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Snoop Dogg was a good friend of 2Pac and was around him during the late emcee’s prime as part of Death Row Records. The pair were inseparable and although their friendship became tenuous before 2Pac’s untimely death, they will forever be associated with each other. That said, Snoop also had respect for Biggie Smalls and Bad Boy.

That said, following their deaths, Snoop felt their absence in the industry and has continued to pay respect to the two MCs and their respective legacies. The Doggystyle creator was an admirer of both and was sure they were both destined for greatness.

During a 2022 appearance on Stephen A Smith’s podcast Know Mercy, the ‘Gin & Juice’ emcee spoke about where he believed the two late rappers would be if they were alive today and compared them to two legends alive today.

2Pac was already a prominent West Coast figure before signing with death row. During the late 1980s, he accompanied Shock G as Digital Underground’s hypeman. Following this, he built a buzz as an underground lyricist in Oakland. He created a huge buzz, ultimately leading to his signing to Interscope.

After the release of his debut album, 2Pacalypse Now, and his sophomore project, Strictly 4 My My N.I.G.G.A.Z, he became a certified artist and began building a legacy. On the other hand, Biggie Smalls’ rise to fame was slightly more fortuitous, with his demo Microphone Murderer making waves on the New York underground.

Although the pair were based on different coasts, Biggie Smalls and ‘Pac were initially friends. As the two newest MCs on the scene, they embraced each other and were held up as the slickest new lyricists. That said, it was unfortunate that, after a 1995 shooting in Manhattan, their friendship came to an almighty halt and turned into an ugly rivalry.

Despite their differences, the rappers individually continued to dominate the charts and began appearing in movies and films, with 2Pac appearing in films such as Above The Rim and Biggie Smalls appearing on comedy shows like Martin.

Considering all of their achievements, while speaking to Stephen A Smith, Snoop Dogg insisted that hip-hop would look at 2Pac and Biggie Smalls in the same way it now looks at Jay-Z and Nas.

The Ego trippin’ creator asserted that they would have become moguls in music and beyond and suggested that they would have been untouchable, telling the host, “Look at the peers. Biggie and Tupac are peers with Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Nas, and I think that’s about it, ‘cause everybody else was before us or after us.”

Snoop implied that their death put a sad stop to their inevitable rise to dominance, expressing, “Nas and Jay-Z, they still here. Snoop Dogg is still here, but Tupac and Biggie not here. So, what is Nas doing? He’s dropping bomb-a** albums, done great business deals, a great venture capitalist, he went to the tech side of the game in the Bay Area and made great moves.”

Jay-Z has a huge business portfolio with ventures including Armand di Brignac champagne, his own line of cannabis products and even a failed stake in the NBA. Snoop Dogg has entered ventures in entertainment and beyond. In the 2000s he launched his own youth football league, and has appeared in movies and TV shows, and now has his own brand of cereal.

Although Snoop believes that 2Pac and Biggie Smalls would have risen to the status of Nas and Jay-Z, the feud that spawned ‘Ether’ wasn’t deadly or remotely violent; on the other hand the battle between Death Row and Bad Boy included real gangsters and a sense of barbarism.