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Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G.: The Media Did It · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of double Elvis.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Tubac Shakur was a bad man, insanely talented and charismatic,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: but nonetheless an objectively bad man. Before his twenty fourth birthday,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Tubac Skor had been arrested for beating another rapper with
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: a bat, for shooting a pair of off duty cops,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: and had settled out of court for the shooting death
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: of a six year old boy. In the mid nineties,
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: he'd found himself embroiled in a highly publicized rape case
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: that had him looking down the barrel of a long
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: prison sentence, and still his talent and charisma could not
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: be suppressed. But as he began turning out iconic appearances
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: in major films, his legal troubles started breaking his bank.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: He was broke, and so he continued to do what
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: he did best, make great music. That music you heard
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: at the top of the show that wasn't great music.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: That was a preset loop for my melotron called Bosston
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Nova Moving Strings MK.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: Two.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: I'm playing that loop because I can't afford the rights
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: to I'll Make Love to You by Boys to Men,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: And why would I play that slab of motown Philly cheese?
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: Could I afford it?
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Because that was the number one song in America On
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: November thirtieth, nineteen ninety four, and that was the day
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: that Tupac Shakur was shot five times in the lobby
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: of Quad Studios, the day that launched the charismatic young
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: artist into a devastating relationship with the media, a relationship
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: that would prove deadly for both him and his friend
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: and fellow star with the notorious Big On this episode
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Boston Nova, Moving Strings, Motown, Philly Cheese, Tupac Shakur, media manipulation,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: and Biggie Smalls, I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: For a promise of seven grand in sweatpant money, Tupac
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Shakor agreed to guest vocal on a forthcoming bad boy
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: record single by Little Sean. The recording session at Manhattan's
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Squad Studios on November thirtieth, nineteen ninety four would be
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: the end to a very long day. Earlier, Tubac hat
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: appeared in court to face charges of sexual assault, and
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: the pending verdict was not looking good as he headed
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: into the studio to make some quick dough with his manager,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Freddy Moore. Brother in law Zan Turner, and friend Randy Watkins.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: The smell of blood and vulnerability was.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: In the air.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Tupac's street smarts had him feeling une going into the session.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: It had been arranged by a street.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Dude who had been blowing up Pawk's pager all evening
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: making sure he'd make it.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: To the studio.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Tupac was stoned and paranoid as he shuffled past the
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Times Square working girls towards the studio. His paranoia eased
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: momentarily when Little Caesar yelled from the window and told
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Pak he was on his way down. He had ceased
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: went way back, but then he spotted a roughneck outside
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: the building. Thirty ish male wearing army fatigues to Tupac,
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: a clear indication that this dude was from Brooklyn and
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: his vibe.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: Was not good.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: His hat was pulled down real low, and he refused
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: to acknowledge Tupac or as to associates as they entered
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: the building.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: This is not normal.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Tupac was one of the biggest stars in the country.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: There wasn't a black man in America who didn't acknowledge
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: Pak with respect, jealousy, or both, and this just didn't
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: feel right. And then as Tupac and his boys entered
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: the building, the roughneck slipped in the door behind them
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: and he wasn't alone. Then the dude behind the desk
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: and the lobby they just entered got up, and now
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: there were three menacing dudes.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: In the building with Tupac and his boys, and they
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: were packing.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: They came up behind pack, guns drawn, yelling for everyone
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: to lie on the ground, and then they told Tupac
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: to hand over his jewelry, and he refused and bullets flew.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Tubac was shot five times, one in the hand, two
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: in the head, one in the thigh, exited through the
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: scrotum ouch. The attackers ran Tupac's jewels, all forty grand worth,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: and disappeared into Times Square. Tupac dragged himself into the
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: elevator and somehow made it up to the Bad Boy
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: recording session. The elevator doors opened into a crowded studio and,
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: according to Pak, slumped and bloody in the elevator silence.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Everybody in the recording session, including the notorious Big and
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Sean Puff Daddy Combs, they all just stared at Tupac
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: and nobody moved to help him. Even though his arrival
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: had been much anticipated and they were all confused by
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: his being there. It was at this point the Tupac thought,
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: and maybe they were surprised to see him alive. Whatever
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: the reason, there'd be time for speculating later. For now,
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: there were more pressing matters like the bullet wounds in
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Tupac's head and scrolled him. Time to act fast. First
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: order of business, roll a joint. Next, call your girls,
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: your mama, and your girlfriend in that order, then call
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: nine one one. But when the cops arrived, Tupac was
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: greeted by Officer Craig McKernan, the arresting officer in his
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: sexual assault case. And when the cops saw Tupac's bullet
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: riddled groin, he greeted him with a smart ass, how's
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: it hanging, Tupac? The media reaction the next day was varied.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: The tabloids reacted true to form. The New York Daily
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: News gave a nuanced take, scrawling rapper Tupac shot in
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: the head across its cover. A little known at the
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: time business writer named Malcolm Gladwell grabbed the byline at
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: The Washington Post in the middle of laboring through his
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: ten thousand hours of experience, and inside his article there
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: was a particular quote of interest from Tupac's attorney. It
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: reads like a quote from fictional Seinfeld attorney and Johnny
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: Cochran parody Jackie Chiles. My instincts tell me that this
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: looks like a setup, smells like a setup, and feels
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: like a setup. The seeds of a beef were being sown,
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: and the media was just beginning to smell a story,
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: but the bombshell expose was yet to come. After the shooting,
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Tupac checked himself out of the hospital to appear in
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: court for sentencing, sitting in a wheelchair. He accepted his
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: four year prison sentence four months later. From behind bars
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: in Riker's Island prison, he gave Vibe magazine writer Kevin
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: Powell his account of the Quad Studio shooting, and it
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: was filled with innuendo, celebrity and drama. And about the
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: scene after being shot, he said, when we got upstairs,
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: I looked around and it scared the shit out of
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: me because Puffy was there, Biggie's there.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: There was about forty dudes there.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: All of them had jewels on, more jewels than me,
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: and this made me know it wasn't a robbery attempt.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: The money was upstairs. Everybody was like real standoffish. Puffy
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: was standing back. I knew Puffy and about the street
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: dude who set up the session. Tupac recounted, he had
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: this look on his face like he was surprised to
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: see me. If he expected me, why was he surprised
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: to see me. I just beat the buzzer and said
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: I was coming upstairs. I was like, you're gonna have
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: to explain to me when I come out of the hospital,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: why you set me up.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: The media now had their story shit was on.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety five, The Source was, as they say,
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: the shit to a young hip hop artist. Being on
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: the cover of The Source was bigger than being on
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: the cover of Rolling Stone. But another hip hop magazine
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: was making a name for itself. Famed record producer Quincy
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Jones launched Vibe magazine as a direct challenge to the
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: Source's dominance. His vision was to devote each cover to
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: the black stars who had the power to transcend black culture,
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: to use the power of hip hop to go beyond
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: hip hop. Fuck Rolling Stone and the hell with having
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: your culture appropriated by the mainstream for Vibe, this is
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: about defining the mainstream and vibes. Riker's interview with Tupac
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: set the parameters for what would become the year's biggest
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: mainstream drama. The nineteen ninety five Source Awards may have
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: become infamous as the event that publicly served up the
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: famous East Coast West Coast beef, but Tupac's interview with
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Vibe from earlier that year set the table, and when
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: the award show rolled around in August, Tupac was still
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: in jail, but his thinly veiled accusations from that interview
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: hung heavy in the air.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: Madison Square Garden was.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: Packed with a who's who of hip hop LA's death
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: row records. At the time, the biggest moneymakers in rap
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: rolled deep with the genius doctor Dre, his chart topping
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: protege Snoop Doggie Dog, and their super intimidating label Boss
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: should Night. The rumors about Knight were legend he freed
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Dre from his previous recording contract with negotiating skills that
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: were more Crenshaw on El Segundo than Wharton in HBS,
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: and supposedly part of Knight's fortune was made from hanging
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Vanilla Ice out of a ten story office building until
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: he agreed to sign over his royalties from his hit
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: song Ice Ice Baby, Truth or Legend. Everyone agreed that
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Suge Knight was not to be messed with, not even
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: on the East Coast, and Brooklyn was in the house,
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: repped by the notorious Big riding high on the success
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: of his debut Ready to Die, released a few months
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: prior on Bad Boy Records, Harlem Mogul on the make.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Sean Combe's aka Puff Daddy was the brains behind Bad Boy,
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: which was selling tons of records and threatening death Row's
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: supremacy to market the label and himself. Puffy was in
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: constant promo mode, touring with artists, hyping them on stage,
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: appearing in their videos, and just generally using his own
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: charisma to sell his musicians and this record label. Dude
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: in the Spotlight thing was working out of the Spotlight
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: that night. Death Row was well wrapped with fifty West
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Coast dudes, family friends, artists, label execs, bodyguards, some in red,
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: some in blue, and also in the crowd rappers from
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Queen's Staten Island and Harlem, every part of New York
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: City and beyond Jersey even the Dirty South people in
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: the room later said the rivalry between the Borrows and
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: different factions was palpable. Everyone knew there was going to
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: be some bullshit and the volatility in the air that
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: he could feel it anticipation, excitement, tension. And then Suge
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: Knight took the stage wearing blood red to accept the
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: award for Best Soundtrack for the film Above the Rim.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: First he thanked death Row, and then he had a
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: message for Tupac.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: I'd like to tell Tupac to keep his guards up.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: We riding with him, and then sug up Tupac's riker's ante.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: He dissed Puffy Hard, a comment that was meant not
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: to accuse, but to demean, to antagonize any.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: Artists that want to be an artist.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: I want to stay a star and don't have the
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: warorry about executive producers trying to be all in the videos,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: all on record dancing come to death Row. The reaction
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: was loud, booze and sheers, but mainly booze. Snoop raised
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: up out of his seat, turned back to the booing
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: crowd and began shouting in supporter shug. All of a sudden,
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: things went from tense to dangerous, real gangster shit. Sug
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: was talking about Puppy, a West Coast dude disrespecting an
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: East Coast dude in his hometown, and.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: In effect, the discs instantly bonded the New Yorkers in
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: the room. Fucked the West Coast, fuck should Knight, fuck
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: death Row.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: Sug and his entourage made it out of New York
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: without further incident, but the beef they made back at
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: the gardens cemented the source as the hip hop journal
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: of record and gave the media at the kerosene it
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: needed for the low burning flame Tupac ignited in his
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Vibe interview a few months earlier, East Coast West Coast
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: was now a thing. The battle lines were drawn and
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: the media embedded themselves among the MC's in the front lines.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: And soon shots literally will be fired.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: We'll be right back after this word word word.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: In retrospect, ViBe's interview with Tupac looked prescient. After all,
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: what was with biggie single who Shot You? If the
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: title of the song who Shot You didn't say at all?
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Then its released a mere month after the bullet ripped
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: through Tupac's thigh and exited his scrotum cemented in Pock's
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: mind that Big and Puff were behind the quad shooting,
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: and the media was more than happy to report on
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: the speculation. Tupac told Vibe that even if that song
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: ain't about me, you should be like, I'm not putting
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: it out because he might think it's about me. Big
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: and Puffy, in their own interview with Vibe, asserted that
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: the song was written months earlier, originally as a track
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: for Mary J. Blige, but being too violent, it ended
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: up on the B side of Big Papa. Vibe magazine
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: was now arbitrating the juvenile beef within its pages, not
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: exactly what Q had in mind, but there were too
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: many people who wanted to read about it and too
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: many magazines to sell. Then, sug Knight posted one point
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: four million dollars bail to spring Tupac from Rikers, and
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: in exchange, Tupac signed over his recording rights to death
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Row Records.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: The beef went to eleven.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Coverage of Tupac's released from prison and newly minted death
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: Row affiliation extended beyond the hip hop press. The New
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: York Daily News ran the charmingly innocent headline jailed rapper
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: goes free as pals make one point four million dollars
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: in bail. The La Times embedded themselves in the studio
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: with Tupac days after release and coaxed out some hysterical
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: nuggets about his jail life. He watched Jay Leno, listened
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: to Russian Limbaugh, corresponded with Tony Danza. But these puff
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: pieces wouldn't last out on bail. Fresh out of Jail
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: and California Dreaming, Tupac wax poetic on the set of
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: the video shoot for the Doctor dre produced California Love.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: The single took a sample from Joe Cocker's Woman to Woman,
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Beyond the Thunderdome and Back, but the hair on this
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: dog was Tupac's blistering vocals send up of West Coast dominance.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: Hip hop fans loved it a killer single, but another
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: single Tupac's Hit Him Up, would shot a personal light
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: on Pak's new West Coast lifestyle. It was a scathing
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: response to who shot You. In the lyrics, pawc ovisceraates
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: Biggie claiming to have slept with BIG's wife, Faith Evans
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: and threatens retaliation for the quad shooting. To paraphrase the
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: Texas poet. The beef was bad, and nationwide after Hit
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: them Up, rappers began to outwardly align themselves with their coasts.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Tupac took every opportunity imaginable to align himself for this
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: new West Coast brethren and to take shots at the
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: East Coast. The media covered it with bated breath, and
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: each new story seemed to beget another diss mainly from Tupac,
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: and the newspapers and magazines continued to fly off the racks.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: In morning radio jocks added another level of insanity as
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: they talked about the drama on air, and record sales
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: soared a win win, right wrong. Biggie and Puff never
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: took the beef as seriously as Tupac and Sugar did.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: They went out of their way to try and squash it,
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: and in September nineteen ninety six, Vibe cover story salaciously
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: and some would say regrettably, titled East Versus West Biggie
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: and Puffy break their Silence. They both earnestly defended themselves
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: against accusations that they had anything to do with the
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: quad shooting, but it was too late. Hit him up
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: across the line. East Coast Dudes, were turned up. In
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: the same article, vibelated on Thick stating from the Atlantic
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: to the Pacific, hip hop heads are proclaiming their California
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: love or exclaiming that the East is in the house
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: with the loyalty of newly initiated gang members. The story
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: then went on to quote doctor Dre with very little context,
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: as having said, pretty soon dudes from the East Coast
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: ain't going to be able to come out here and
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: be safe, and vice versa. Something had to give, and
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: something did. On September seventh, nineteen ninety six, in Las Vegas, Nevada,
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: after Mike Tyson knocked out Bruce Selden under a minute twenty,
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: Tupac sat in the passenger seat of Shugs BMW at
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: the corner of East Flemis Go Road in Cova Lane.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: His Shug was at the wheel. Two girls in the
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: car next to them grabbed Tupac's attention. Then from out
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: of nowhere, a late model Cadillac rolled up along the
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: passenger side of the BMW inside four men two blocks.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Then countless bullets fired, one in Tupac's arm, one and
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Tupacs die, two in his chest, the one in his
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: right lung the kill shot. Tupac Shakord died in a
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: hospital bed six days later. The reaction in the press
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: was both mournful and tasteless, with his family and fans
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: still grieving, The Philadelphia Daily News ran Tupac's picture on
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: the cover under a headline that just said it's a wrap.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: According to Faith Evans, Biggie cried when he heard Tupac died.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: In interviews after Tupac's passing, Biggie seems more shocked than saddened,
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: an important distinction, but you almost can't blame him. The
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: whole country was shocked and quote unquote gangster rap in
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: the death of one of its biggest stars was being
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: covered like a national epidemic, with a strange mix of
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: caution and cultural voyeurism. Before his death, the New York
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: Times Sunday magazine featured Tupac on its cover alongside Suge
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Knight and Snoop, next to the headline, do you know
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: whose music your children are listening to? In defense of
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: the media, Tupac, Shook, and even Biggie to an extent,
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: all played their respective parts in the saga. The media
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: was just there to do what the media does. Tell
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: the story and se newspapers, magazines, and advertisements. The difference
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: here being that this story was too good to temper.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: It was too easy to get taken in by, too
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: easy to slide a headline over the line from responsible
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: journalism to scandal. Rag and Tupac especially seemed to relish
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: in living up to the thug life caricature of himself
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: that the media couldn't get enough of. Cameras followed him everywhere,
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: and he left a trail of ink behind him wherever
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: he went. After he died, things felt unsettled, like there
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: was another shoe to drop, and like any good movie,
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: just when you think the madness is over, something happens
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: in the final five minutes to prove to you that
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: you're getting your money's worth.
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: And this something was.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, the death of the arguably more talented of the
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: two feuding rap stars than Notorious Big. On March ninth,
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: nineteen ninety seven, Biggie Small's was gunned down outside of
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: a Vibe magazine party while on a West Coast promo
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: tour for his upcoming album, aptly named Life After Death.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: You can't make this shit up. Despite the enormous amount
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: of press the murders received, neither would ever be solved.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: I have my own opinion of who is to blame
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: for the murders, and I believe that most anyone who
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: was involved with either artist knows who killed them. But
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: this episode isn't a who done it? It's a holy
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: shit look at the way these guys willingly played the
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: roles the media wanted them to play to deadly results episode.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: Tupac and Biggie had to have known where this is
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: all going. How could they not have felt the hate
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: rising on each coast. They read their own press, and
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: they knew the media would swallow every bit of beef
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: and spit it back out all over the front pages,
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: the TV screens, and the airwaves. We know celebrities are
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: a different breed. We know that rock stars and hip
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: hop stars do some of the most insane shit, and
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: they often surround themselves with lunatics and criminals. They live
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: in a state of suspended adolescence. So yes, Tupac and
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Biggie continuously upping the animosity toward each other while living
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: and working among stone cold gangsters is one of the
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: dumbest moves any two stars have ever made. But if
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: you weigh out the amount of shit talked by Tupac
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: and Bigie, it doesn't measure up to the amount of
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: shit talk the media covered and covered and covered. They
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: couldn't get enough. The story had everything celebrity, crime, violence, infidelity,
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: and finally murder, and the media amplified the hype one
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: thousand percent. This story is really about the media being
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: incapable of resisting a too good to be true drama.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: I had Tupac or Biggie been a little older, a
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: little wiser, maybe a little less hungry for the spotlight,
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: or a little less under the influence of their sales
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: driven record.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: Company handlers, maybe.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: Maybe they would have been able to put a lid
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: on the media's efforts to drive the narrative and in
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: effect de escalate the tension and ultimately save their own lives.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: But that didn't happen, and now both are sadly gone.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: Credits for this episode can be found on the show
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: a Disgraceland All Access member. Thank you for supporting the show,
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: we really appreciate it, and if not, you can become
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: a member right now by going to disgracelampod dot com
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: slash Membership.
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: Members can listen to every episode of Disgraceland ad free,
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  Speaker 4: Plus you'll get one brand new exclusive episode every month,
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• 24:02
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• 24:07
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• 24:19
  Speaker 4: Roller
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: He the bed Don Man