Under Tupac Shakurs sista månader i livet hade konflikten mellan olika läger av artister på öst- och västkusten börjat eskalera med våld, hot och en rad disslåtar. Mest känd är kanske Tupacs egen “Hit Em Up” där han gick hårt åt sina ärkefiender.

I en ny intervju vittnar dock skådespelaren Bokeem Woodbine att Tupac, i samband med inspelningen av “All Eyez On Me” (oktober 1995), ville avsluta “beefen” mellan de rivaliserande artist-konstellationerna. Till Fader säger Woodbine:

“He had a plan to put everybody together on one record and just squash the beef. He wanted to take the power away from the labels that were exploiting the situation. It angered him that they were profiting; he wanted to stop the cash flow. It wasn’t something I was supposed to tell people about, you know what I’m saying? I honored that, and I just waited for that record to come out. But unfortunately, as you know, it never did.”

En av Notorious B.I.G:s närmaste vänner Lil Cease, har tidigare vittnat (2012) om att det fanns möjligheter att avsluta “beefen” innan det hela eskalerade och resulterade i att båda rapparna blev skjutna till döds, skriver HiphopDX.

“I think if him and B.I.G. would’ve saw each other and chopped it up after that Source Awards shit, the situation would’ve been different. We saw him on numerous occasions, and nothing happened. We had little words, but nothing happened. He knew B.I.G. I just think the wrong people got in his ear; the wrong people were feeding him shit. And he ran with it. At the end of the day, I think it was all love between them. I think it was just the two…niggas had batteries in their backs, and it pushed them in the wrong direction.”

Hur ett försök att sluta fred mellan Tupac och Biggie hade slutat på skivan kan vi bara fantisera kring. Se det klassiska videoklippet nedan där Pac och Big freestylade tillsammans:

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