This week has been a whirlwind for Big Gipp after his remarks about Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and Tupac Shakur went viral. The Goodie Mob icon sat down with The Art of Dialogue and discussed Billboard and Vibe‘s Top 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time list. It was then that he dropped off a peculiar take about Hov, Bey, and Pac. “To me, Tupac… Only reason you inching Jay-Z past Tupac is because he got goddamn Beyoncé,” he said of Jay taking the No. 1 spot on the list. “You take Beyoncé away, he ain’t got sh*t. Bar for bar? Yeah, he might rap better than Pac, but Pac came with the heart. That’s different, it’s just different. You can never beat the heart, bro.”
Unsurprisingly, the internet lit up with reactions. People used the opportunity to poke fun at Jay-Z’s skills and marriage to Beyoncé. However, the Roc Nation mogul’s fans jumped to his defense. After a few days of watching his name go viral, Gipp dropped by B High ATL to clarify his statements. “No disrespect to that man Jay-Z, no disrespect to Beyoncé,” he began.
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“I want to just explain to everybody that’s looking at the podcast right now,” Gipp continued. “Gippy knew what type of guy Pac was. Let’s talk about it. At the time that Pac walked the earth, Pac went after every girl that was somebody’s girl. Jada Pinkett, Biggie girl Faith, Aaliyah, Kidada, Lisa Left Eye—didn’t Rison tell you? ‘The limousine pulled up in front of my house, the door kicked open, and I seen it. It was Tupac, and Lisa got in the car with Tupac and drove off!’”
Gipp reiterated Shakur was “that kind of guy.” He said his point was to say the same way that Jay-Z “went after the No. 1 girl in the game,” Tupac would have done similar. “And all I’m saying is, bro, he was a phenomenon before the industry understood what he was. He was a rapper that was trained in acting. So, personally, he came with a skill that we didn’t even have in the game at that time.”
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The Rap legend also mentioned that during the 1990s, the industry functioned much differently. We currently see music partnering with film and television as a norm, but Gipp recalled that all those industries were separated back then. For Tupac to amass success in all areas, albeit many of his television stints were often simply guest appearances, was something people never saw from an artist such as him. Check out more from Big Gipp’s clarification above.