2Pac and Biggie were nearly labelmates at Bad Boy Records — that’s according to ‘Pac’s brother Mopreme Shakur.
On Tuesday (October 17), Mopreme sat down with The Art of Dialogue and revealed that prior to inking a deal with Death Row Records upon his release from jail in 1995, 2Pac was reportedly considering joining Diddy’s hugely successful East Coast imprint.
“We were cool with them at one point,” Mopreme said. “There was a point ‘Pac was considering going to Bad Boy before his relationship with Death Row. He wanted to be on a Black label. He wanted to be with his people. He wanted to be with the brothers. He supported Black business.
“There was a period where we were all cool. Over time, things happened and ‘Pac started seeing things. Biggie was on Puffy’s label so with them two, it was Puffy calling the shots. There was some legitimate problems there.”
Mopreme also dished on 2Pac’s splintered friendship with former Thug Life member Big Stretch, who was with the late rapper the night he was shot multiple times in November 1994 at the Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan. Stretch was shot and killed a year later.
“Pac and Stretch were best friends,” he said. “Stretch was with him when he got shot at Quad. After that, Stretch went on tour with Biggie. So anybody familiar with our clique understood that that’s weird. If you were rolling with ‘Pac, you were rolling with ‘Pac. He’s kinda jealous like that.
“You down with me you down with the best. Considering ‘Pac was having issues with Biggie, it did not look right. Stretch was a big dude… But ‘Pac claimed that as soon as them n-ggas pulled out he dropped down. It was disturbing to hear that and think about [it] because the whole family loved Stretch.”
2Pac signed to Death Row Records when Suge Knight infamously visited him at Clinton Correctional Facility in New York and put up the money to bail him out of prison in late 1995.
While there are stories about ‘Pac supposedly signing his Death Row contract on a napkin or toilet paper, the late rapper’s childhood friend, David S Ash, who was there during the meeting, disputed this claim in a recent interview with The Independent.
“It was definitely on a legal pad,” he said, recalling the moment Knight and his lawyer interrupted one of the rare visits he was able to have with his friend. “They drafted everything up right there in front of me. 2Pac told Suge the things he needed: a car, a million dollars upfront, and a house for his mother. Then he looked the contract over and told Suge, ‘OK cool, let’s do this.’ And that’s the moment the Death Row deal was done.”
