The 1990s was the decade of hip-hop icons Tupac Shakur (aka 2Pac) and the Notorious B.I.G. (sometimes called Biggie Smalls). Linked forever in the public imagination as the leading symbols of the poisonous East Coast-West Coast hip-hop feud and both dead of gunshot wounds within six months of one another, though neither sold as many records as Jay-Z, Eminem, or Ye, and though often cast as bitter enemies, Tupac and Biggie are both ranked among the best rap artists of all-time.

            Their backgrounds couldn’t have been more different. Tupac was named for a revolutionary as his parents and extended family were heavily involved in the Black Panther movement. In school Shakur was involved in acting, poetry, ballet, and rap. He migrated from New York City to Baltimore, to the west, settling eventually in California.

            Biggie, who began life as Christopher Wallace, was a good, Catholic school student who was drawn to the street life near his Brooklyn home, dealt drugs, was arrested a couple times, but nurtured a gift for rapping, never dreaming it could one day make him a star.

            Tupac broke first with 1991’s 2Pacalypse Now, an LP that highlights Shakur’s preoccupation with issues such as poverty, systemic racism, teen pregnancy, crime, and police brutality. By 1995, he was a major name, having co-starred alongside Janet Jackson in the John Singleton film Poetic Justice and having scored a #1 album, Me Against the World with songs like the title track and “Dear Mama” highlighting his sensitivity, anger, and concerns.

            By 1993, Wallace, or Biggie, had been discovered by Puffy Combs, was out of the street life, and changed his performing moniker to The Notorious B.I.G. By all accounts he and Tupac, who was much further along in his career, were fast friends. In 1994, Biggie’s album, Ready to Die, dropped. Hailed as a masterpiece, the LP was celebrated for its frank description of street life, and its depiction of both the highs and lows of a criminal’s world. The coming of age track, “Juicy”, and the brutally depressive “Suicidal Thoughts” were signaled out for special mention. Suddenly The Notorious B.I.G. was being hailed as the new hope for restoring East Coast rap  (where it all began, of course, two decades earlier) to its rightful place as the center of the hip-hop universe after enduring several years of West Coast dominance behind the likes of N.W.A, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and now Tupac.

            In November things completely unraveled when Tupac, already under the gun for a sexual abuse charge, was shot at a New York recording studio in a failed robbery attempt. When Shakur publically speculated that Combs and Notorious might be behind the attack, the rivalry exploded with venom, fueled by ill-considered words on both sides. On September 7, 1996, Shakur, riding with his label boss Suge Knight, was shot in Las Vegas, dying a week later. Five months later, Biggie, though warned not to, travelled to California and in March 1997, he too was killed in a drive-by shooting. Both artists were still in their mid-20s. Though speculation has been fierce in the quarter century since the twin killings, no definitive explanation as to who was behind the murders was ever officially proffered and no arrests were made- until last week when Las Vegas police finally arrested Duane Davis who years earlier had placed himself in the car that did the shooting, citing the killing as payback for an earlier attack on his nephew. Gone too young, their checkered legacies have only grown to mythic proportions.

         -Steve Williams (10/9/23) Greatest Recording Artists Blog Post #52