This page is dedicated to all Rap fans who love Rap the way it was before the biased, greedy ass media got involved with advertising the imaginary "East Coast  vs. West Coast" Rap war. The whole controversy started when a robbery / assassination attempt against a very popular Tupac Shakur in New York occurred and he accused his former friend Notorious B.I.G. and producer Sean "Puffy" Combs of being involved in the setup, but later stated that they knew about it and didn't warn him about it. For the mainstream media this rang in their ears as high drama and a sure ratings booster. In the middle of all this 2Pac was tried for a rape he neither committed, nor tried to stop from happening. He was convicted and one day before his sentencing, the robbery occurred and he was shot five times but survived. He was sent to jail where he had a lot of time to heal his wounds and think ("My time away just made perfection, Did you think I'd die?"- Makaveli from White Man's World ). He came to the conclusion that Biggie and Puffy had something to do with the whole thing, and vowed to himself that once he got out that he would avenge himself, and regain his spot as the top Rapper in the game - and he did to the fullest. As reporters asked more questions about the setup, Biggie and Puffy both denied having prior knowledge or being involved in any way. Out of nowhere, when no one else would, Suge Knight put up a $1.4 million bond to bail Tupac out of jail and sign him to then the industry's leading Rap label- Death Row Records.

Now amongst the likes of super producer Dr. Dre, artists Snoop Doggy Dogg, and The Dogg Pound, 2Pac released an unheard of (for a Rap artist) double CD:"All Eyez On Me". This was probably his best and most controversial album. He now spoke about being a "ridah", being a Mob type figure, and speaking about death as if he wasn't afraid or he was looking forward to it. This from the same artist who brought us "Dear Mama" which should have won a Grammy for Rap song of the year over Coolio's short lived hit "Gangster's Paradise". The East West war became just about a reality when 2Pac released the B-side single Hit Em Up. In this song he dissed and threatened Biggie, Puffy, and many other artists who previously tried to discreetly (mostly in songs) diss him. Biggie blew up while Pac was locked up and released a B-side single WhoShot Ya  (an obvious diss) not too long after Pac got shot, he also eventually teamed up with Jay-Z on the tacky, but close enough to piss Pac off song, Brooklyn's Finest. With the help of the media, especially Vibe and The Source more words are exchanged via interviews and tempers flair in the already tense world of Rap.

Months go by as the make believe war seemed to die down and by now, Tupac is at the height of his fame with two more finished movies and the Makaveli LP soon to be released. Since his release and hostile takeover as the once again King of Rap, the entire Bad Boy camp was virtually unheard from for months. On the night of September 7th 1996, Tupac was shot in a Las Vegas drive-by where he took 4 more bullets in an apparent act of revenge. Six days later Tupac Shakur was pronounced dead and the Nation is shocked. How could this major setback happen in a time when Blacks are advancing so far ? All I can say is that it was a street thing and not part of any East -West feud. The media of coarse took the opportunity to invent their own theories along with everyone else, but you can find out more in my Tupac Tribute.

While everyone deals with 2Pac's death, there's now panic and paranoia in the rap game. Some East Coast acts cancel some of their West Coast concerts and vice versa. By now Puffy releases a new video and single entitled Can't Nobody Hold Me Down. In the video, there's a guy trying to drown Puffy (he escapes) who distinctly resembles Tupac, though they never show his face. In my opinion this was a bitch move, oh now you on top with Tupac out of the game ? Others now diss Pac including the vampire like media who used to feed off of him, his sometimes bad attitude (like that's abnormal for a young Black male who grew up poor in Amerikkka) the East West conflict, and the Rap game in general to continually degrade us.
All of this brings us to March 9th of the next year. In their first trip back to LA after thinking that the drama had died down out there, the Bad Boy staff attended the Soul Train Music Awards as the pieces of this strange night fall into place. Biggie receives an award and goes up to accept it in just about silence (I heard people were even chanting "Tu-pac! Tu-pac!"). Confused and naive as to why nobody was cheering for him, Biggie says "What's up Cali?????". At the end of the show as everyone was leaving, in a heartbeat, Biggie's car is shot up similar to Tupac's. There was no 6 days left for him as he arrived at the hospital DOA, more info in the Biggie Tribute. Once again the Hip Hop Nation is brought to it's knees asking WHY?

After the death of Biggie and numerous pleas to STOP THE VIOLENCE, Rap and Black music in my opinion took a turn for the worst. First of all the media looked on this as "art imitating life", but everything that had just happened for the last 6 or 7 months was pure tragedy and a reminder of the ignorance of a Nation. Here in Amerikkka, most us regardless of color are hypocrites. See all along there were Stop The Violence campaigns, but nobody was listening. Now two of our biggest stars were now gunned down like so many others, but since they were public icons, now everybody wants to listen and be a part of the solution. That's the American way: wait until the problem gets out of hand and then try to control it. Amongst everyone now on the bandwagon, were all the record companies who now saw blood. With the two biggest acts gone, the search for the newstar began. As Puffy became just about a house hold name (to my disgust), every week there seemed to be a new artist, with a new song, and a new video. New, established, and forgotten artists began coming out of the woodwork with the major competition gone, and most of them positively or negatively used Tupac's and Biggie's deaths, or the phony East West war as a way the get in the limelight, sell records, and make money for the blood sucking record companies. Most of these companies are owned by White people who most likely only think of our music and our artists, as a way to make money,....... for them. Music acts are now all softened up especially Rap acts. I don't even have to mention the Puffy factor, you can see my opinions of him on the F*** Puffy Page. The variety of artists were now kind of watered down, quantity instead of quality. Groups comin' out with no skills gettin' deals, and if they don't sell right, the company uses them as a tax right off. It's funny how it seems that this whole country is against us, but, it's all a part of the system that was built when we were slaves and hasn't changed very much since, see we are free to make money for them. So until somebody steps up as a Rapper with something real to talk about, I guess we're stuck with second rate, sell-out artists who only care about "the Benjamins".

- © THUNDER