"Big Poppa" is released

Why it matters

The B-side of the "Big Poppa" 12-inch is the song that started the trouble. The B-side is "Who Shot Ya?" Tupac, in prison after the Quad Studios shooting, heard the B-side and interpreted it as a direct shot at him. He spent the rest of his career, which lasted another nineteen months, treating it as one. That is the unhappy footnote to a single that, on its own merits, is one of the warmest commercial rap records of 1994. "Big Poppa" itself has nothing to do with the beef. It is Biggie at his most accessible, riding the Isley Brothers loop and ad-libbing about clubs and Cristal. The single went gold. The video became one of MTV's most-played rap clips of the next year. The double-sided release ("Big Poppa" / "Who Shot Ya?") is one of the most consequential 12-inches in the East/West story, even though only one side of it is about the East/West story. You can play the A-side at a function. The B-side requires a different room.