he was surprised to see me.

If he expected me, why was he surprised to see me? I had just beeped the buzzer and said I was coming upstairs. I was like, you're going to have to explain to me why I come out of the hospital while you set me up. The media now had their story. Shit was on. In 1995, the source was, as they say, the shit. To a young hip-hop artist, being on the cover of the source, was bigger than being on the cover of Rolling Stone.

But another hip-hop magazine was making a name for itself. Famed record producer Quincy Jones launched Vibe magazine as a direct challenge to the source's dominance. His vision was to devote each cover to the black stars who had the power to transcend black culture, to use the power of hip-hop to go beyond hip-hop. Fuck Rolling Stone in the hell with having your culture appropriated by the mainstream, for Vibe, this is about defining the mainstream.

And Vives Riker's interview with Tupac set the parameters for what would become the year's biggest mainstream drama. The 1995 Source Awards may have become infamous as the event that publicly served up the famous East Coast West Coast beef, but Tupac's interview with Vive from earlier that year set the table. And when the award show rolled around in August, Tupac was still in jail, but as thinly veiled accusations

from that interview hung heavy in the air. Madison Square Garden was packed with a who's who of hip-hop. LA's death row records at the time, the biggest moneymakers in rap rolled deep with the genius Dr. Dre, his chart-topping protege, Snoop Doggy Dog, and their super-intimidating label boss, Shug Night. The rumors about Knight were legend.

He freed Dre from his previous recording contract with negotiating skills that were more Crenshaw and L.C. Sugando than Horton and HBS. And supposedly part of Knight's fortune was made from hanging vanilla ice out of a 10-story office building until he agreed to sign over his royalties from his hit song, Ice Ice Baby. Truth or legend, everyone agreed that Shug Knight was not to be messed with, not even on the East Coast. And Brooklyn was in the house, repped by the notorious BIG, riding high on the success of his debut,

Ready to Die, released a few months prior on Bad Boy Records. Harlem mogul on the make, Sean Combs, aka Puff Daddy, was the brains behind Bad Boy, which was selling tons of records and threatening Death Row's supremacy. To market the label and himself, Puffy was in constant promo mode, touring with artists, hyping them on stage, appearing in their videos, and just generally using his own charisma to sell as musicians. And this record label dude in the spotlight thing was working. Out of the spotlight that night,

death row was well wrapped with 50 West Coast dudes, family, friends, artists, label execs, bodyguards, some in red, some in blue. And also in the crowd, rappers from Queens, Staten Island, and Harlem, every part of New York City and beyond. Jersey, even the dirty south. People in the room later said the rock, rivalry between the borrowers and different factions was palpable.

Everyone knew there's going to be some bullshit and the volatility in the air that you could feel it. Anticipation, excitement, tension. And then, Shug Knight took the stage, wearing blood red to accept the award for best soundtrack for the film above the rim. First he thanked Death Row. And then he had a message for Tupac. I'd like to tell Tupac to keep his guards up We're riding with him And then Shug up Tupac's Rikers ante He dissed Puffy hard

A comment that was meant not to accuse But to demean to antagonize Any artist that want to be an artist I want to stay a star And don't have to worry about executive producers Trying to be all in the videos All on record Dancing

Come to death row The reaction was loud. Booze and cheers, but mainly booze. Snoop raised up out of his seat, turned back to the booing crowd and began shouting in support of Shug. All of a sudden, things went from tense to dangerous, real gangster shit. Shug was talking about Puffy, a West Coast dude, disrespecting an East Coast dude in his hometown.

In effect, the diss instantly bonded the New Yorkers in the room. Fuck the West Coast Fuck should night Fuck death row Shug and his entourage Made it out of New York Without further incident But the beef they made back at the garden

cemented the source As the hip-hop journal of record And gave the media at large The kerosene it needed For the low burning flame Tupac ignited in his vibe interview A few months earlier East Coast West Coast was now a thing

The battle lines were drawn And the media embedded themselves among the emcees and the front lines, and soon, shots, literally, will be fired. We'll be right back after this word, word, word. In retrospect, vibes interview with Tupac looked prescient. After all, what was with Biggie's single, Who Shot You? If the title of the song, Who Shot You, Didn't Say It All, then it's released a mere month after the bullet ripped through Tupac's thigh and exited his

Skirred him, cemented in Pock's mind, that Big and Puff were behind the quad shooting. And the media was more than happy to report on the speculation. Tupac told Vibe that, even if that song ain't about me, you should be like, I'm not putting it out because he might think it's about me. Big and Puffy in their own interview with Vibe asserted that the song was written months earlier, originally as a track for Mary J. Blige, but being too violent, it ended up on the B side of Big Papa. Vibe Magazine was now arbitrating the juvenile beef within its pages.

Not exactly what Q had in mind, but there were too many people who wanted to read about it and too many magazines to sell. Then Shug Knight posted $1.4 million bailed a spring Tupac from Rikers, and in exchange, Tupac signed over his recording rights to death row records. The beef went to 11. Coverage of Tupac's release from prison and newly minted death row affiliation. extended beyond the hip-hop press. The New York Daily News ran the charmingly innocent headline.

Jailed rapper goes free as pals make $1.4 million in bail. The LA Times embedded themselves in the studio with Tupac days after his release and coaxed out some hysterical nuggets about his jail life. He watched Jay Leno, listened to Rush Limbaugh, corresponded with Tony Danza. But these puff pieces wouldn't last. Out on bail, fresh out of jail, and California dreaming, Tupac wax poetic on the set of the video shoot for the Dr. Dre produced California Love. The single took a sample from Joe Cocker's woman to woman beyond the Thunderdome and back,

but the hair on this dog was Tupac's blistering vocal send-up of West Coast dominance. Hip-hop fans loved it, a killer single. But another single, Tupac's hit him up. would shine a personal light on Pock's new West Coast lifestyle. It was a scathing response to who shot you. In the lyrics, Poc eviscerates Biggie, claiming to have slept with Biggs' wife, Faith Evans, and threatens retaliation for the quad shooting.

To paraphrase the Texas poet, the beef was bad and nationwide. After hit him up, rappers began to outwardly align themselves with their coasts. Tupacopok took. took every opportunity imaginable to align himself with this new West Coast brethren and to take shots at the East Coast. The media covered it with baited breath, and each new stories seemed to beget another diss, mainly from Tupac.

And newspapers and magazines continued to fly off the racks. Morning radiojacks added another level of insanity as they talked about the drama on air, and record sales soared. A win-win, right? Wrong. Biggie and Puff never took the beef as seriously as Tupac and Shug did. They went out of their way to try and squash it. In a September 1996 vibe cover story salaciously and some would say regrettably titled,

East versus West, Biggie and Puffy break their silence. They both earnestly defended themselves against accusations that they had anything to do with the quad shooting. But it was too late. Hit him up, crossed the line. East Coast dudes were turned up in the same article vibe laid it on Thick, stating, From the Atlantic to the Pacific, hip-hop heads are proclaiming their California love or exclaiming that the East is in the house with the loyalty of newly initiated gang members. The story then went on to quote Dr. Dre with very little context, as having said,

Pretty soon dudes from the East Coast ain't going to be able to come out here and be safe and vice versa. Something had to give. And something did on September 7, 1996 in Las Vegas, Nevada. After Mike Tyson knocked out Bruce Seldon in under a minute 20, Tupac sat in the passenger seat of Shug's BMW at the corner of East Flamingo Road in Coval Lane. And Shug was at the wheel. Two girls in the car next to them grabbed Tupac's attention. Then, from out of nowhere, a late model Cadillac rolled up along the passenger side of the BN.

W. Inside, four men, two blocks. Then, countless bullets fired. One in Tupac's arm. One in Tupac's thigh. Two in his chest. The one in his right lung, the kill shot. Tupac Chacora died in a hospital bed six days later. The reaction in the press was both mournful and tasteless. With his family and fans still grieving, the Philadelphia Daily News ran Tupac's picture on the cover under a headline that just said, It's a rap. According to Faith Evans, Biggie cried when he heard Tupac died. In interviews after Tupac's passing, Biggie seems more shocked than saddened. An important distinction, but you almost can't blame him.

The whole country was shocked. And quote-unquote, gangster rap in the death of one of its biggest stars was being covered like a national epidemic. with a strange mix of caution and cultural voyeurism. Before his death, the New York Times Sunday magazine featured Tupac on its cover alongside Shug Knight and Snoop next to the headline. Do you know whose music your children are listening to? In defense of the media, Tupac, Shug, and even Biggie to an extent, all played their respective parts in the saga.

The media was just there to do what the media does. tell the story and sell newspapers, magazines, and advertisements. The difference here being that this story was too good to temper. It was too easy to get taken in by, too easy to slide a headline over the line from responsible journalism to scandal rag. And Tupac especially, seemed to relish in living up to the thug life caricature of himself that the media couldn't get enough of. Cameras followed him everywhere, and he left a trail of ink behind him.

him wherever he went. After he died, things felt unsettled, like there was another shooter drop. And like any good movie, just when you think the madness is over, something happens in the final five minutes to prove to you that you're getting your money's worth. And this something was unfortunately the death of the arguably more talented of the two feuding rap stars than notorious B.I.G. On March 9, 1997, Biggie Smalls was a lot of the death of the two feuding rap stars. gunned down outside of a Vibe magazine party while on a West Coast promo tour for his upcoming album aptly named Life After Death. You can't make this shit up. Despite the enormous amount of press the murders received, neither would ever be solved. I have my own opinion of who is to blame

for the murders, and I believe that most anyone who is involved with either artist knows who killed them. But this episode isn't a whodunit. It's a holy shit. Look at the way these guys willingly played the roles the media wanted them to play to deadly results episode. Tupac and Biggie had to have known where this was all going. How could they not have felt the hate rising on each coast? They read their own press and they knew the media would swallow every bit of beef and spit it back out all over the front pages, the TV screens, and the airwaves. We know celebrities are a different breed.

We know that rock stars and hip-hop stars do some of the most insane shit. And they often surround themselves with lunatics and criminals. They live in a state of suspended adolescence. So yes, Tupac and Biggie continuously upping the animosity toward each other while living and working among stone cold gangsters is one of the dumbest moves any two stars have ever made. But if you weigh out the amount of shit talked by Tupac and Biggie, it doesn't measure up to the amount of shit talk. The media covered and covered and covered. They couldn't get enough. The story had everything. celebrity, crime, violence, infidelity, and finally, murder.

And the media amplified the hype 1,000%. This story is really about the media being incapable of resisting a too good-to-be-true drama. I had Tupac or Biggie been a little older, a little wiser, maybe a little less hungry for the spotlight, or a little less under the influence of their sales-driven record company handlers. Maybe, maybe they would have been able to put a little bit. on the media's efforts to drive the narrative and in effect de-escalate the tension and ultimately save their own lives. But that didn't happen. And now both are sadly gone. I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by yours truly and is produced in partnership

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