When we’re talking about the most disrespectful records in hip-hop, “Hit ‘Em Up” definitely sits high on that list. While ‘Pac wasn’t necessarily flexing his lyrical prowess on that record, it was the tone and vigor behind his cruel shots that made it one of the most definitive records of the 1990s, regardless of its intent.
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During a recent interview with Art Of Dialogue, former Murder Inc. signee Charli Baltimore went into depth about the first time Biggie Smalls heard “Hit ‘Em Up.” She recounted that the two were walking to a music video shoot when a “somber looking” Puffy emerged insistent on playing the record for everyone.
“He was like real somber looking and he was like, ‘Yo! I gotta play you this record.’ And that’s the first time we heard ‘Hit ‘Em Up,’” she recounted. “The whole mood just changed. A video shoot is supposed to be upbeat, happy, whatever and Big is like, ‘Are you fucking serious right now? Serious? This is what we’re doing right now?’ It was just shock. It was just crazy.”
Baltimore explained that Tupac initially took issue with “Who Shot Ya? because he believed the song was in response to the Quad Studios shooting. This, she said, caught Biggie off-guard because of the relationship that he once had with Tupac. Plus, “Who Shot Ya?” was recorded prior to the shooting.
“You got this dude just riding on you and riding on you and you not knowing what’s what,” she explained. “‘Who Shot Ya?‘ is not about ‘Pac… It was written before ‘Pac got shot but of course, people are going to hear that and say, ‘OK, yeah that n-gga Big is going at this n-gga now and it’s going to be back and forth.’ But in all actuality, that record was already written. When you listen to it, with all that was going on, it does sound like, ‘Yeah n***a, I’m on your ass,’ and it wasn’t like that.”
Check out the full clip from the interview below.