(ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/01)

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Sep 17 1996 (IPS) - The U.S. Civil War ended 131 years ago, but New York is at war with California today.

At least, rap musicians are at war. New York rappers, led by Brooklyn’s Notorious B.I.G., and California rappers, most notably Los Angeles-based Tupac Shakur, recently have been duelling each other in their songs — and now, on the streets.

Several employees at both men’s record labels have died in mysterious fights in recent years. Now, in a grisly tribute to the power of words, the rappers themselves are in the line of fire — apparently for the taunts they have made in their songs.

Although much of this war has been conducted in the media and on nasty, even slanderous, songs, real bullets flew last week, when Shakur died Sep 13, six days after being hit by gunfire from a passing car in Las Vegas. Marion ‘Suge’ Knight, owner of Shakur’s record company Death Row, was also injured in the attack.

Shakur took four bullets to his head and chest on Sep 7, and remained in critical condition for a week, losing one lung before dying last Friday.

Immediately after the shooting, Lieut. Marc Matson of the Las Vegas police announced, “With all the folks in his group, there should be some good eyewitnesses.” But a few days later, the police noted with frustration that, although Shakur was shot in front of a ten-car entourage, no witnesses had stepped forth, and most denied having seen anything.

The apparent murder is the second time in two years that Shakur, also known as ‘2Pac,’ was shot. He was briefly confined to a wheelchair in 1994 when he was shot repeatedly in what police described as a robbery attempt in New York City.

Shakur claimed at the time that the shooting was part of an increasingly violent rivalry between him and the Notorious B.I.G., both of whom shot to fame with lurid tales of drug-dealing, violent ghetto life and easy women. Shakur added to his celebrity by starring in movies like Erenst Dickerson’s ‘Juice’ and John Singleton’s ‘Poetic Justice.’

In any case, the Las Vegas shooting has convinced many observers of the rap world that the competition between the two young rappers and their respective record labels — California’s Death Row, managed by Knight, and New York’s Bad Boy, managed by Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs — has become deadly.

The competition started innocuously enough, with the traditional bantering between Californians and New Yorkers over whose style is better.

New York could boast of being the birthplace of hip-hop music, and of its history of providing the world’s most famous rap stars. But California has bragged of being the more financially successful rap centre in recent years, as listeners flocked to its more laid-back music and spooky, violent narratives.

The 2Pac-B.I.G. rivalry also started out in a seemingly low key, as Shakur complained to the press that B.I.G. had become famous by copying Shakur’s own deep-toned, gruff vocalising.

Soon, the Death Row and Bad Boy camps were scuffling wherever they met — at award shows, record industry conferences, and concerts.

During that same time, Shakur’s own bad-boy reputation landed him in trouble as he was convicted of raping a young New York woman. It was, in fact, during his rape trial that Shakur was shot, and he spent several months in an upstate New York prison serving part of his minimum one-and-a-half year sentence for sexual abuse.

The rape charge, however, only seemed to add to Shakur’s image as a tough ‘gangsta’ — and his record sales went up. Boosted by his newfound popularity, Shakur stepped up his invective against B.I.G., boasting of winning the attraction of his nemesis’s wife, singer Faith Evans. 2Pac’s latest album, ‘All Eyez on Me,’ put that taunt in its crudest form.

A week before the shooting, Shakur and other Death Row employees scuffled once again with Bad Boy members at an awards ceremony hosted by the music channel MTV. Following the slight tussle, Shakur told MTV, “We’re businessmen … but we’ll bring it on (fight) like only Death Row can.”

Following his taunts, there was little surprise that, after Shakur and Knight left a boxing match in Las Vegas to ride to a nightclub in a ten-car convoy, an unidentified car drove next to Knight’s and opened fire on Shakur, who was sitting on the passenger’s side.

Whether anyone has learned the lessons of the Death Row-Bad Boy war is open to question. The Rev. Al Sharpton, a New York politician, said he hoped Shakur’s death would teach children that nothing is to be gained from violence and rivalry.

Yet in New York, there are few entirely sympathetic ears for 2Pac. One of the most common comments after his death was announced was simply, “He got what he deserved for acting tough.”