Notorious B.I.G. releases 'Who Shot Ya?'

Why it matters

"Who Shot Ya?" came out as the B-side of the "Big Poppa" 12-inch on February 21, 1995. The producers were Nashiem Myrick and Sean "Puffy" Combs. The song is two minutes and forty-three seconds of Biggie rapping over a stripped-down beat with a horn loop. There is no chorus to speak of. The song is just Biggie, talking trash. The question of whether "Who Shot Ya?" is about Tupac is one of the most-litigated questions in rap history. Biggie always denied it. The song was, by his account, written before the Quad Studios shooting on November 30, 1994, and recorded for the soundtrack to Set It Off before Bad Boy decided to put it on the "Big Poppa" B-side. Tupac, in prison after the shooting, was not interested in the timeline. He heard "Who Shot Ya?" as a direct shot. He wrote "Hit 'Em Up" partly in response. The beef escalated until both of them were dead. "Who Shot Ya?" is somewhere near the center of the escalation, regardless of what it was actually intended to be. You can hear the song now and try to listen to it for itself. It is hard.