The disgraced musician who called 2Pac “a real sucker”
In 1994, West Coast legend Tupac Shakur got shot in the lobby of Quad Studios in Manhattan. Not only was it a painful moment for the emcee himself, but it would also mark the start of something much uglier: his feud with Biggie Smalls. Still, some people didn’t take it as seriously as he did.
One person who certainly did not see it as a big deal was Diddy. Following the shooting, 2Pac had assured himself that the Bad Boy record label and everyone associated with it were responsible for the attempted murder, and he was firm in his position.
However, during that period, Bad Boy adamantly and repeatedly denied having any involvement with the shooting and to this day, people still question whether or not Diddy was involved. That said, at the time, Diddy wasn’t afraid to speak about the incident, and even during the height of the East Coast-West Coast beef, the Bad Boy founder didn’t hold his tongue about the ‘Dear Mama’ rhymer.
Following the Quad Studios hit, 2Pac was vocal about Diddy and told various outlets that Bad Boy was behind it. However, in a 1996 interview with Vibe magazine, the now-incarcerated musician implied that 2Pac knew who shot him but was using the incident as an opportunity to disparage his protégé Biggie Smalls.
Opening up to vibe about the robbery and shooting, Diddy declared, “He knows who shot him! If you ask him, he knows, and everybody in the street knows, and he’s not stepping to them, because he knows that he’s not gonna get away with that s***. To me, that’s some real sucker s***.”
Furthermore, Diddy insisted that as well as being a “sucker”, 2Pac was using him and Biggie Smalls as scapegoats, asserting, “Be mad at everybody, man; don’t be using niggas as scapegoats.” Still, he then praised the All Eyez On Me musician, adding, “We know that he’s a nice guy from New York. All shit aside, Tupac is a nice, good-hearted guy.”
By this time, 2Pac was already on the rampage and had released his infamous diss track, ‘Hit Em Up’. Furthermore, only a year prior to Diddy’s interview, ‘Pac had sat down with Vibe, where he detailed the shooting.
But in 2Pac’s recollection, he was ambushed and shot in the building’s lobby, then taken in the elevator up to the studio, where he saw about 40 people, including Biggie and Puffy. That said, although fans will never know who was behind the shooting, Diddy definitely had some choice words for the late legend.