Good music is evergreen, timeless. It doesn't contain elements that date it like references to Myspace or specific car models/clothing brands that may go out of style--things that give away its age and make it irrelevant in the present day. Likewise, a good diss track is all of those things PLUS being highly personal, specific & heartless, leaving its subject humiliated and exposed before the world. (I also like when elements of the song can be applied to my own life but that's just a bonus). 😏
I'll start with the king of all diss tracks, "Hit 'Em Up" by 2Pac and the Outlawz. Released in summer 1996 after Pac's prison stint & (first) shooting, this song is positively dripping with rage. Some would say TOO much rage--that he lost control of his emotions and in doing so, lost the battle. But according to Spotify, "Hit 'Em Up" is the 2nd most played song in 2Pac's discography with 552,114,899 plays at the time of this writing. I'll spare you the backstory on this classic track as most know it already but long story short, both 2Pac and Biggie ended up dead over this beef that started out as a feud between label owners Suge Knight and Puff Daddy, both of whom are still alive. And that fucking sucks. As of now, Pee Diddy is still walking free despite playing an allegedly key role in the murder of 2Pac which sucks even more.
What also sucks is that a lot of other nameless people died in this war, which didn't just involve rappers & record execs but gang members & bystanders in Compton & surrounding areas. I had a friend who was born & raised in Compton and the climate got so violent in late '96 she had to move. (At one time she was an affiliate of the female Piru (Blood) set Suge surrounded himself with, spending time on his yacht & meeting celebrities like Queen Latifah, MC Hammer & of course 2Pac). She said that in the wake of 2Pac's murder, the MOB Pirus enacted what they called "Crip-A-Day" in which they vowed to kill at least one Southside Crip every day, whether an actual member of the gang or an unaffiliated woman or child "caught slippin" out in the open or in the wrong neighborhood. Fucking brutal.
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| Suge Knight with some friendly neighborhood Bloods 😑 |
But such is the way of the street: "No snitching" doesn't just mean keeping your mouth shut around cops & giving your enemies a free pass--it means you handle these matters yourself, often violently. "You take one of ours, we'll take 5 of yours" style. It's said that 2Pac's last words were "Fuck you" to Vegas police officer Chris Carroll, who repeatedly asked him "Who did this to you?" as he lay dying. Can't say I blame him: that time would've been better spent making him comfortable in his dying moments than hassling him to do the job you're paid to do. Compton police had the case solved weeks after it happened but Vegas Metro refused to work with them so it went "cold." In reality, Metro just didn't want their little Adult Disney World associated with gangs & other unsavory n*gga shit lest they scare off tourists.
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| Biggie's wife, Faith Evans, w/ a devious-looking 2Pac |
"Hit 'Em Up" came after Pac heard prison rumors that Biggie set him up to be shot in 1994 at Quad Studios in New York. In it he disses Puffy, Biggie, Lil' Kim and the entire Junior Mafia--a group comparable to the Outlawz on 2Pac's side. But he doesn't stop there, going in on a long list of East Coast rappers including Chino XL and Mobb Deep, the latter of which he singles out as "young-ass motherfuckers" who got "sickle cell" (Prodigy of Mobb Deep did have this condition and eventually died prematurely of its complications, incidentally also in Vegas).
But it may have had even longer lasting impacts. Lil' Kim has had numerous plastic surgeries (and what look like skin-lightening procedures) since the close of the '90s. While one song likely wasn't to blame, it certainly couldn't have helped being called an "ugly ass/coked up" so-and-so by one of the biggest rappers in the world. The way he talked about Faith Evans was repulsive too and this song led to her getting battered by husband Biggie, who was "notorious" for cheating himself. (Faith has said she & 2Pac didn't sleep together when she was recording backup vocals for his song, but in true woman-hating fashion, the misogynistic internet doesn't believe her & is choosing to side with a dead rapper who had a major dog in the fight when he made the claim.
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| Before and After: Was Lil' Kim's body dysmorphia set in motion by "Hit 'Em Up?" |
"Hit 'Em Up" was truly one of the coldest diss tracks of its day and maybe of all time, not because it's particularly clever or well-written but for the pure venom and rage in 'Pac's voice. You can feel his sense of betrayal & vengeance, something most of us can relate to at some point. The Outlawz got off some good shots too; I like E.D.I. Mean's verse best. But it's 2Pac's impromptu drunken rant at the end that truly sets it apart from other diss tracks to that point, a format that has since been copied by artists like Eminem & Royce Da 5'9. The song marked the beginning of the notorious "East Coast/West Coast" war and the end of 2Pac as a voice for Black unity as he became increasingly paranoid & angry at his own people. Whether this is a coincidence or part of an FBI plot is another article for another day, but the East/West divide was very similar to the fracture between East/West Coast Black Panther factions in the '70s that was orchestrated by the Feds in the covert COINTELPRO operation.
This is significant because 2Pac's mom was a member of the Panther 21 and 2Pac had a number of ongoing connections with incarcerated political prisoners from the Panther Party whom he would name-drop in songs. 2Pac was himself a member of the New Afrikan Panther Party & had a song from early in his career called "Panther Power." Any one of these things would've been enough to draw the ire of the FBI, but combined with his high-profile legal troubles, which included shooting two off-duty white police officers, he had a target on his back the minute he got famous. To paraphrase him: "I never had a record 'til I made a record."
What could 2Pac have accomplished had he not gotten caught up in another man's petty battles? We'll never know, but I believe he would've stayed in rap for only a couple more years, eventually putting his focus into his Euphanasia record label & using it to invest back into the community and help promising young talent. Who knows? He might've even gotten involved in politics, something he'd alluded to in some of his final interviews. (Not necessarily as a candidate but an organizer or leader of a group like BLM or a Black Marxist group like the original Panthers). Acting was another of his passions. In addition to the multiple double albums released posthumously, two feature films starring 2Pac--Gridlock'd & Gang Related--came out shortly after he died. But like many other young Black men of the time and Gen X'ers in general, he ended up dying an untimely death due to a mix of nihilism, recklessness & factors outside his control. Thankfully he left behind a treasure trove of fiery music before he departed, with "Hit 'Em Up" being the crown jewel in a white hot discography.
"Fuck you and your motherfuckin' mama"
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