Snoop Dogg’s reaction to visiting Tupac Shakur in hospital
It’s hard to quantify the impact of Tupac Shakur on not just the music industry, but broader society as well. His death in 1996, at the age of 25, sent shockwaves around the world. Even before the creation of our current digital age, news of the rapper, affectionately known as Pac, being killed spread virally to every corner of the globe.
Shakur’s influence on the public is hard to downplay, and his influence on his fellow rappers is what set him apart. One such hip-hop figure was Snoop Dogg. The two met at the wrap party for the film Poetic Justice, which Tupac starred in alongside Janet Jackson, in less than amicable circumstances.
At the party, Snoop was about to be introduced to take the microphone by his long time friend Ricky Harris. Before he could say his piece, he was robbed of the honour of being an MC to the stars by none other than the rapping star of the movie, Tupac. Snoop recalls the interaction on the All the Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Steven Jackson saying “That was my intro”. The two would trade bars before eventually getting each other’s numbers after formally meeting for the first time.
The next time the two would see each other would be at a barbecue at Tupac’s house. Snoop would be given a copy of the movie Juice which the Harlem native also starred in. Snoop goes on to say that this was the start of when he fell in love with Tupac.
Snoop once recalled: “He was my friend before Death Row. Right, so, building a brotherhood with him. So when he was locked up, naturally I spoke to Suge and was like, we need to get cuz out and put him with us, because he will make us better and he gon’ push me and he’s just the shit just because we need his spirit here.”
The two would go on to collaborate on ‘2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted’ which would be included in the soundtrack of All Eyes On Me, Tupac’s biopic. It’s safe to say that Tupac had affected Snoop beyond just his music. Despite some discontent between the two after they joined forces at Death Row.
Upon hearing the news that Tupac had been shot, Snoop flew into Las Vegas to see his old friend. He explained on the Impaulsive podcast with Logan Paul, “When we drive to Vegas to see Pac, we got to Suge house first, so we haven’t even seen Pac. We just talking to Suge, and he got the head wrapped up (Knight was also hit with a bullet as he was driving Tupac at the time of the shooting) and he telling us what happened and [saying] ‘Pac gonna be alright, he going to pull through he got shot nine times before he going to be alright.”
He continued: “We feeling like it’s gonna be alright until we go to the hospital and see that it ain’t alright. He got tubes in him. When I walked in, I could just feel like he wasn’t even there and I fainted.”
Tupac’s mother, Afeni, reacted quickly to remind Snoop of the importance that Snoop held to her son, so that he could support the family during this difficult time. Snoop added: “She was like, ‘My baby ain’t never seen you weak. I don’t want you to be weak in front of him. You go in the bathroom and fix yourself up and you go back in there and you talk to him and you tell him how you feel. My baby loves you.’”
He concluded: “She knew there was a little tension, but she knew how much we loved each other. So she gave us a moment for me to say some things to him as far as how much I love him. But I knew that that was gonna be my last time speaking with him.”