ch.7 rivalry

8/8/2019 Ch.7 Rivalry

1/17

Coastal RivalryChapter 7


2/17

Endof the Gol

den

Age As the popularity of Hip Hop grew, the more it began to spread

across the nation.

Eventually, two dominant regions of the genre emerged:The

East Coast (New York) and The West (California).

By the end of the 80s, the East was dominant with acts such as

Ice-T, MC Hammer, N.W.A. and The D.O.C.

Also around this time, Hip Hop had begun to leave the roots of

Reggae, Jazz and Poetry for something new, edgy, and Non-

commercial (fornow)


3/17

Gangsta Rap

By the late 80s, new rappers emerged on the scenes of Compton, The

Bronx, and South LA with life stories of poverty and gang life.

The new violent lyrics were appealing

due to their edgy sound. The race wason for Record companies to capitalize

on the new rap style.

However, with the lyrics of gangs comesthe violence of gangs. Soon, the

Companies of the coasts began a

rivalry that would be the bloodiest in Hip Hop History


4/17

East Coast

In 1991, Tim Dog released a diss trackaimed at

Compton artists (Primarily N.W.A.).

The track displayedEastern annoyances at the

Wests new attention and popularity.

The rise of popular Hip Hop in the

West was seen as an attack on the

genre due to its birth in New York.


5/17


6/17


7/17

November 30, 1994 OnNovember 30, 1994, West Coast rapperTupac

Shakurwas shot 5 times in the lobby of a New York

recording stu

dio

Tupac publicly accused Biggie and Puff (ultimately

the East) for the attempt on his life.

After this, Tupac and Biggie began a diss war

(B.I.G.s Who shot ya? / Tupacs Hit em up)

that soon became the center of the Coastal Rivalry.

By 1995, the Coastal Rivalry had become violent


8/17

Rivalry goes to the Med

ia At the 1995 Source Awards, Knight stated,

Any artist out there that want to be an artist andstay a star, and dont have to worry about the executive producer trying

to be all in the videos, on the records and dancing, come to Death Row!

This was a direct attack on P, who tended tobless others workwithhis presence


9/17

Throughout the remainder of the award show:

P publicly denied the coastal rivalry (total

BS) Snoop & Dr. Dre were booed by the

Yankee crowd.

Snoop responded, The East Coast aint

got no love for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg andDeath Row?!

A friend of Knights was fatally shotoutside. Knight accused P, and later

brought the Easts biggest rival to DeathRow Records by paying his $1.4 millionbail. Tupac was now the Wests mostpowerful weapon against P.


10/17

Capitalizing o

nthe feu

d

Throughout 1996, Death Row and Bad Boy Recordsincreased tensions by releasing music videosfeaturing prominent acts wreaking havoc on the rival

coasts skyline. With the rivalry beginning to heat up, news media

coverage began to spike a public interest in coastalrecord labels.Fans of certain acts began to associatethemselves with eitherEast or West, and wouldpurchase the releases of their coast.

The media dubbed this a Coastal Rap War, andbegan to report on the events nightly.


11/17

Taking advantage of the sales increase, Death Row Recordsbegan rapidly releasing diss tracks by 2Pac aimed at variousEastern rappers:

B.I.G.

Mobb Deep

Chino XL

Da Brat

The Fugees

Nas

LL Cool J

Jay-Z

By doing this, 2Pac hadnow replaced Death Row as the imageof the West and had become a powerhouse in commercial HipHop. By forging a career on commercial hate, 2Pac had put hislife on the line


12/17

Endof the feu

d

On March 1996, during the Soul Train Awards,

entourages of Bad Boy and Death Row records

began

an

armed

stand

off in

the parking lot

.The so

-

calledCuban Missile Crisis of Hip Hop revealed

that the rivalry had gone too far anda change in

media attention and record productionneeded to

occur. But not before it was too late


13/17

September 7, 1996 2Pac, Knight, Trey Lane and several Bloodbody guards were

in a casino in vegas when Lane recognized a Crip who had

stolen his Death Row medallion months before; A brawl broke

out at 8:45pm whenShakur threw the first punch.

As the cops arrived, the Death Row crew had left in a caravan ofluxury vehicles for a Blood hangout called Club 662.

The caravan stopped at a light around 11:17pm on a street

crowded with tourists. Shakur began flirting with a car full of girls

to the left of the BMW when a white Cadillac emerged on its

right. Shots were fired at the BMW andShakur was hit 4 times inthe chest. The Cadillac dissapeared into the night.

2Pac was rushed to a hospital were after being revived several

times, his mother requested he be put to rest.Sixdays later, the

West coast symbol haddied


14/17

March 1997 Immediately after the death of 2Pac, rumors circulated that theEast had something to do with it; Primarily B.I.G. and P Diddy.

In an attempt to cool coastal tension, Biggie attended the 11thAnnual Soul Train Awards in 97 (in LA) and asked the crowd,

Whats up Cali? (They con

tin

ued

to boo through the remaind

erof the show.Especially during Biggies stage time.)

Around 12:35am, fire marshals closeddown the afterparty dueto overcrowding. The East coast Bad Boys piled into two rentedBlack and Green GMC Suburbans.

While at a red light, a man approached Biggies vehicle and

Biggie rolleddown the window (believing it to be a fan). Then, aBlack Chevrolet Suburban pulled up next to him and shot himseveral times in the chest.

P rushed his friend to a hospital, but Biggie was dead uponarrival


15/17

Resolve of feud

In 1997, a group of rappers including Snoop Dogg,Bizzy Bone, and Doug E. Fresh met

Louis Farrakhan

(Leader of the Nation of Islam)

and pledged to forgive any slights

related to the rivalry and/ordeaths

of 2Pac and Biggie.

Eventually, Death Rows artists left the label to

pursue careers on their own anda lawsuit was filedby Shakurs mother against the company forcheating her son out of millions.

These factors, followed by Knights arrest in 97,destroyed the West coast Hip Hop scene.


16/17

Aftermath With the fall of West Coast organized Hip Hop, the East hadbecome dominant again. However, due to the murders of 2Pac

and Biggie, the public began to blacklist Hip Hop and view it as

an unnecessary and violent music genre.

Because of this, the sales of Hip Hop record

s rapid

lyd

eclin

ed

on both coasts, making neither side the winner. In the end, Hip

Hops culture and spirit ended up being the loser of this war.

Through the remainder of the 90s several Eastern rappers

attempted to increase the sales of Hip Hop. However, none

were successful (not even the almighty P Diddy).

It became apparent that the only way to save Hip Hop in the

new millennium would be to keep rivalries from escalating to

the extremes of the Coast War and to revitalize and

innovate the genre.A new sound and style was needed, the

next generation of Hip Hop needed a voice


17/17

Here comes the New Age Rap

(Chapter 8)

ch.7 rivalry

Documents