"Hit 'Em Up" is released

Why it matters

The line that has always been the most striking on "Hit 'Em Up," depending on what you find striking, is either "that's why I fucked your bitch, you fat motherfucker" (the opening) or the part where Tupac threatens specific members of Mobb Deep by name and references Prodigy's sickle-cell condition. Neither is the kind of bar most rappers would commit to a major-label release. Both are on the record. Tupac's writing on "Hit 'Em Up" is doing two things at once. It is targeting specific people with specific accusations in a way that the rap-diss tradition had usually softened into wordplay. It is also performing a kind of psychological warfare against an entire opposing camp, by demonstrating he was willing to say anything on a record that they were not yet willing to match. The combination is what makes the song frightening rather than just rude. Biggie never recorded a direct response. The closest he got was a verse on "Long Kiss Goodnight" the next year. You can argue that not responding was the right strategic move. You can also hear, listening to "Hit 'Em Up" now, that anything Biggie said back would have looked smaller. Tupac had taken the air.