In September of 1996 Tupac Shakur, one of rap music's most prolific artist of all times, was gunned down after a Mike Tyson fight in Las Vegas. In March of 1997, six months after the Tupac incident, another Hip Hop giant, the Notorious B.I.G. was also shot in killed in Los Angeles. The two latest tragic incident include the Big L shooting in Harlem and the Freaky Ty shooting in Queens. .
Some may use the lifestyles of these four individuals as an excuse for their deaths, being that many of today rap artist have come from the streets. Many were drug dealers and "gunslingers." However, what people fail to realize is that these artist had left their "thuggish" days behind them and pursued a career in Hip Hop.
Ironically, both Big L and Freaky Ty were both killed at places that they were trying to escape when entering the rap game, the streets. Big L was shot in his own neighborhood in Harlem, and Freaky Ty was shoot in his home borough of Queens after a local party. .
Tupac and Biggie was able to escape the streets, therefore, many may say that it was the industry that killed them. It all started when Tupac was shot and robbed in the lobby of a music studio in New York City. He was at the studio to meet with Biggie to work on a song together. After the robbery, Tupac blamed Biggie for conspiring to rob him. This brought on a heated dispute between the two artist's record companies. Death Row Records, which is headed by Suge Knight, is the Los Angeles based record company that Tupac belonged to. Bad Boy Entertainment is the record label that Biggie is affiliated with and is headed by Puff Daddy in New York. This rivalry quickly became a rivalry between the entire West coast and parts of the East coast, mainly New York City. Consequently, you have an artist recording songs aimed at another artist, then that artist would make a record to answer the first record, and the cycle continues.