“We got to the (1995 Death Row Christmas Party) and it was not a good look. It was a straight up hood rat convention. All the top-shelf drinks were on the second level, so we get to steppin’, but we heard some odd noises as we got to the top of the stairs. And who revealed himself but Suge, clearing everyone out of the room…

In comes Tupac with Suge’s boys and a dude from Puffy’s camp. Tensions had risen even higher since The Source Awards. Tupac was accusing Biggie of having set him up and shot prior to his prison stint…It was a hectic time, so if you’re in Puffy’s camp, why be at a Death Row party?…They sat dude down in the chair and just started punchin’ him in the grill. Blam, Blam, blam.
‘Where’s Puffy’s mom live?' Suge asked.” – pg 77

[click to read Part 1]

HipHopDX: Who do you think was at fault for the east coast/west coast beef? The media, the artists or the fans?
Bruce Williams: With that east coast/west coast thing, a few things happened. Media did what they had to do. Hip Hop is the only entertainment connected to the streets, so therefore, street niggas take that shit serious. We had a bunch of rappers that couldn’t sell a record. When beef time came, every west coast rapper that couldn’t sell a record would just say, “Fuck the east coast,” so people can jump on the bandwagon and get their name out there. Same thing happened on the east. It made things escalate way higher than we thought of. The street niggas really wanted to be in it.

DX: Was there any conversation between B.I.G. and Suge before things happened that night at The Source Awards?
BW: It’s always like that. It was always about peace. This is the music game and you gotta sell records. Suge felt that Puffy copied The Chronic and didn’t give Death Row enough props. He was upset about that. With him being upset and nobody saying anything, he was going to find a spot in that show to take the spotlight. He said what he said. That’s just the way things work.

DX: Did Suge ever make a pitch to sign Biggie?
BW: Suge would have brought anybody that could sell to Death Row. He ain’t crazy. He’s all about making some money. He could have said, "Fuck B.I.G." all day, but if he could have gotten him on Death Row? "Come on baby let’s roll!" That’s the name of the game. We see it every day. These cats denounce each other all day long. Next thing you know they are all hugged up. That’s how it goes. Take all the personal stuff out of it.

“Sam Sneed had been on his way to a meeting he’d been hastily informed of by a sketchy-sounding Death Row underling. He stopped along the way because something just didn’t feel right to him. We were telling Sam that he was right to trust his gut instinct.

‘Sam,’ Dre told him, ‘you’s a dumb muthafucka if you go to that meeting.’

‘Dude, don’t go there,’ I cosigned. ‘You know what’s about to go down.’

…‘Seriously, don’t go to that meeting,’ I urged Sneed.

‘You know we left Death Row,’ Dre chimed in. ‘You know them niggas know you wanna be with us. I just don’t think it’s a good idea.’

Well, the kid wasn’t trying to hear this. He was trying to be a stand up guy. So he went out to Can-Am [Studios] to screen that (1994’s “U Better Recognize”) video.” –pg 101

DX: Was there really beef between Suge and 2Pac with Dr. Dre?
BW: Just imagine Dre and 'Pac without Suge. [2Pac and Dr. Dre's] beef was manufactured. There was nothing really to that. We’d see Suge out in Malibu and we’d just talk and go on about our business. If Suge would have done anything to us, [the people] would have been on his ass. It wouldn’t have been nice.

“The stylized black-and-white footage rolled, and there was Dre rapping in close-up, just as expected. Negativity sucked the conference room empty, just as expected…

…But the music sounded like a Death Row track, by which I mean it was a Dr. Dre track. And Dre was doing the hook. That was bad enough. Then the East Coast niggas started showing up in cameos. First some East Coast basketball cats, big and impressive names if you’re from Brooklyn. This was the San Fernando Valley, though. And there was a war going on.

Tupac said, ‘If I see one more East Coast nigga in this motherfucker…’

…Then Kool G. Rap entered the video frame.

‘What the fuck!’ shouted Tupac.

And everybody began to beat the shit out of Sam Sneed.

…Suge made Sneed put in an appearance at a party for Snoop that night. He even gave a toast. Then he flew home to Pittsburgh. Sam was never the same. Death Row never released the album. Not too long ago the nigga had brain surgery, just to get his ass back to some semblance of normality.” – pgs 102 – 103 Continued on page 2 »