Full Disclaimer: This is not a blog to solve the murders of Biggie and Tupac. I know who did it and might get into that one day, but this is not that. This is a blog about how Tupac’s war against Bad Boy Records, Puffy, Biggie, and 90% of the NYC rap community was 1 billion percent justified. And that’s billion with a capital B. Some people thought that he was just exaggerating everything and going hard as fuck against Biggie/Puffy/Bad Boy to sell records. Absolutely not. This was 100% real beef. I’ve done the research, put on my Encyclopedia Brown hat, and solved the riddle. The following is a timeline of exactly what happened that lead to Tupac waging war against basically an entire coast.
The PLAYERS: Tupac, Suge Knight, Death Row Records, Bad Boy Records, Jimmy Henchman, Haitian Jack, Puffy, Biggie, Andre Harrell, Lil Shawn, Stretch Walker, Dexter Isaac, King Tut
These are the ONLY people directly involved in the events that would lead to a full blown coastal war and eventually to the murders of THE two most iconic rappers of all-time.
1992(ish) – Tupac is basically full-time on the West Coast by this point living in Oakland, CA, but is frequently on the East Coast to cut records, make movies, and do all that entertainment shit. It was one of these East Coast work trips, to film the movie ‘Juice’, that Tupac befriends an up and coming Brooklyn MC who went by the stage-name Notorious B.I.G. Tupac is currently the way more established of the two, so he had all the money, weed, and bitches at this point in their respective careers. He took Biggie under his wing, fed him, and basically schooled him to everything he knew in the game. This is reason number 1 that Tupac is so pissed off when everything happens the way it does.
Spring/Summer 1993 – Tupac remains on the East Coast, and lands a role in one of my personal favorite movies of all-time, Above The Rim, where he’s cast to play an NYC gangster by the name of ‘Birdie.’ To study for this role, Tupac’s friend Biggie introduces him to a real NYC gangster named James Agnant, better known by his street name, Haitian Jack. Tupac and Jack become pretty strong acquaintances, going to clubs all over NYC, getting VIP treatment that only NYC hustler status could get you. Jack is part of a big drug dealing/racketeering crew dubbed “The A-Team” that spreads across all of NYC, but especially Bed-Stuy/Bushwick/East NY Brooklyn. The leader of the Brooklyn faction of this crew was a fellow Haitian, a man by the name of James Rosemond, otherwise known as Jimmy Henchman. Jimmy Henchman’s specialty was murder, drug dealing, and extortion. By this time, Henchman was beginning to dabble into the music industry as a way to clean up some of his filthy money. He basically strong arms his way into managing several up-and coming rappers, with his biggest coup to date being a young street kid turned aspiring rapper that went by the stage-name, Lil Shawn, who was signed to major label Uptown Records, who’s CEO was a man named Andre Harrell.
Same time-frame: Spring /Summer 1993 – Aspiring entrepreneur Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs is fired by Uptown Records CEO, and his personal mentor, the very same Andre Harrell. The two maintained a close working relationship despite the fact that Harrell fired Puffy, and Harrell gives his blessing for Puffy to start his own record label, affectionately called Bad Boy Records. Through his affiliation with Harrell, Henchman sees an opportunity with Puffy and the upstart Bad Boy Records to further his musical and monetary ambitions. Now anybody that knows anything about how the record label game works, it takes a lot of money to do this type of shit on a wide scale. People don’t just roll out of bed being able to start a major record label with the ability to finance music, videos, and shit like that. Most, if not all, major rap labels from the 90’s were funded with some kind of drug/racketeering money. And that’s where current NYC gangster, and aspiring rap manager, Jimmy Henchman comes into play. Now anybody that knows anything about how gang shit works, ESPECIALLY in NYC, this is standard operating procedure. Basically they will fund your en devours, but will extort money out of you until the very end. And even if they don’t put up any money for you, there’s always a gangster element required, because in a city as big as NYC, and in a genre as volitale as rap, you will eventually need protection from everyone. That’s how it works and especially back then. So, Jimmy Henchman, who’s already extorting Uptown Records and getting a cut of whatever profits they’re getting, helps Puffy start Bad Boy Records in one way or another. I can’t be 100% sure he funded anything because I don’t have any bank records, but Henchman is getting a cut of whatever Bad Boy, Puffy, Biggie, Lil Kim, and anybody associated with them are doing for one reason or another. My guess would be a little fund money, and protection. The bottom line is, the line between gangster and musician with these guys is blurry, and they’re all on the same team.
Spring 1994 – Around this time, an attempt is made to begin extorting money from Tupac by Haitian Jack, Jimmy Henchman, and the A-Team for his protection if he was going to continue to work in NYC. Friendship only goes so far when it comes to money and power with these guys. Honestly, money extortion is so common in New York City, that it’s probably not even seen as that serious of a situation by anyone involved, like a foregone conclusion type of thing. But Tupac wasn’t going to be intimidated, or extorted by anyone. So Tupac refuses, and this is where the initial tension in the working relationship begins. Above The Rim is about to be released, and Tupac is working on the soundtrack in NYC, specifically with a Queens cat by the name of ‘Stretch’ Walker. This is the mystery dude that’s on the second verse of one of Tupac’s all-time bangers, the song titled ‘Pain’ that would eventually be on the soundtrack. Tupac and Stretch would become best friends, with Tupac obviously being the more established of the two and opening doors to rooms that Stretch never would’ve been able to get into on his own, much like he did with Biggie when he was just starting out. He even introduced Stretch to all the NYC players, including Biggie and Puffy themselves, who Tupac still trusts and is friendly with at this moment in time.
Summer 1994 – Tupac, Haitian Jack, and another man are arrested for a sexual assault against a woman that allegedly took place in a lavish Manhattan hotel back in 1993, but the trial doesn’t begin until summer 1994. It’s clear from the start of the trial that Tupac, in his mind, is being railroaded, as Haitian Jack would plead out to misdemeanor crimes and receive no jail time, while Tupac was never offered such a deal. Tupac, seeing the writing on the wall, began insisting that he was the most innocent of the three men charged, and couldn’t figure out why he was the main target of the prosecution. Tupac is furious, and begins to question everything about the situation. He has two scenarios in his head; 1.) The whole thing was a set-up to take him down because he wouldn’t pay extortion money to Haitian Jack and Jimmy Henchman and/or 2.) Haitian Jack lied, and snitched on him to give the prosecution what they wanted, which was a Tupac guilty verdict. It’s not 100% clear which one Tupac assumed, if not both. During one portion of a particular Tupac interview that was recorded but was off the record at the time, Tupac even insisted that the woman knew Haitian Jack and Jimmy Henchman on a personal level. This is the part that I’m least sure about in the whole thing. It would be hard for me to believe that a sexual assault case, and a guilty verdict was built on a complete set-up in which one of the conspirators was actually arrested and charged with part of the crime, but it’s certainly not out of the question. Either way, this is where Jimmy Henchman would take the reigns in the under-the-surface-level assault by the A-Team/Bad Boy Records on Tupac from Haitian Jack, because Tupac wanted nothing more to do with his co-defendant in the case, severed all ties, and even began to speak out against him.
November 28, 1994 – This is specifically the day that sets in motion a chain of events that would directly lead to the East Coast-West Coast beef and ultimately the deaths of Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur. Tupac agrees to an interview with Aj Benza of the NY Daily News, who is an acquaintance of Tupac’s homeboy, actor Mickey Rourke. In the interview, Tupac disses many A-Team members, and speaks in very disparaging detail about his co-defendant in the case, James Agnant, aka Haitian Jack.
November 29, 1994 – A day after the NY Times article, Tupac gives his now famous interview right outside of the courthouse in which he basically questions everything about the world, the judicial system, politics, America, and once again, spoke out against his co-defendant in the case, Haitian Jack, only this time it was for TV. If you get a chance, Youtube this interview. Very rarely do you ever see a defendant who has yet to reach a verdict in a case speak so candidly. Tupac is furious, and can’t believe what’s happening to him.
November 30, 1994 – Tupac and his boy Stretch (from the second verse in ‘Pain’) are recording music for an up-and-coming New York City DJ somewhere uptown. During this recording session, Tupac gets a call from Jimmy Henchman, who wants Tupac to do a guest verse for the artist he manages, Uptown Records signee Lil’ Shawn, at Quad Studios on 7th Avenue in Times Square. Tupac was hesitant because of the tension between the two sides due to the Haitian Jack situation, but agrees to do it when he’s told that Biggie and Puffy are there because he didn’t think they would be involved in any kind of set-up or be around any type of violence themselves. During the phone call with Henchman, he let it be known that he was going to charge these dangerous street thugs, specifically Jimmy Henchman, $7,000 for this one verse, just because he didn’t like the A-Team anymore. Trust and loyalty were everything to Tupac, probably to an unhealthy degree. That’s the type of guy he was, just too real on every single level with absolutely no fear. The best part, is that they tried to extort him and at the end of the day, he was basically going to extort them with the price for his verses. Henchman wouldn’t buck at the price (which should’ve raised a red flag), telling Tupac that Andre Harrell would flip the bill. He even told Tupac that Harrell happened to be at Quad Studio’s with his protege Puffy, and Puffy’s artist Biggie. Remember, Harrell ran the record label to which Lil’ Shawn was signed to, which was the ruse to get Tupac there in the first place. None of this even mattered though, it was all lip-service. Tupac wasn’t getting paid any money that night regardless, because he was never actually summoned to the studio to truly record a verse.
Tupac was running hours later than his initial arrival time, so Henchman was in constant contact with both Stretch and Tupac, especially concerned about their exact ETA. When they finally arrived just after midnight, as they were getting on the elevator to go up to the 3rd floor studio where Henchman, Lil’ Shawn, Andre Harrell, Biggie, and Puffy were, Tupac was ambushed by three people, including two masked gunmen, robbed of his jewelry, and shot five times. Stretch, who was right next to Tupac during the armed robbery/shooting, wasn’t robbed, or shot. The only person robbed, shot, assaulted, or anything, out of all the rappers, producers, managers, and CEO’s that were in the building that night was Tupac. Of all the people who were upstairs in the studio, none of them happened to come down at that moment to greet Tupac, and nobody else happened to be in that specific area. The gunmen went straight for Tupac, and left after Tupac was gunned down. Tupac, still alive but bloody from gunshot wounds, continued up the elevator to the studio, where he encountered Biggie, Puffy, Henchman, Andre Harrell, Lil’ Shawn, and the rest of their people. Tupac would say that nobody would look him in the eye, and they were shocked to see him like they were looking at a ghost. This is exactly when he knew the whole thing was a set-up and started accusing Jimmy Henchman of orchestrating the whole thing right there on the spot. When Tupac was on the stretcher being loaded into the ambulance out on 7th Avenue in front of the building, he famously looks back at the entrance door where Puffy, Biggie, Lil’ Shawn and the rest of the entourage are and flips them all off. Even after they shot him he was telling them to fuck off. Some people say they don’t give a fuck as an image. This dude really did…not…give…a…fuck.
Tupac survives the shooting, checks himself out of the hospital a day later for his own safety, and lays up at a safehouse for days awaiting sentencing on his case as he’s been found guilty of sexual assault charges, facing a minimum of 2.5 – 7 years in prison (which he would eventually get reduced to 1- 4.5 years pending $1million bail). He wheels in and out of the courthouse in a wheel-chair bandaged from head to toe protected by the Fruits of Islam. It’s literally something that’s straight out of a movie at this point. He’s sentenced to do his time at the Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York.
Everything from this point is early ’95….
While at Clinton, Tupac lays the groundwork for what would become his plan to extract revenge on Jimmy Henchman, Hatian Jack, the rest of the A-Team, Bad Boy Records, and everybody else associated with his assault at Quad Studios. In perhaps the biggest twist in all this, he suspects that Stretch flipped sides, and was in on the set-up as well. I’ll explain that in a minute. He trusted no-one, and was calling everybody out. I’m going to break this down step-by-step:
While at Clinton, even though Tupac suspects that Biggie knew about the robbery plot against him beforehand and didn’t tell him, he reaches out to Biggie to ask him exactly who was behind it and why. Biggie never goes and visits Tupac, let alone tells him what he knew.
Who Shot Ya? – This is major moment in all of this. A month after Tupac is shot and in prison, and after repeated attempts by Tupac to contact him, Biggie releases, through Bad Boy Records, a track on the B-Side of his hit single ‘Big Poppa’ a song titled ‘Who Shot Ya’ which is basically a New York gang anthem, saying they will shoot anyone who steps out of line. There are tons of lines in this song that could be directly correlated to the Tupac Quad Studio shooting “Bad Boys behind this” but it never specifically mentions Tupac by name. Let’s examine this:
With Tupac having just been shot, and now in prison for potentially YEARS, Biggie and Puffy felt comfortable releasing this song because they didn’t see Tupac as a threat. You have to remember, this is before Suge and Death Row, Tupac had nobody on his side at this point. And, since it doesn’t mention Tupac by name, they could always spinzone it and say it’s not about him. They had the best of both worlds. Clearly this song is an attempt to further their reputations in street circles and gain the clout from it, while still always being able to hold their hands up and say “it’s just a song about nobody” if they were ever pressed about it.
Let’s look at it from this angle – The song was written before the robbery/shooting occurred, but modified and recorded after the robbery/shooting, to what extent nobody alive but Puffy knows. Even if, for the sake of argument, that song has nothing to do with the Quad Studio robbery/shooting, why on earth would they release it a month after their “friend” just got shot in the same damn building they were in?! It makes no sense. Regardless, Tupac is going to be offended one way or the other by the timing of the release. It doesn’t matter what the intent of the song was, the damage is done. It’s either directly about that shooting, or Bad Boy intended to play both sides of the fence. You have to figure, in their mind, the worst case scenario was that Tupac would be sitting in prison recovering from gun shot wounds mad about it and nothing more would come of it. Furthermore, that song is specifically about how big of gangsters they are, and nothing happens in the city without their knowledge. Well, in Tupac’s mind, if they were these big gangsters, then obviously they would know exactly what happened and they’re not telling him, or they’re just fake. Either one is not something that Tupac would take lightly to.
Tupac, meanwhile has been sitting in prison reading books like the Art Of War by Sun Tzu and Machiavelli, books about waging war and overthrowing governments. Tupac knows that if he’s going to go to war with these guys, he’s going to need an army behind him to do it. In one of the biggest power moves of all-time, Tupac reaches out to Suge Knight, the head of the Los Angeles based Death Row Records. At that time, Death Row was full of MOB PIRU Bloods and other Bloods from in and around Compton. Very, very powerful, and Suge was the ringleader. Suge already has an existing half-ass feud with Puffy over their bodyguards shooting it out in Atlanta, so he’s anxious for the meeting with Tupac, especially if Tupac is ready to get at Bad Boy. Suge flies into New York, visits Tupac, and there, on the spot, they form an allegiance that would shake Bad Boy, and hip hop in general, to it’s core. Right after this meeting is when Suge did the “all in videoooos” mocking of Puffy at the ’95 Source Awards. Suge eventually puts up the $1 Million bail, and Tupac is a free man.
So, now we know, that Tupac believes that Haitian Jack set him up for the sexual assault case in NYC, or at the very, very least snitched on him to save himself. It’s probably both. We also know that he blames Haitian Jack and Jimmy Henchman for actually shooting him, but he also has a vandetta against Puffy, Biggie, Andre Harrell, and Lil’ Shawn for knowing it was going to happen and not telling him, and against Stretch for being in on it and flipping sides. This all, in his mind, makes them as guilty as the people who actually had the robbery done.
Now this is crazy….getting back to Stretch, as I promised, he was in on it for this reason…to further his reputation in NYC. Remember, he’s from Queens, and figured he could go farther with Henchman, Bad Boy, and all of those connections than with JUST Tupac. And it almost happened according to plan, because he did get plugged in with the NYC rap scene heavy after that night. With the reports I’ve read and the information I’ve gathered, I believe Stretch was actually so involved that he was keeping Henchman updated on their movements that night right up to when they got to the studio. And, of course, after Tupac was shot and in prison, Stretch was hanging around Biggie, Puffy, and Jimmy Henchman. Henchman actually sent a message to Tupac through Stretch while Tupac was laid up at the safehouse while he was still under the illusion that Stretch might actually still be his friend, regardless of how suspicious he was of him. The message – Henchman warned Tupac not to try and extract revenge on him or any of his associates until he had enough money to fight. In the Tupac song ‘Against All Odds’, at the end of the track, through a machine gun backdrop, you can hear Tupac reference this exact message when he talks and says “You said not to go to war until I got my money up, well my money is up and now I’m ready for war.” But still, why would your friend be relaying messages to you from your enemy? And why would he be hanging around with Bad Boy/Biggie/Puffy, people that Tupac thought at the very least knew, or at the most were actually in on his shooting? Regardless, Stretch could say whatever he wanted about not being in on the set-up, but it doesn’t matter when you’re in cahoots with the enemy like that. It doesn’t matter what the truth is at that point. Perception is reality.
But the most interesting thing involving Stretch Walker in all of this…he was actually murdered a year to the day that Tupac was shot. It’s known that he was murdered by Henchman, Haitian Jack, and the A-Team for stealing kilos of cocaine from them, but it would obviously be difficult for me to confirm that kind of information. I do believe it to be true based on the information that I’ve combed through, reading between the lines. Anyway, I haven’t even gotten to the most interesting thing about Stretch yet. On the night he was murdered, he was dropped off by another Queens rapper, none other than a guy who went by the stage-name, Nas. I always wondered how Nas and all those guys got wrangled into this. Once Tupac found out that Nas was down with Stretch, that’s when he went at Nas, and everybody associated with him, including Mobb Deep who were also from Queens. He figured if Stretch was in on it, Nas and Mobb Deep were guilty by association if they were going to affiliate with Stretch. Plus, he sent word from prison that he loved Mobb Deep, but it wasn’t reciprocated, and believes it was the affiliation with Queens, Stretch, and Nas. Same thing with Brooklyn’s own Jay-Z. He was guilty for being affiliated with Brooklyn’s Biggie Smalls. If Biggie knew about the set-up and didn’t say shit, Jay-Z was obviously cool with it, too. Anybody who was even remotely associated with the people he felt crossed him and betrayed his trust from New York was going to feel his wrath.
Everything from this point is late ’95 and after…
Now everybody knows what happens from this point. It played out right in front of our eyes. Tupac would go on to release, in my opinion, the greatest diss record ever recorded, the scathing ‘Hit Em’ Up’ calling everyone out by name. From there, he basically threatens everybody involved with New York, including Jimmy Henchman and Haitian Jack, in multiple interviews, and on multiple songs. Right up until Tupac was murdered, they were trying to get Puffy’s address, as well as his mother’s address. They had spotters looking for Jimmy Henchman all over the East Coast. It was 100% real.
Now, a lot of people have come forward with jailhouse confessions and admitted to having a role in the ambush of Tupac at Quad Studios, including Jimmy Henchman himself. There are conflicting reports that he admitted to setting the whole thing up, but again, when he did give this alleged confession, the statute of limitations was up, and he was facing years of prison time for his role in a drug conspiracy so it could’ve been a self-serving situation, so it’s understandable that people would doubt this account even if he actually did admit to it. I believe that if he did admit to it, he’s telling the truth, but I don’t put a lot of stock into whether it actually happened or not. There shouldn’t be any doubt however, Jimmy Henchman was in control from the beginning. The self proclaimed shooter, Dexter Isaac, currently serving life in prison and during another jailhouse confession, told the whole story, says that Henchman and Haitian Jack were behind the shooting, and says that everyone at the studio that night knew what was going to happen. I believe his version of events whole-heartedly, but I don’t base anything he says on any of my theory, if that makes sense. With my own research combined with Tupac’s words himself, I basically have solved the puzzle. The plan wasn’t to murder him or even shoot him, the plan was to shut him up and teach him a lesson. First, they needed to prove to him that he did need their protection. It’s like the mafia when they approach a store owner to let them know that they would need their protection from any would be thieves, thugs, or even other gangs. If the store owner declined the offer, the mafia just destroys the store themselves causing enough damage to cost a lot of money yet making sure the store doesn’t close, all to make sure the owner of the store rethinks the proposal. It was either pay to play, or eventually not own a store. Same rules apply with this gang, music, and entertainment shit. Tupac was just too militant for them to control like that in any type of way. They couldn’t even control him while he was standing trial awaiting prison, which ostensibly just made him worse, because now he wouldn’t shut-up and he was starting to name-drop. He was a major problem, and they had to get more drastic.
The biggest actual mystery and most intriguing thing in all of this centers around Bad Boy and who knew what. Here’s my theory and basis behind my rationale:
“Fear became stronger than love” – Tupac explaining how Biggie and Puffy knew but were too scared to tell him about the plan because they were scared of Henchman/Haitian Jack.
Tupac says it himself in a Vibe interview, “Go back and study what they say, STUDY IT!” So – I did, which actually started me researching all of this more in-depth to begin with, and he’s 100% right. Tupac is going on a relentless onslaught and trying to destroy Bad Boy in every way possible, giving specific reasons why; they were at Quad Studio the night he was shot, Puffy and Biggie were there, Andre Harrell was there, Jimmy Henchman was there, Haitian Jack set him up for the sexual assault, nobody would talk to him or tell him anything at any point after he was shot, Bad Boy releases Biggie’s ‘Who Shot Ya’ a month after he was shot….I mean all that alone is enough circumstantial evidence for somebody to be pissed off. It should’ve been at the very least, UNDERSTANDABLE why he would be a bit suspicious.
BUT here’s the most interesting thing to me possibly in this entire dramatic episode…In every interview that Puffy, Biggie, Andre Harrell, or any of those guys ever do, all they do is completely deny that they had anything to do with the robbery or that they knew anything about what was going to happen. At no point do they EVER say, “Yeah, I can see why he would be suspicious, because it does look bad, but we didn’t do anything” or “I can see why he’s upset and why he would think that, but it’s not true” or “Yeah, i guess we should’ve went to see him after it happened” THEY NEVER SAY ANYTHING LIKE THAT. They just continue to deny, deny, deny, acting like Tupac is crazy and picking on them for no reason.
The truth is, when Tupac signed to Death Row and got out of prison, they knew they fucked up, and now they had a serious, SERIOUS problem. They were copping pleas and basically begging for something they started, to stop. They thought it was just going to be a robbery, and once the smoke settled everything would be fine. Once he turned up shot, it was a whole different ballgame. The stakes were raised exponentially and they didn’t know what to do. They weren’t prepared for any kind of retribution, especially something this powerful and relentless. As Tupac said, “they in hell now” because they thought they could get away with it and now they’re absolutely SHOCKED that it’s coming back on them the way that it is. They thought they could knock off one man, and that would be it. Then they thought, when he was down and out, they would try and cash in on it, and it wouldn’t be much of an issue because he was gone and by himself. That’s definitely not how it would play out…..Tupac would come back stronger and more fierce than ever before.
This is why he’s so justified in all of this, why he was so pissed off. Even the best case scenario is 100% justifiable why Tupac was so mad:
Biggie – Tupac shows him the ropes, taught him the game, gave him money when he had none, trusted him. Worst case scenario, Biggie knows Tupac is going to be ambushed and does nothing. Best case scenario, Biggie doesn’t know anything until after the fact, and doesn’t go and see him, or take his side. Releases the song ‘Who Shot ya’ a month after he’s shot.
Puffy – Same as Biggie. Taught him shit, gave him money. Helped him. Worst case scenario is the same as Biggie. Best case scenario is the same as Biggie. Allowed the song ‘Who Shot Ya’ to be released.
Stretch – Tupac put him in the game. Gave him opportunities he would’ve never had without him. Worst case scenario is that he set him up to be ambushed and help give a coordinated account of where they were and when they were they would arrive. Best case scenario is that he didn’t know, but did nothing to help, and joined up with the other side after Tupac went to prison.
Haitian Jack – Tupac trusted him, offered to put him in movies. After the initial role of helping Tupac learn the role of an NYC gangster, Haitian Jack decided to try and profit from this new friendship in the form of extortion. Worst case scenario is that he set-up the sexual assault and then was behind the ambush at Quad Studios. Best case scenario is that he turned his back on him during the sexual assault trial, he didn’t set it up from the beginning, but snitched on him and lied about Tupac’s involvement to save himself, and then was behind the the ambush at Quad studios.
Jimmy Henchman – Tupac befriended him, agreed to help him climb up the ladder in the rap game and record music with his artists, trusted him. Worst case scenario is that he was behind both the sexual assault case plot and the ambush at Quad Studios and tried to have him murdered. Best case scenario is that he had him ambushed at Quad Studios.
Andre Harrell/Lil’ Shawn – I don’t know much about their association with Tupac other than through Puffy and Henchman. Best/Worst case scenarios are the same as Biggie’s/Puffy’s.
Dexter Isaac/ King Tut – Triggermen at Quad Studios, both from NYC. He would be mad at them for obvious reasons, but ironically they got the least of his wrath, probably because he may not have ever been sure what their identities really were, though Tut is called out in many songs.
Nas/Mobb Deep – Queens rappers who worked with Stretch following the Quad Studios ambush. It was well known that Tupac had considered Stretch to be a turn coat against him by this point, so obviously Nas/Mobb Deep were cool with what happened and didn’t care about Tupac in his mind.
Jay-Z – Brooklyn rapper who was cool with Biggie/Puffy/Bad Boy. Basically guilty by association. I dare you to listen to, “Ain’t no nigga like me, fuck Jay-Z” and not get hyped up.
I’m basically 100% sure that this is what happened:
Haitian Jack and Jimmy Henchman paid members of their A-Team crew, King Tut and Dexter Isaac, to rob and assault Tupac at Quad Studios to teach Tupac a lesson about the pecking order, to show him that he did indeed need to pay for their protection in NYC, and to keep quiet about the NYC goons he knew to the media. I believe Tupac’s trusted friend, Stretch, was in on the set-up, coercing Tupac to go to the studio and keeping the Quad Studios people updated as to exactly where they were en route. I believe that Lil’ Shawn, Andre Harrell, Puffy, and Biggie knew. All were at the studio. I am not 100% on Biggie, but I’m about 86%. If there was one person that probably didn’t need to know anything about it, it was Biggie. But regardless, what happened immediately afterwards puts Biggie in a bad light no matter how you look at it. Either way, I’m pretty sure he knew.
Tupac’s Against All Odds lyrics which is pretty much a war anthem from his Machiavelli album:
Stretch Walker/Nas – “And that nigga that was down for me, restin dead, switching sides guess his new friends wanted him dead. Probably be murdered for the shit that I said, I bring the real, be a legend, breathin’ or dead. Lord listen to me, god don’t like ugly, It Was Written, ayo Nas, your whole damn style was bitten.” – The first line is a direct reference to Stretch switching sides and being in on the set-up at Quad Studios, and then being murdered by the people he helped set him up. The Nas reference is because Tupac thought Stretch gave Nas Tupac’s style, which is why he says Nas’s whole style is bitten from him.
Haitian Jack – ” I heard he was light-skinned, stocky, with a Haitian accent
Jewelry, fast cars and he’s known for flashin’. Listen while I take you back and lace this rap. A real live tale about a snitch named Haitian Jack. Knew he was workin’ for the feds
Same crime, different trials, nigga, picture what he said” – Direct reference to how he thinks Haitian Jack set him up and/or snitched on him in the sexual assault case
Jimmy Henchman – “Promised to payback, Jimmy Henchman, in due time
I know you bitch niggas is listenin’, the world is mine. Set me up, wet me up, niggas stuck me up. Heard the guns bust, but you tricks never shut me up. Touch one of mine, on everything I love. I’ll destroy everything you touch. Play the game, nigga; all out warfare, eye for eye. Last words to a bitch nigga: “Why you lie?” Now you gotta watch your back, now watch your front” – This whole section of verses is basically talking about how Henchman set him up. “Heard the guns bust, but you never shut me up” is a direct reference to how they shot him to shut him up about Haitian Jack and the sexual assault case. He’s also describing how he’s ready to go to war with the gangsters that Henchman is with. The most interesting line to me is the “Why you lie” referring to the reason that Henchman gave Tupac to get him to go the studio to begin with, which turned out to be a lie.
Puffy – 2 PARTS – “Puffy, let’s be honest: you a punk or you will see me with gloves?
Remember that shit you said to Vibe about me bein’ a thug?
And you can tell the people you roll with whatever you want
But you and I know what’s goin’ on”……..”Puffy gettin’ robbed like a bitch, to hide that fact
He did some shit he shouldn’t have did, so we ridin’ for that” – The first part is referencing how Puffy told Vibe that Tupac was a thug, when Puffy knew that Tupac wasn’t a thug until he was robbed/shot and basically tried to disparage Tupac instead of taking accountability for anything himself, even if he didn’t do it, which makes him look even more guilty in Tupac’s eyes. The second part is referencing how Puffy is now being even more extorted by the gangsters that were already extorting him because they know he knew about the set-up and they could expose him.
So, that’s it. We all know what happened after that. Tupac and Biggie Are Dead. Jimmy Henchman, Dexter Isaac, and King Tut are in federal prison for life on murder and drug charges. Haitian Jack was deported to Haiti after being released from prison on drug charges. Suge Knight is in prison for murder. Stretch is dead. Puffy is a billionaire.
So yeah, Tupac was pissed off, and justifiably so I’d say.
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