Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls are two very familiar names in the music industry. The two are even considered the most supreme and influential figures in the hip-hop universe. Their reputations are well-earned, considering that the two artists initiated the coastal beef between the east and west sides. Both Tupac and Biggie possessed a rare and raw talent and they will always go down in history as one of the greatest ever.
This is a story of how two close friends turned deadly rivals or may I even say foes. Before we dive directly into their rivalry let’s get started with two’s friendship history.
How did Tupac and Biggie first meet?
They first met in 1993 when Puffy sent Biggie, his stylist Groovey Lew, and Dan Smalls (one of Puffy’s label interns) to Los Angeles to promote Biggie’s music. There they met a local drug dealer and it just so happened that the dealer had a number of Tupac so they called him and Big was surprised as Pac loved his song ‘Party and BullSh*t.’
Later Pac called them over to him and they hit it off instantly, Biggie and his team were then invited to a party where they freestyle, smoked green vegetables, and Pac even cooked a meal for them. In the book ‘Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, and the Birth of West Coast Rap’ Dan Smalls mentions, “While we were running around, ‘Pac walks into the kitchen and starts cooking for us. He’s in the kitchen cooking some steaks. We were drinking and smoking and all of a sudden ‘Pac was like, ‘Yo, come get it.’ And we go into the kitchen and he had steaks, and French fries, and bread, and Kool‑Aid and we just sittin’ there eating and drinking and laughing. And you know, that’s truly where Big and ‘Pac’s friendship started.”
EDI Mean, a member of Tupac’s band the Outlaws, claims that once the two became friends, Biggie slept on Pac’s couch every time he visited California. The two were so close that they even gave each other nicknames: Pac dubbed Biggie “Christopher,” and Biggie called Pac “Duke.” Later on, Pac even started letting Biggiie perform on his shows. Moreover, after the premiere of Pac’s ‘Poetic Justice,’ Biggie got invited to perform at Pac’s show at the Palladium.
After the show, Pac took Biggie with him to a party where Biggie also met with other artists including Nas and Redman.
Biggie learnt a lot from Tupac, who served as a mentor to him. For this reason, Tupac stated, “I trained the ni*ga, he used to be under me like my lieutenant, I used to tell the ni*ga, ‘If you want to make your money, you have to rap for the bi*ches. Do not rap for the ni*gas, The bi*ches will buy your records, and the ni*gas want what the bi*ches want.”
The two rap icons grew further closer while Tupac was in New York for a long time filming “Above the Rim.” Biggie became impatient with Puffy because things were going too slowly, so he requested Pac to take care of him.
Soon after, Biggie started to get attention, but Pac’s caseload in other states made communication between the two impossible. However, Tupac was shot multiple times that fateful November 30, 1994, night at Quad Studio, sowing the seeds of rivalry in their relationship. Everything about their relationship to the hip hop genre as a whole shifted at that point.