New York vs Los Angeles 1991-96, a history of the war
PostPosted:Mon May 24, 2010 10:06 am
This is sort of a rewrite from scratch of one I made a few years ago; new and improved with actual music in it now. It documents the feud between western and eastern rappers up until 1996 when the feud came to a bloody end. There is a lot of mythology about this feud, and it remains strong in peoples beliefs even to this day. I am putting music back to 1981, mostly because the roots of this thing began in the 80's, but the battles were all in the 90's. In the end, the two greatest rappers of all time were dead. Eazy E, who was involved in feuding, died too; but for an unrelated reason.
I am going to start this one out with Grandmaster Flash, just because he best represents what the New York Golden Age was all about. When I talk about rap, I am not talking about the Beasty Boys, Will Smith, Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, (to an extent Run DMC), or any of that other stuff; that was a totally different world - made for pop based on this era of music. I mention the Blondie song Rapture a lot, you'll find a lot of the key artists mentioned by Debbie Harry in her song - she pays good tribute to the culture (unlike The Sugar Hill Gang who just stole everything).
So here comes the mid 80's, and Eazy E formed the band NWA; they had a harder take on the culture, I am sure most of you have heard the song Boys in the hood written by Ice Cube and performed by Eazy E. Well, when they formed NWA, they really took the rap world away from New York and brought it to the West Coast. The following song is the best example of what NWA had come to:
New York had no real answer, but rapper Tim Dogg struck a blow at the West Coast scene and their culture with his song:
Meanwhile NWA had broken apart, Ice Cube laid the other band members out with his song No Vaseline. But the real feud was between Dre and Eazy. Snoop Dogg was brought on board Dre's new label Death Row, and he fired back at Tim Dogg as well (Dre effectively dissing him by getting his lackey to take him down). Dre 's G-Funk style was all the rage in terms of rap beats at the time.
The biggest blow back wasn't even from NYC, but from Eazy E. Dre had created the character Sleazy E, to insult Eazy. Also associated him with feeding off of white people. Eazy E's response was more along the lines of Dre being full of shit, and not at all real. Eazy E even got LA Crips membeers to rap with him effectively showing where he was, and where Dre wasn't. The rap world was more aggressive than ever. Eazy E fired the biggest return blow against Snoop who dissed Tim Dogg, and Eazy E was not from NYC, he was from Compton. In my opinion, Eazy E slaughtered Death Row.
The West Coast was effectively in charge of the scene.
Back in the East, things weren't asleep. Tupac Shakur was attracting a huge and very hardcore following (his fanbase survives strongly today). It's fairly easy to hear the difference between the level Tupac was on compared to everyone else at the time; his songs carried deep meaning with them.He reflected and heavily amplified the golden age hip hop scene in New York. A little while later there was Biggie Smalls, and yes, him and Tupac were friends before. These guys are probably the two best rappers in history, and will always have their place and their mythology:
In 1994 Tupac was shot 5 times, before he had a major trial (which would send him to prison for a crime he didn't commit). Biggie Smalls was in the studio Tupac was shot it.
Biggie Smalls released the song Who Shot Ya? not long after Tupac's shooting, at this time, Tupac and Biggie were competing for who was going to rule the world of rap. Tupac and Biggie were both gang associated, there was shit going on that wasn't public at the time.
Meanwhile, Suge Knight and Sean Combs (Puff Daddy) were in a battle for the top label (Bad Boy vs Death Row). The feud on LA had been expanding beyond them. Despite the fact that a lot of people see I Used to Love H.E.R. as purely a song about the change of Hip Hop from the Golden Era to what it was in 94, there was a lot of insults to the west, "the funk" is obviously a reference to G-Funk. As you notice, the girl in the song becomes more and more whorish as the song moves on; a gangster prostitute. The girl he is singing about is rap music.
Ice Cube, still around, formed the band "The Westside Connection" and they struck back. This was where the feud really began to heat up, now it was a number of labels in the west vs the East Coast. Westside became a very big concept. Westside Slaughterhouse is a direct response to Common's I Used to Love H.E.R. One thing important "Which side are you, the red or the blue" referring to Crips (Biggie Smalls) which were Blue, and the Bloods (Suge Knight) being red.
Things hit the boiling point when Tupac was bailed out of jail by Suge Knight, and he was able to respond to Biggie Smalls where he redid the Frank Lopez execution scene from Scarface; Snoop Dogg was also on trial for murder conspiracy. So here we were with two guys who had real stuff going on. Both of them involved in feuds with west coast artists/labels, and now under the banner of Suge Knight in Death Row.
The "fat phony" line is a reference to how Biggie ripped off Tupac's style; he used to sleep on Tupac's couch, and didn't even mention Tupac in his first album. Snoop Dogg and the Dog Pound launched a second song, New York New York, featuring the LA rappers as giants causing destruction in New York:
Tupac and the Outlawz launched the most vicious attack in the feud with Hit Em Up:
Biggie Smalls and Puff Daddy had a song potentially incriminating; mentioning the Crips (marine blue), and saying that something terrible was done, and the song was about Tupac (Puff Daddy admitted later; although it was fairly clear from the references to Tupac in the song); and long kiss refers to marking a guy to be killed by hitmen. Although, it is very unlikely that Biggie had anything to do with it; just because a rapper says he is going to kill someone, doesn't mean he's going to do it; it just happened that Tupac was killed.
Tupac and Suge Knight were shot in Las Vegas, Tupac passing away days later after multiple surgeries. Several others were killed in this feud, mostly gang members, but also other rappers including Outlawz rapper Kadafi and Biggie Smalls. Despite what you hear, that Suge killed was behind it all - that's baseless sensationalism. people say Tupac was forming his own label and wouldd be more valuable to Suge dead rather than alive; bullshit; Suge was helping Tupac establish his own label (not killing him so he wouldn't), and Tupac loved Death Row and would have likely remained a major contributer. Can you imagine Suge saying "yeah, kill Tupac, and then shoot me too to make it look good, make sure you get me in the head." Very very unlikely. The bullet is still in Suge's skull from what I hear, they can't get it.
Eminem remix of a Tupac Biggie song featuring the Tupac and Biggie verses along with some interviews to document their feud and downplaying it from the level the media had it at.
Tupac's legacy is still very alive: a movie "Live 2 Tell" and a new album "Shakurspeare" are currently in the works.
I am going to start this one out with Grandmaster Flash, just because he best represents what the New York Golden Age was all about. When I talk about rap, I am not talking about the Beasty Boys, Will Smith, Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, (to an extent Run DMC), or any of that other stuff; that was a totally different world - made for pop based on this era of music. I mention the Blondie song Rapture a lot, you'll find a lot of the key artists mentioned by Debbie Harry in her song - she pays good tribute to the culture (unlike The Sugar Hill Gang who just stole everything).
So here comes the mid 80's, and Eazy E formed the band NWA; they had a harder take on the culture, I am sure most of you have heard the song Boys in the hood written by Ice Cube and performed by Eazy E. Well, when they formed NWA, they really took the rap world away from New York and brought it to the West Coast. The following song is the best example of what NWA had come to:
New York had no real answer, but rapper Tim Dogg struck a blow at the West Coast scene and their culture with his song:
Meanwhile NWA had broken apart, Ice Cube laid the other band members out with his song No Vaseline. But the real feud was between Dre and Eazy. Snoop Dogg was brought on board Dre's new label Death Row, and he fired back at Tim Dogg as well (Dre effectively dissing him by getting his lackey to take him down). Dre 's G-Funk style was all the rage in terms of rap beats at the time.
The biggest blow back wasn't even from NYC, but from Eazy E. Dre had created the character Sleazy E, to insult Eazy. Also associated him with feeding off of white people. Eazy E's response was more along the lines of Dre being full of shit, and not at all real. Eazy E even got LA Crips membeers to rap with him effectively showing where he was, and where Dre wasn't. The rap world was more aggressive than ever. Eazy E fired the biggest return blow against Snoop who dissed Tim Dogg, and Eazy E was not from NYC, he was from Compton. In my opinion, Eazy E slaughtered Death Row.
The West Coast was effectively in charge of the scene.
Back in the East, things weren't asleep. Tupac Shakur was attracting a huge and very hardcore following (his fanbase survives strongly today). It's fairly easy to hear the difference between the level Tupac was on compared to everyone else at the time; his songs carried deep meaning with them.He reflected and heavily amplified the golden age hip hop scene in New York. A little while later there was Biggie Smalls, and yes, him and Tupac were friends before. These guys are probably the two best rappers in history, and will always have their place and their mythology:
In 1994 Tupac was shot 5 times, before he had a major trial (which would send him to prison for a crime he didn't commit). Biggie Smalls was in the studio Tupac was shot it.
Biggie Smalls released the song Who Shot Ya? not long after Tupac's shooting, at this time, Tupac and Biggie were competing for who was going to rule the world of rap. Tupac and Biggie were both gang associated, there was shit going on that wasn't public at the time.
Meanwhile, Suge Knight and Sean Combs (Puff Daddy) were in a battle for the top label (Bad Boy vs Death Row). The feud on LA had been expanding beyond them. Despite the fact that a lot of people see I Used to Love H.E.R. as purely a song about the change of Hip Hop from the Golden Era to what it was in 94, there was a lot of insults to the west, "the funk" is obviously a reference to G-Funk. As you notice, the girl in the song becomes more and more whorish as the song moves on; a gangster prostitute. The girl he is singing about is rap music.
Ice Cube, still around, formed the band "The Westside Connection" and they struck back. This was where the feud really began to heat up, now it was a number of labels in the west vs the East Coast. Westside became a very big concept. Westside Slaughterhouse is a direct response to Common's I Used to Love H.E.R. One thing important "Which side are you, the red or the blue" referring to Crips (Biggie Smalls) which were Blue, and the Bloods (Suge Knight) being red.
Things hit the boiling point when Tupac was bailed out of jail by Suge Knight, and he was able to respond to Biggie Smalls where he redid the Frank Lopez execution scene from Scarface; Snoop Dogg was also on trial for murder conspiracy. So here we were with two guys who had real stuff going on. Both of them involved in feuds with west coast artists/labels, and now under the banner of Suge Knight in Death Row.
The "fat phony" line is a reference to how Biggie ripped off Tupac's style; he used to sleep on Tupac's couch, and didn't even mention Tupac in his first album. Snoop Dogg and the Dog Pound launched a second song, New York New York, featuring the LA rappers as giants causing destruction in New York:
Tupac and the Outlawz launched the most vicious attack in the feud with Hit Em Up:
Biggie Smalls and Puff Daddy had a song potentially incriminating; mentioning the Crips (marine blue), and saying that something terrible was done, and the song was about Tupac (Puff Daddy admitted later; although it was fairly clear from the references to Tupac in the song); and long kiss refers to marking a guy to be killed by hitmen. Although, it is very unlikely that Biggie had anything to do with it; just because a rapper says he is going to kill someone, doesn't mean he's going to do it; it just happened that Tupac was killed.
Tupac and Suge Knight were shot in Las Vegas, Tupac passing away days later after multiple surgeries. Several others were killed in this feud, mostly gang members, but also other rappers including Outlawz rapper Kadafi and Biggie Smalls. Despite what you hear, that Suge killed was behind it all - that's baseless sensationalism. people say Tupac was forming his own label and wouldd be more valuable to Suge dead rather than alive; bullshit; Suge was helping Tupac establish his own label (not killing him so he wouldn't), and Tupac loved Death Row and would have likely remained a major contributer. Can you imagine Suge saying "yeah, kill Tupac, and then shoot me too to make it look good, make sure you get me in the head." Very very unlikely. The bullet is still in Suge's skull from what I hear, they can't get it.
Eminem remix of a Tupac Biggie song featuring the Tupac and Biggie verses along with some interviews to document their feud and downplaying it from the level the media had it at.
Tupac's legacy is still very alive: a movie "Live 2 Tell" and a new album "Shakurspeare" are currently in the works.