Both Suge Knight and his son Suge J. Knight have riled up the waters of Tupac believers for years now, with little to show for it in terms of new music or anything tangible. With the senior Suge still serving his 28-year sentence, it could be a while until we do – but according to them both, new music is coming, and they have specific people in mind they want to collab with Makaveli from the grave.
There’s been some rehashing of hip-hop history during the pandemic from a lot of the parties involved, thanks to the pandemic and the proliferation of podcasts. Since tons of musicians and celebrities are unable to tour, they’ve been talking to each other on Instagram and recording it for us, giving us some additional insight into the stories that shaped our music – specifically hip-hop.
It was widely reported during the infamous “East Coast vs. West Coast” beef that singer Faith Evans had somehow been disrespectful to husband Biggie during his beef with rapper Tupac. There were other parties involved like Suge Knight and Diddy aka Puff Daddy that helped to further inflame and exacerbate the “beef.”
During that time, Faith Evans took a picture with Tupac that became a flashpoint for the beef, with Knight insinuating that Evans slept with Tupac – and Tupac alluding to the same thing in a diss track that was heard around the world. Though Biggie never seemed to believe it, their relationship never recovered – and neither did Evans’ marriage. However, she still seems to deny these rumors some decades later.
During an appearance The Fat Joe show, Evans talked about how the picture that became suspect was actually just a chance meeting – that was also facilitated by Treach from Naughty by Nature.
“I was out here to make money as a writer, and that had nothing to do with Tupac whatsoever. That was really just a chance meeting at a club. Actually, Treach — who I knew already — was with him that night, and that’s who actually came and made the introduction.”
Faith claims that after she met Tupac, she even called Biggie to let him know she met his “boy,” as at the time – the two were still friends.
Suge’s stories about Tupac don’t necessarily end as well as Faith’s did and he’s ready to let leash more of Tupac’s unreleased music out that he still controls, and he claims that the type of artists that ‘Pac would work with are only the best – like Cardi B, for example.
The elder Knight previously spoke with the Daily Mail from prison and gave an interview in which he shared some of the musical targets in his sights to work with on new ‘Pac music to be released, and why.
“[It’s] not that they was bad songs but those are songs that Pac didn’t want to be out on an album or want to be out,” said Suge about the music “scraps” that he kept control of after selling his label, Death Row.
“When it’s time to do a real Tupac album, you get the right people that work with him, that he would work with, you know, like Drake or… Beyonce likes Tupac music. He would definitely appreciate to see her with him,” Suge Knight told the Daily Mail by phone.
“And Cardi B is probably the most aggressive entertainer in the biz today. And I think she’s the female version of Tupac. Tupac with a skirt. Yeah.”