Who Shot Ya?

Track selection In July 1993, Uptown Records' founder Andre Harrell fired his unbridled A&R man and record producer Sean "Puffy" Combs, age 23, whose new label, Bad Boy Entertainment, then found parenting by Clive Davis's Arista Records. By late 1994, Bad Boy prevailed via rapper Craig Mack's hit single "Flava in Ya Ear," yet especially by Bad Boy's first album, Ready to Die, released on September 13, 1994, the debut album of gangsta rapper Notorious B.I.G. The album is mostly grim and hardcore, but Puffy removed "Who Shot Ya" from it. Biggie wanted the first single to be "Machine Gun Funk."—to increase radio appeal and sales, yet placed harder songs as their B sides. Each of the two songs received its own music video. Mixtape version An underground "Who Shot Ya" differing—but same instrumental—was released in 1995 before the single. Amid lore of this mixtape version, some speculated that it was a myth. In 2014, when the mixtape "Who Shot Ya" was traced to DJ S&S, a renowned issuer of New York mixtapes in the 1990s, its original audio was publicized.—but the verses are longer than the standard 16 bars. In 2004, Brooklyn rapper Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter recollected, about the mixtape, "I've heard songs I like, but the last time I remember being truly, truly inspired was when I heard 'Who Shot Ya.' " One night, Kareem "Biggs" Burke, cofounder of Jay-Z's label, Roc-A-Fella Records, drew him to Harlem's 125 Street, Single version Closing the week of February 25, 1995, the "Big Poppa/Warning" single—released December 5, 1994—had spent six weeks, including five weeks at No. 1, on Billboard's Hot Rap Singles chart. The single entered the main popular songs chart, the Billboard Hot 100, the week ending January 14 and, enduring 24 weeks, peaked at No. 6 on March 18. Yet on February 21, The instrumental is basically a repeating portion of soul singer David Porter's 1971 song "I'm Afraid the Masquerade is Over," variously sampled in numerous rap songs. "Who Shot Ya" is among the most influential and historic. Published lyrics may omit Puffy's vocals, repeatedly yelling, in part, "As we proceed— / to give you what you need— / 9-5, motherfuckers— / Get live, motherfuckers— / As we proceed— / to give you what you need— / East Coast, motherfuckers— / Bad Boy, motherfuckers—." Otherwise, one writer estimates, "The story Biggie tells in 'Who Shot Ya?' is simple and brutal. Someone's out to get him, but Biggie gets the drop on his foe." Meanwhile, the instrumental, "deceptively candied," "lends the missive a psychedelic quality." release of Mary J Blige's second album, My Life, first in track one, titled "Intro," and then in track six, "K. Murray Interlude." ==Production backstory==

In 2014, a publicity piece for New York rap DJ and Hot 97 radio host Funkmaster Flex's new book announced, "The song 'Who Shot Ya' was originally an intro for Mary J Blige's album. Uptown/MCA said it was too hard. The song in its original form had a verse from Big, Keith Murray, and LL Cool J, though LL never did his verse. The song still exists!' " Its record producers were Carl "Chucky" Thompson, Prince Charles Alexander, and Sean "Puffy" Combs, Prince Alexander was a Bad Boy regular, whereas Chucky Thompson and Nashiem Myrick were among "the Hitmen," the inner circle of staff record producers at Bad Boy Entertainment. Puffy began Bad Boy in 1992 while A&R director at, and initially in partnership with, Andre Harrell's Uptown Records. Myrick had joined Bad Boy at its outset in 1993 as "studio intern," but in 1994 was its "production coordinator." Myrick, as the main producer of "Who Shot Ya," recalls Puffy tasking him to make an instrumental for rapper Keith Murray as an interlude on Blige's album.—agreed is that Puffy declared the result "too hard" for the R&B album. In this case, Nashiem Myrick recalls an open task and the initial instrumental confusing Puffy, because the mixing console showed only one audio source, no isolated drum track. to simply embellish the drums. Porter's cover version and extension of this 1939 classic Chucky Thompson Chucky Thompson, interviewed in 2014, recalled a customary occasion of record shopping with Nasheim Myrick, Puffy meanwhile, having eventually entered the studio with Biggie, "got the idea to use it as an interlude for Mary's My Life album," recalls Thompson. was a guest—along with Biggie, Busta Rhymes, and Rampage—on a remix of Bad Boy's first single, Craig Mack's "Flava in Ya Ear.") Junior M.A.F.I.A. Biggie, when variously interviewed and asked about "Who Shot Ya," explained the lyrics as portraying a young drug dealer's turf war against an older drug dealer, whom Biggie brought into the music industry, In 2017, Cease indicated that "Who Shot Ya" recording, too, was "way before" late November 1994, but that "Keith Murray, LL Cool J, and Big" were the original artists on "Who Shot Ya," planned as "the intro to Mary J, My Life, album." Cease added that once this original was rejected as "too hard" for her album, Biggie took it and, adding a verse to replace Keith Murray's verse, made it his own. == Industry rumor mill ==

The November 1994 attack on Tupac was a turning point in American popular music. Although Biggie never conceded the accusation, "Tupac Shakur and a legion of his fans interpreted the Biggie B-side 'Who Shot Ya?' as a troll job," a barely veiled taunt. was personal and overt, "arguably the most passionate and unhinged diss record in history." The new trend in rap culture promptly figured into pop culture. Yet in July, Puffy's firing from Uptown Records paused Biggie's album recording, an 18 months total while Biggie struggled financially. Puffy placed Biggie as guest on two more singles, Mary J. Blige's "What's the 411?" remix and Super Cat's "Dolly My Baby." Tupac, star of the films Juice and Poetic Justice had his second album Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z... (1993) yield his first Top 10 hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, "I Get Around" and "Keep Ya Head Up". he frequently socialized with underworld boss Jacques "Haitian Jack" Agnant. Brooklyn boxer Mike Tyson advised Tupac, "I think you're out of your league." Tupac's first Rolex purchase was to enter Agnant's circle. who warned him to avoid Agnant. In June 1996, Biggie reflected, "There's shit that motherfuckers don't know. I saw the situation and how shit was going, and I tried to school the nigga." "He knows when all that shit was going down, I was schooling a nigga to certain things, me and Stretch—God bless the grave." "But he," Biggie said of Tupac, "chose to do the things he wanted to do. There wasn't nothing I could do. But it wasn't like he wasn't my man." had sustained "smaller kerfuffles," or, per street rumors, "had a war brewing." 1994 shooting Tupac recalled Jacques "Haitian Jack" Agnant introducing him to James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond, Both fearsome in New York City's criminal underworld, Agnant and Rosemond were managers and promoters reputed to extort and rob disfavored music artists. On November 29, 1994, Rosemond hired Tupac to record at Quad Recording Studios with his client Little Shawn, rapper, Uptown Records, and record producer Bryce Wilson. Tupac, amid "major beef" with Agnant, Rosemond recalled "plenty of people." Biggie, although sometimes reportedly with Puffy, Harrell, and Rosemond when Tupac arrived upstairs, was instead on a higher floor recording with his own rap group, Junior M.A.F.I.A. Stretch's manager, Freddie "Nickels" Moore, was nonfatally shot in the abdomen, Tupac would ultimately question lobby events as to Stretch, In response, Tupac would eventually record "Hit 'Em Up," assailing Biggie and Puffy, whereas "Against All Odds," released posthumously, assails Agnant and Rosemond for setting him up. By then or eventually, each complained about Tupac's airing names and gripes in the media and allegedly fostering cinematic drama in his own life. Key accusations For a November 1993 incident in his Midtown Manhattan hotel suite, Tupac Shakur's November 1994 trial led to December 1 conviction of sexual abuse, first degree, for groping. On February 7, 1995, denied probation, he received prison—four years and six months—parole eligibility in 18 months. jailhouse interview of Tupac—disavowing his own "Thug Life" ethos, vowing only directly positive acts, and leery at conduct by Stretch during and by others upstairs after the November 1994 shooting or "implicates" them and Andre Harrell. Tupac was, Biggie estimated, "the realest nigga in the game," but, recently assailed severely, "was just confused," maybe seeking cover or shelter by the interview, "just shitting on everybody." who caused the rape and gun case. Street gossip then foresaw attack on Tupac. but reassert innocence. Agnant eventually recounted issuing order to not attack Tupac, but a then close ally, angered by the newspaper story, "especially in New York City," setting up this attack, anyway. but government misinformation is possible. Tupac heard street word that Biggie simply withheld warning of it. Rosemond, disputing the storied five gunshot wounds, asserted Stretch's recount of only one gunshot, when a robber's grabbing Tupac's hand, trying to draw the gun, discharged it. Lil' Cease recalls this a consensus—whereby Bryce Wilson cites gunpowder on Tupac's boxers—a variant question of who shot him. Biggie called him, in Vibe's August 1995 issue, "just confused more than anything. You get shot and then you go to jail for something you ain't even do. That could twist a nigga's mind up." But as Vibe's excerpt omitted, Biggie also expressed appall at, he said, "what really went down": pistol-whipping and self-inflicted gunshot but, then, "just getting a little bit too happy with the situation, trying to make movies. Everything was a movie to him." == Enduring debate ==

Biggie consistently disputed that "Who Shot Ya" targeted Tupac. if "subliminal." Biggie recorded his lyrics "months" before Tupac was shot in November 1994, but Puffy removed the song from Biggie's album, released in September 1994. Dukes prefaces that Lil' Cease, who was Biggie's main rap buddy, XXL meanwhile estimated about "Who Shot Ya?" that "the timing of its release and the perceived subliminal shots"—including allegedly "telling lyrics" in Biggie's second verse, new in the single—"lead us to believe that this was most likely a diss record." ==Certifications==

• Ready to Die (Remaster edition) • Born Again • Greatest Hits • "Big Poppa" 12" single ==Notes==