Hip-Hop Evolution (2016–…): Season 3, Episode 1 - A Tale of Two Coasts - full transcript

[narrator] By the early '90s, hip-hop had
a foothold in every pocket of America.

From Miami to the Bay,
Houston and points in between,

the culture had stars
and successful labels across the country.

-Yes, what he said.
-[laughter]

While these scenes were creatively vital,
to many, hip-hop had one delineator:

East and West.

♪ One, two, three and to the four ♪

♪ Snoop Doggy Dogg
and Dr Dre is at the door ♪

For years, West Coast gangster rapping,
G-Funk sounds were commercially dominant,

running the charts and becoming the face
of hip-hop to the masses,

but the culture...
that was still ruled from its birthplace,



New York.

♪ To all the killers
And the hundred dollar billers ♪

-Ba, ba, bah bah, bah.
-Check it out.

♪ Fo real
Cuz we ain't got no feelings ♪

[echoing] ♪ Feelings ♪

And in New York, home to the majority
of the labels, decision-makers,

media outlets and cultural leaders,

the West Coast style and success
wasn't universally embraced.

♪ I got you stuck off the realness
We be the infamous ♪

♪ You heard of us
Official Queensbridge murderers ♪

At first, these differences played out
in subtle and subliminal ways

that were meant for the community
to digest and dissect,

but, as the business of hip-hop grew,

so did the visibility and power
of the players in hip-hop.



What was once a drone of discontent

had grown into a schism
that was hard to ignore.

Hip-hop was at a crossroads.

[hip hop beats begin]

Even decades later,

the phrase "East-West beef"
makes people in hip-hop uncomfortable.

But, if we want to understand
hip-hop's history,

we have to understand this moment.

And, to understand this moment,

we need to understand its roots.

And for that, I'm going to meet
with no less of an authority

than the true West Coast legend and OG,

Snoop Dogg.

Snoop.

[Snoop] Mmm. [exhales]

-The evolution of hip-hop.
-[finger snap]

The Evolution will be televised.

So says Snoop Dogg.

Um, when did you start to feel
the East Coast not giving love to that--

to that success coming from the West?

In the beginning,
and I say the beginning is the NWA era

and the era right before the Chronic,

when NWA and all those guys came through
would represent the West,

it's like the East Coast
didn't gravitate to it because it was...

it was competition.

And rap is competitive.

But once we established
that we could do this all the time,

the Bay Area was always coming with it
with E40 and Too Short,

everybody from that side,
so it was always...

a level of, "We can do this.

We just have to have the respect
from the Mecca,"

because they was like the motherfuckers.

So if the motherfuckers
say you the motherfucker,

then you know that you can compete
with the best of the best.

[piano riff starts]

[man] See, for a minute,

we had a certain arrogance here
in New York City.

You know, I'm going to be honest.

I truly believed that hip-hop

was always going to be
a New York thing, like...

This was going to be our export
to the world.

I didn't think people over here

was going to actually start
trying to do it themselves.

Then it's like, "Wait a minute.

They're making hip-hop in California?"

When we first came out,

our very first show in New York,
we got booed.

And I think, seeing us on stage
with fucking jheri curls made them mad.

[chuckles]

A lot of the attention from the media

was mainly focused on the West Coast
and what we were doing.

You know, gangster rap.

And I think New York didn't like that.

And so, we were, you know, hated,

not only by the mainstream,

but by hard-core b-boys
who thought we fucked the game up.

Hey man, I'll tell you. It was simple.

They thought we couldn't rap.

[chuckling] Or shouldn't rap.

They felt like they was the best at it.

It was like a very blatant disrespect.

We don't play your records.
We don't fuck with you.

There was a few pockets of niggas
that did.

I'm not going to blanket everybody
and say that.

But there was some cats that was like,
really like-- fuck them West Coast niggas.

I done heard it out of people's faces.

Because they didn't know
I was in the room.

All this gangster shit,
they was dissing us because of that.

♪ Oh shit motherfuckers
Step to the rear and cheer ♪

♪ 'Cause Tim Dog is here ♪

♪ Let's get right down
to the nitty gritty ♪

♪ And talk about a bullshit city ♪

♪ Talking about niggas from Compton ♪

You know, when I first heard
"Fuck Compton" by Tim Dog,

I laughed because that means

that somebody got offended
by the West Coast.

Dre and them
had just kicked the door open

with all of this media attention
that focused on Compton.

So I saw the jealousies happening,

and the Tim Dog thing--
he got too much, he blew his top!

♪ Having that gang war ♪

♪ We want to know
What you're fighting for ♪

♪ Fighting over colors? ♪

♪ All that gang shit's
for dumb motherfuckers! ♪

♪ But you go on thinking you're hard ♪

♪ Come to New York
And we'll see who gets robbed ♪

[Fat Joe] That "Fuck Compton"...

I mean, Tim Dog was in the Bronx,
he knew that the controversy was out.

I mean, that was disrespect.
Like, they must have felt disrespected.

♪ Take your jheri curls
Take your black hats ♪

♪ Take your wack lyrics
And your bullshit tracks ♪

Niggas was, like, mad!

-There was some resentment.
-No, it was all resentment!

Not some, it was all!

♪ I'll crush Ice Cube,
I'm cool with Ice T ♪

♪ But NWA ain't shit to me
Dre ♪

♪ "Beating on Dee from 'Pump it Up'!" ♪

"Step to the Dog and get fucked up!"

♪ Ha ha, Fuck Compton ♪

Fuck 'em

[Xzibit] We knew they didn't like us.

Eventually, it got to be,

"Okay, we don't like y'all either."

And then, when the shit
with Big and Pac popped off,

that kind of like put it to,

"Okay, now, for real,
we saying it out loud."

[plane engines]

[narrator] When you talk about
the East-West beef in hip-hop today,

what most people mean is the feud
between two of the era’s biggest stars,

Biggie and Tupac.

But those who knew Pac best,
knew that feuding with his own

had never been his mission.

They knew a whole other side of Tupac.

[Richie Rich] Tupac's personality
was intense.

Like, he wanted to get shit done.

He cared about people and music
and he was trying to get a message across.

We got some people are visionaries.
They just see themselves being great.

He was one of those kind of dudes.

[Mopreme Shakur]
Pac was very passionate.

He was charismatic. He was loud.

Pac just drew a lot of attention, period.

[interviewer] What about when he had
incidents with the Oakland Police?

Do you feel like that
started to change him?

It seemed like it got worse right then,
right when he got some success.

"Okay, we going to whip your ass
a little extra today."

They put hands on him,
his face was actually scratched up.

Let me show you what they did to Tupac.

All of this is scars
I go to my grave with.

-[female interviewer] I can see it.
-These are "learn to be a nigga" scars.

Who did that to you?

Oakland Police Department,
all above my eye, all of that.

-Why?
-And I pay their salaries.

Because I was
an outspoken young black male.

Pac just couldn't stand injustice.

If police were harassing you...

he would have got involved.

It didn't even have to be a black thing,

usually was, but didn't have to be.

The police was on his ass.
Like, they was on him heavy.

I mean, if you terrorize me,
what you want?

You going to fight back? He fought back.

-[car revving]
-[inaudible]

He was a Gemini,
he was happy - he was extremely happy.

If he was angry, you know,
don't get him extremely angry. [laughs]

You know? You'll see.
You'll hear about it.

[inaudible]

[reporter] The 22-year old rap star
showed up to face charges.

He shot two off-duty police officers
over the weekend.

Mr Shakur, can we get a comment from you?

-Thug life. Thug life. That's my comment.
-What's that mean? I don't understand.

[laughter]

[jazz double bass playing]

[Cheo] He was the black political struggle
and gangsterism

mixed in one bottle.

Pac was evolving as an MC.

Whatever he was going through at the time
is what he would rhyme about.

The pain and suffering,
not only of himself,

but of looking at the people around him
and giving voice to that.

And every subsequent record
got better and better and better.

He was complex.

I am good and I am wild.

I am Martin Luther King
and I am Malcolm X.

He was all of those things.

But it was getting dangerous
on so many levels.

[reporter] The singer was arrested
Thursday night after a woman claimed

that he and three other men
overpowered her in a hotel suite.

I didn't do nothing.

I'm charged with being in concert
with some guys.

Where they at?

Why me? Because I'm Tupac.

No, I'm not angry at them,
I'm angry at the system.

[narrator] As the son of a Panther,

Pac's collision with the justice system
seemed inevitable.

But for Pac, there was safety
in the hip-hop community,

and he constantly connected
with hip-hop artists across the States,

including his own boy in New York, Biggie.

[traffic sounds]

Big and Pac, they was close.
They was real close.

Every time he was in New York,
he was on Fulton and St James with Big.

Hanging out, every night.

Ready, nigga? You want to set it off?

Man, I’m scared to do some freestyle.

♪ I’m scared to do some freestyle! Flow ♪

♪ I'm too high and I might go off-tempo ♪

♪ But now I'm back
To let these niggas know ♪

♪ Just how deep my game runs ♪

♪ Tupacalypse don't sleep ♪

[Lance] They had a good relationship.

It was one of those things
where it was rap

and a lot of marijuana.

One time,

Pac came to Fulton Street
with a garbage bag of weed.

The whole Junior Mafia,
all the boys is out there,

gambling in front of the Chicken Spot.

And he just started smoking
and they just talking, it's casual,

and they really wouldn't stop
until they smoked all of it.

And I was there, and Tupac came up
and was like,

"Who's this?"

And Big was like,
"Chill, that's my shorty."

And he was like,

"Fat motherfucker,
what the fuck is you doing with her?"

And they started laughing.

Of course Big respected him,
and we did, you know?

Because he was one rapper
that we looked up to,

that we saw actually was a real person.
Like - like us, you know?

They would come on the block
and sit with us.

This was the time
before Big even blew up.

Tupac was shooting above the rim
at that time.

This was one rapper
that was actually being real.

Pull his limo up on Fulton Street

and hanging out
where I know it's guns out here,

It's crack, it's drugs,
it's robbers, killers out here.

He sat out there amongst people.

We're 14 years old, you know, to us,
that's looking like God to us,

like yo, this is the dude on TV
sitting out here on Fulton street.

♪ Man, you know how niggers be ♪

♪ They wanna see if Pac is real
Or is he like that nigga in the movie ♪

[Lance] Pac was an artist, you know?
Big was street.

They connection was rap,
and rap is connected to everything.

So it's a sadness,
the way it all played out.

♪ And those even
When I choke you, you stop breathing ♪

♪ When police come, I'm leaving ♪

Peace and love!

Here we go!

[police sirens in distance]

[Cheo] Pac is in New York one night.

He was going to Quad Studios
to get paid for a freestyle.

That same night, Big was in the studio
with Junior Mafia,

working on the song "Playa's Anthem."

Can you talk about what happened
at the Quad Studio shooting?

Describe that day and what happened.

It wasn't-- I hate describing it--

-Yes.
-It was our first session.

Uh, as Junior Mafia, I mean,
we just had got signed.

We was up in there
recording "Playa's Anthem."

I was on the terrace smoking weed
and we see Pac walking up the block.

We've been hanging out,
I knew it was him from the bandana.

He looked back up,
"Shit, what's up Lil' Cease, what's up?

Where y'all at?"
I'm like, "We in the studio."

So I was like, "Come around the corner,
I'll come downstairs and get you."

You know? I went in the room, told Big.

Like, "Big, Pac downstairs."
He's like, “Oh word? Go get him.”

I went downstairs to go get him.

When the elevator door opened,
all of them was lined up on the floor,

two gunmen pointed the guns at us,
told us get the fuck back in the elevator.

And then we went upstairs, and I was like,
"Big, Pac downstairs getting robbed."

Big was like, "You're lying,"
I'm like, "No, I'm dead ass serious.

He's downstairs getting robbed right now."

[police sirens]

[reporter] Last night, just after midnight
rap star Tupac Shakur

and three members of his group
were robbed and shot.

We had three robbers.

They ordered them to the floor,
Tupac resisted.

He was shot numerous times,
at least twice in the head.

They're in critical, but stable condition.

[Lil' Cease] You know, it was just real--
just fucking crazy from there.

You know what I mean?
That was like a moment that, you know,

that changed a lot of shit,
you know what I'm saying?

Come on, guys, get back!

There's no dispute as to the fact
that he gets jacked up down there,

but he basically felt as if...

Big and anybody from Brooklyn

knew that all of these cats
wanted to set him up

and they let it happen
or they were a part of it.

[Shock G] I felt like...

how the fuck can these niggas
do this to me?

In New York City?
How can New York City turn on me?

It just put a lot of conspiracy
in Pac's head.

[indistinct chatter]

The insult that this guy
that we was trying to show love to

would be a part of him being assaulted
like that.

That's what Pac thought.

Right or wrong, that's what Pac thought.

I'm kind of closer to that situation
than normal people

because my people was with Pac
when he got shot.

In fact,
one of my people got shot there, also.

With Pac. So I know the inside of that.

You know, and of course it wasn't us.
It wasn't Big, it wasn't Puff.

And we thought he was bugging!

We was trying to figure out, at the time,

we was trying to figure out
where's Pac going with this?

[Cheo] Around the time that he got shot,
the rape trial happens.

He loses the trial, he goes to jail,
and then...

Big was never really able
to get to Pac after that,

in terms of being able to talk to him.

[narrator] On February 20th, 1995,

just three months
after the Quad Studio shooting,

Biggie would release
the controversial song "Who shot ya?"

Although recorded months
before Pac's shooting,

the haunting melody
and Big's suggestive lyrics

would incite the now incarcerated Tupac,

and further fuel speculation
about what really happened at Quad.

This record comes out and,
if I didn't know better,

I would swear that
that was a direct diss to Tupac.

Even though I understand that,
back in the day,

it took time for records to be released,

but it just sounded like...

like goddamn, this--

like he-- that's adding insult to injury

when you are accused
of actually having this man set up,

and then he gets shot,
then this record comes out.

What are you supposed to think?

At that time, did you feel like
maybe this isn't a good decision,

or what were you thinking?

"Who shot ya"...

-In my perception...
-Yeah.

there was no Pac issue.

Big ain't talking about him
when he wrote it.

It didn't happen yet.

He didn't get robbed yet.
He didn't get shot at the studio yet.

This happened before-- beforehand.

You just thinking "This is a great record.

Of course it has to come out." That's it.

We're not thinking about Pac.

That's the furthest thing from my mind!

I thought it was a hot record
when I first-- when I was in the studio.

But I think it probably was
a kind of quick domino effect on me, like

"Wait-- oh wait,
they gonna think, they..." You know?

I knew somebody was going to think
that it was supposed to be about it,

but then again, I wasn't--

You know, like I said,
maybe it was bad timing.

Bad timing.

If it wasn't about Pac,
it was a bad time to put it out.

Especially if that's my homeboy
and I've got love for him.

Bad timing,
especially dealing with a dude like Pac.

He wasn't going to take that lightly.

[Tupac] Trust nobody.

Trust nobody. You know what I mean?

Straight up. My closest friends did me in.

My closest friends, my homies.

People who I took care
of their whole family.

I took care of them, looked out for them,

put them in the game, everything.

Turned on me.

Fear is stronger than love. Remember that.

But I'm a soldier, I always survive.
I constantly come back.

You know what I mean?
Only thing that can kill me is death.

[narrator] Years of trials
and tribulations left Tupac

feeling betrayed, embittered and isolated.

But an unexpected ally would soon turn up.

The Head of Death Row records,
Suge Knight.

[Snoop] ♪ Hoppin, steppin
Hoppin like a rabbit ♪

Out West, Suge had built a rap empire
that was dominating the charts.

Backed by the production of Dr. Dre,

Death Row Records
sold millions of records.

Boasted the West's hottest rappers,
and put gangsta rap on top.

But Suge was no ordinary record exec.

He had his own way of doing business.

[Snoop] ♪ To the next episode
I make money ♪

♪ And I really don't love hoes ♪

Early days of Death Row,

what did you think of Suge
and his drive as a businessman?

Shit. Probably one of the best
to ever do it.

You know, Suge Knight was one
of the greatest business men

in hip-hop, because he took ownership
and he took control.

And he was feared by the rap labels

because he had hood niggas working for him
and he had crips with him.

I didn't knock what he was doing,
because a lot of shit he did was amazing.

And it was needed and it was necessary to...

fast forward hip-hop to where it is now.

To where you can have money,
you can tell labels,

"Fuck you, I ain't signing with you.
I'm doing my own shit."

Before him, there was none of that.

You was the ho and the label was the pimp
and you shut the fuck up.

[Ice Cube] With Death Row,
it had all the ingredients.

At the time, they did the best records,

and I was a big fan
of almost every artist on Death Row.

But they did push it to its limits

when it comes to affiliation
with real gang banging.

With Suge, there was this whole notion
that if you weren't really a gangster,

if you were writing about the stuff
and you weren't really living it,

then you weren't real.

You were a studio gangster.

The realer you were,

you had to keep the real elements
close to you.

And those real elements
begin to spill over into the music.

[narrator] By 1995,

Suge's reputation as a fearsome exec
was known from LA to New York.

But at that year's Source Awards,

where stars from both East and West
were being recognized,

he would show
just how forceful his ambition could be.

[Cheo] The Source Awards,
that's kinda where

the East Coast vs West Coast tension
that has been brewing

all kind of came to a head.

Suge gets up and then decides
to kind of, you know,

draw the line in the sand.
He sees an opportunity.

I'd like to tell Tupac,
keep his guards up,

we ride with him.

[audience whoops]

The one other thing I'd like to say,

any artist out there
that wants to be an artist

and wants to stay a star,

don't want to have to worry
about the executive producer

trying to be all in the videos,

all over the records,

dancing, come to Death Row!

[Cheo] It's very clear
that he's dissing Puff.

It's also clear, in a way,
that he's coming after Tupac,

who's withering in jail,

saying come to The Row.

And Suge,
essentially, at that moment,

he basically declares war on New York.

By him saying that
and having all of New York there,

of course the boos come raining down.

With all them different crews and cliques,

the energy for something to jump off
is already there.

You know, Suge was like, "Fuck it.

I'm sick of this being behind the scenes,
is about to be out front."

To me, it was...

extremely LA. [chuckles]

The Source Award, the winner is...

Uh oh. We're going to have
some trouble here. The DRE!

DR Dre!

[booing]

[interviewer] What were you thinking
when you gave your speech there?

It was spontaneous, you know,
because Dre had won an award.

And he was about to say something,
and I just took the mic

and was like,
"Fuck it. I need to say something."

Wait!

The East Coast don't love Dr Dre
and Snoop Dogg?

The East Coast ain't got no love
for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg?

And Death Row?

Y'all don't love us?

Y'all don't love us?

Well, let it be known, then,

we know you all East Coast.

[booing and cheering]

[Dr Dre] Yeah! Check this out!

[Andre] I thought,
"Oh, this is crazy right here."

Did you think that was some kind
of hip-hop competition, type of...

-Bravado?
-Yes.

It was some hip-hop competition,
but it was just...

Because Suge and them
was repping gang culture,

it just made it that much more dangerous.

When you're talking gang culture,

it's just thousands of people
being represented by what you're saying.

But I didn't know that was going to be
the beginning of a rivalry.

But it was. That was the match
that lit the forest fire.

I read somewhere that you went to Suge
to try to get Pac signed to Death Row.

Can you talk about how that happened?

He was in jail.

And...

he was a friend of mine.

I was hearing some negative shit
about him being in jail,

so I just mentioned to Suge
that we should put him on our team,

you know? Because he's one of us
any motherfucking way, so...

Pull a rabbit out of your hat
and make it happen.

[Richie Rich] Pac, he wrote me
from prison. Wrote me a letter.

Told me that he was thinking
about signing to Death Row.

I was like, "Signing to Death Row?"

You just dropped Me Against the World,
that album is number one right now.

That album was still number one
while he was in jail.

I was like,
"I don't think you need to sign.

I mean, you got your own star quality.

You're doing movies, like, you don't--

What can they give you
that you don't have?"

The blackness shit that Pac was doing,
that shit in its own way is gangsta.

Panthers, to me, is more gangsta

than any of this running around
shoot 'em up rap shit that cats be on.

So, what Death Row was doing
and what Tupac was,

to me, didn't seem like a good mix.

It just seemed conflicting
with what Tupac was to me.

And that's what I mailed up, licked,
stamped and sent back to him.

So, when I get the next letter back,

he was like, "This nigga talking
about coming to get me."

Suge talking about, "Sign with me

and I'm going to get you out of jail."
I get it.

I still thought it was a terrible move.

We was driving in LA

and we're all talking, the usual,
arguing and talking,

and debating, whatever.

"No, I mean Nas,
there's no way Nas is doper than RZA.

RZA's doper than Nas!"

We were just droning out. The radio's on.

One by one, we all pulled out
of the conversation.

"Sounds like Pac."

[muffled rapping]

It got to the end of the verse
"Throw them up!"

"Ah! He out!" We almost wrecked the car.

[tires screeching]

Yo! We all got out and did one of these!

Wooo!

Two hours later, here it is again.

Woo!
After it went off, we did the same thing.

Everybody jumps out of the car.

It was like, "Yo, Pac's out!"

[reporter] Tell me about this album
because it seems kind of fast.

Came out of jail
and went straight to the studio.

A double album called All Eyez On Me.

It'll be out just in time for Christmas.

[Dr Dre] We've got Tupac down
at Death Row. Give him a scream.

Yes! West Side!

If it ain't Death Row, it ain't popping!
We are what's popping!

[Mopreme] Everybody was coming to see Pac.
"Pac home!" It was big news.

He came to my house
and he pulled up in this...

banging-ass, loud-ass Benz.

I could see out my balcony
and he just did like this.

He had a big-ass smile on his face

and I ran downstairs
and we hopped on the car

and went zipping through LA.

[narrator] A little over a month
after the Source Awards,

Suge Knight would bail out Tupac
and sign him to Death Row Records.

Regardless of Pac's intentions,

the move further cemented the sides
in this growing feud.

On one side, Big, Puffy and Bad Boy.

And on the other, Tupac,
Suge and Death Row.

[interviewer]
What was Suge and Pac's relationship like?

[Snoop] It was like big brother,
little brother.

Suge is a real influential person.

So he could rub off on you,
the right way or the wrong way.

A lot of the great shit that Pac did,
he picked up from Suge,

and a lot of the bullshit,
he picked up from Suge.

Suge just lit a fire.
He drove Pac to make his best shit.

He was like, "I'm gonna put you
with the greatest producers.

Johnny Jay, Dr Dre.

You want anybody to come in the studio,

just give me what I know you can give me.

[men whooping]

Don't get it twisted, nigga! Thug life!

[Mopreme] He was running with Death Row.

He was rolling hard,

but the ultimate goal was
to put the smash down.

Fuck Bad Boy, fuck Biggie.

Make them rue the day.

[crowd cheering]

I was in New York and all those
bitch motherfuckers...

[Angie] He had a lot of things
to be angry about.

The media was terrible to him,
and I don't mean hip-hop media.

I mean the media at large.

I mean, they were terrible,
they were coming for his neck.

People were calling him a rapist.

Between that and him having feelings
about what he thought happened,

you know, when he got shot.

He just was fired up.

Half of the major New York rappers,

or their managers, or their agents,
or their somebody

was there when I got shot.

And nobody could give me no information.

If you're gonna act like you're gangsta,
or a G, or the king of New York,

I'll expect that.
And when you don't come through,

then I'm going to crush your empire.
And that's what it's time for.

[woman] He was frantic,

desperate.

That was really hard to watch.

When Pac did "Hit ‘em Up,"
I didn’t want that to come out.

I was horrified.

There were lines crossed.

Tupac participated
in crossing those lines.

Once you publicly go at certain people,
you can't pull it back.

Too much pain's been caused.

[Yukmouth] He got set up, robbed, shot.

He in jail writing and they laughing and--
Come on, man.

What would you do?

They fucked with him.
They threw him in jail.

You throw a nigga in the cage,
he's going to come out a beast.

He rapped different.
His attitude, his demeanor was different.

All of these weak rappers, Nas,
all of these suckers, they battling

off of East and West like this is a game.
This ain't no game.

If this was chess, we'd be yelling
checkmate three [beep] years ago,

because we've been beat them.
It's not a game!

[Shock G] His mission wasn't clear,
whether he was trying to unite

the thugs only, or the West Coast?

Was he anti-East Coast suddenly or...

He didn't know,
what is his living purpose, you know?

I just thought he just went crazy.

You know, yeah,
if you get shot a few times...

you probably will go crazy.

Overthrow the government
you got right now,

which is Bad Boy and Nas
and all that bullshit,

and we will bring a new government

that will feed every person in New York.

All right, cool, man. All right, peace.
Thanks a lot. Take care.

But I just knew
I didn't recognize my friend,

Tupac Shakur.

Deflow continues,
Deflow ain't stopping...

And I don't know him no more,
he's a monster now.

It's crazy.

It's crazy.

[mellow beats]

[narrator]
In just a few years, Pac had transformed

from activist to agitator.

The feud that started
with the Quad Studio shooting

had now grown into a full bi-coastal beef,

with diss track after diss track
coming from both Coasts.

And the bars on wax had begun to spill
onto the streets.

[Mopreme] It was some regional shit
because of the artists involved

were in two different regions.

And people have loyalties.

It felt like it could be dangerous.

Things are happening at, like, night clubs
and people getting stepped to.

[Angie] When that whole thing started,

nobody had any idea
of how far it would go.

Like, real things were happening
in LA and New York.

People were getting shot,
getting beat up.

People were, you know,
running up on video shoots.

[police sirens]

There were things
that were really happening

that didn't just make it, like, some hype.

[Ice Cube] Us, in the game,

we could have squashed it.

Didn't want to.

Everybody felt like they were right.

You know, just kind of dug in.

The biggest amplification
of the whole thing

was Vibe Magazine.

When they put Tupac, Snoop,
Dre and Suge on the cover,

nothing to do with entertainment.

It was more like gang culture
that seeped its way into records.

That was it. That was the official...

ring, ding, ding,
in this corner representing West Coast,

big Suge and them.

This side over here,

representing the East Coast,
P Diddy and Biggie Smalls.

Best man win.

Fuck, man. It was media driven.

It sold papers. It sold magazines.

People kept going, and kept going,
kept going.

[journalist] Tupac Shakur...

[Xzibit] I think what limelight
and fame and power...

Come on, count with me. Count with me.

[Xzibit] All these things are thrust
into this big bravado ass stage,

it becomes a shitshow.

What's homeboy's name?

Biggie who?

[Kevin] I don't know what Tupac felt
in his heart

around the East Coast-West Coast,
him vs Biggie thing.

Sometimes I wondered
if it was for record sales.

I mean, they sold a ton of records
during that time.

I remember, during that time,
I'm in Brooklyn.

Biggie Smalls and Notorious BIG
is here in Brooklyn,

and Biggie asked me, you know,

"Why do you think he's saying this stuff?"

Because Biggie didn't understand
where it was all coming from.

I just thought,
"I don't think we'll ever know

what Tupac felt in his heart."

[reporter] The attack on the black BMW

happened here
on a busy Las Vegas Street.

The car was driven
by Death Row Records boss, Suge Knight,

who escaped with a slight wound
on his forehead.

Shakur in the passenger seat
was not so lucky.

[breathes deeply]

Erm...

Honestly, [clears throat]

when I heard about the shooting,

I thought it was the other way around.
I thought Pac shot somebody else.

[chuckles] You know what I mean?

Because I didn't see no way
that anybody was going to...

touch Pac.

All the access to... protection

and as deep as Death Row rolled.

You know, I'm like,
"Did Pac get pissed off and...

blast somebody?" But...

It was the other way around.
[clears throat]

[radio caller]
I was calling to find out if...

did Tupac die?

He passed over an hour ago.

[Angie] To this day,
people will say, "I remember that day."

I cried like a baby on the radio.

I think everybody knew
it had-- it had gone too far

and I think everybody was, like,
assessing and...

what happened
and what we could have done different.

And maybe everybody was kind of thinking
about their part in it.

It just was unimaginably sad.

I don't know, man.
I don't really remember what I did.

I just remember it just being like...

probably the shittiest day of my life.
You know?

Not really... Not really being...

in my body at the time.

Los Angeles cried, man.
The city loved Tupac.

[Shock G] I was just...
kind of walking around in a fog.

I just didn't know...

how to process it.

And I was in New York City...

And Dear Mama came on the radio.

I don't know why then...

but I just broke down
and just fell into a...

uncontrollable cry.

Oh God, Pac.

Like, I felt it like I had never felt it.

But...

because it started to lock in who he was.

Just sad, man.

I was riding on the freeway
and I heard it on the radio station.

I don't like thinking about that shit.

That shit is just fucked up, man,
that the nigga had to--

had to go out like that, so young.

Like, 25.
My oldest son is 25 years old.

I'm thinking, "Damn, that's...

only how old he was."

He did a lot, but he didn't get a chance
to do what he needed to do.

He had more to do.

[melancholic guitar riff]

[narrator] With each passing year,

Tupac's losstakes on a bigger significance in hip-hop.

Today, Tupac Amaru Shakur
is a global icon.

His complexity and contradictions

create a blank slate
for both communion and projection.

Pac the activist, the unifier, the poet.
The rebel.

And most grandly,
the quintessential voice of the oppressed.

But, in 1996,

Pac was a misunderstood rapper
who was slain in a beef.

And that beef was far from over.