What if Tupac was Notorious B.I.G.’s manager? Would the two legends still be alive? We could ask ourselves a thousand ‘what if’ questions about Tupac and Biggie, and we often find ourselves doing exactly that. Especially because, two decades after their deaths, we are still finding out new information about their relationship.
Ben Westhoff, author of the Original Gangstas: The Untold Story of Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur and the Birth of West Coast Rap, has spoken out in an interview on the Murder Master Music Show, that Biggie once asked Tupac if he would manage him.
“People forget that Tupac was already blowing up, already a pretty big star when Biggie was just kind of getting started,” Westhoff said. “Tupac kind of took Biggie under his wing and tried to teach him everything he knew, kind of took him to school. Biggie’s career wasn’t taking off as fast as he hoped it would. And so he actually asked Tupac if he would be his manager.”
Tupac turned Biggie down because he thought he was doing good under Puff Daddy’s management. It’s easy to forget how close Tupac and Biggie were, considering two of the greatest hip-hop songs of that decade are their foul-mouthed diss tracks to each other Hit ‘Em Up and Who Shot Ya? respectively. Westhoff even stated that it was because they were so close in the beginning that their beef become so intensely personal.
“After he got shot, Tupac believed that Biggie knew about it in advance, knew it was going to happen. That made him doubly mad because he mentored Biggie so much and helped him, and he really believed that he double-crossed him.”
You can hear the audio of Ben Westhoff’s insightful interview below.
For more information we will have to wait for the release of his book Original Gangstas on September 13, which is also the 20th anniversary of Tupac’s death. You can pre-order the book benwesthoff.com.
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