The feud between Tupac and Biggie remains a case study in hip-hop beefs. Over the course of their respective careers, they went from friends to enemies, who, unfortunately, took their grievances with one another to the grave. Biggie’s “Who Shot Ya” was a massive catalyst in the East Coast-West Coast friction in the 90s but the song wasn’t actually targeting Tupac. According to a former executive at Bad Boy, it was Diddy who exasperated the issues between the two with his marketing strategy.
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Kirk Burrowes, former president of Bad Boy Records, sat down with The Art Of Dialogue where he discussed the release of “Who Shot Ya.” He confirmed the song wasn’t about Tupac’s infamous Quad Studios shooting but it appeared that way because of Diddy’s decision to release it.
“The way it was marketed by the company and released, in the succession of things that were going on that we were dealing with, on all the levels that we were dealing, that record did what it was supposed to do,” he explained. “That’s a perfect example of how my former business partner works and thinks. And if you could remember that three-dimensional type of thinking, then you could start to pierce through a lot of the common things that are being told and get to what’s really behind those things.”
Burrowes explained that Bad Boy was frequently playing chess in their approach to hip-hop’s landscape but he said that Diddy thinks on multiple levels at the same time. “You’re sleeping, he’s thinking on those different levels,” Burrowes added.
“Yes, it was meant to drop. It was meant to send a message that it did send. It was meant to aggravate a wound,” he added.
Check out the full clip below.