East Coast vs West Coast: The Battle for Hip Hop Supremacy

Hip hop during much of the 1980s was mostly created by artists on the East Coast. Rap’s most important early Old School artists like Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow, and Run DMC were based in New York. East Coast MCs often prided themselves for their aggressive beats and distinct lyrics, from growing up in the ghetto to political views on the world. East Coast artists dominated the 80s, but little did they know that a new style of hip hop was slowly gathering momentum on the other side of th

Despite the public outcry and raps attempts at cleaning up its image, the threats of violence are as real today as they were for B.I.G. and Tupac in the late 90’s. In October of 2002 Run DMCs Jam Master Jay was shot and killed in his recording studio. In April of 2003 Snoop Dogg narrowly escaped when the convoy he was traveling in came under fire. Both of these cases are believed by many to stem from the ongoing East/West feud.

The East Coast-West Coast feud had largely been a war of public insults and nightclub brawls until on September 7, 1996 when Tupac Shakur attended a boxing match in Las Vegas and outside following the event was shot 4 times in a drive-by shooting. Shakur died 6 days later. Then just over 6 months following Shakur’s death on March 9, 1997, the Notorious B.I.G. was shot also and killed in California in a drive-by shooting while promoting the up coming release of his second album. Both murders remain unsolved, but many attribute them to the ongoing East-West coast rap conflict, saying that Shakur’s shooting was arranged by rival rapper the Notorious B.I.G. in response to Tupac's track “Hit ‘em Up’ and B.I.G.’s shooting was a response to Shakur’s death.

In 1993, Sean Combs started Bad Boy Entertainment in New York and for the first time, East Coast sales surpassed West Coast rap sales. Suddenly, as if out of nowhere came the peak of the West/East feud. Smaller gangs in cities took the example of the "big playaz" and followed what they said. Before, local gangs killed for gang affiliation. Now, gangs were killing for West and East. In some cities it was so bad that you could be killed for living on the wrong side of the neighborhood. The war went on for a while and started getting worse. The big feud was West Coast Death Row Records against East Coast Bad Boy Entertainment. There were some personal feuds as well. West rapper Tupac Shakur had a personal problem with East rapper The Notorious B.I.G. They often rapped about each other and were very personal. In one song Tupac claimed to have slept with Biggie's wife and the Notorious B.I.G. retaliated in his music by saying "Stupid niggaz mess wit Big Poppa, motherfuckers get roasted if you fuck wit B.I.G.” These words became extremely important later.

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Some topics in this essay:
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