Some History To Consider

While Chuck Philips article is about an event that took place in 1994, the seeds for its reality began a few years prior. To place this conversation in context here is a timeline that documents the progression of the rivalry between coasts.

Late 1980s – West coast artists such as N.W.A. and Ice-T begin seeing success and start to garner attention that had almost exclusively been for New York artists.

1991 – Tim Dog, a New York based emcee, released the dis track “Fuck Compton” directed at N.W.A. The song causes a wave of responses from various West coast artists.

Dec. 15th, 1992 – Dr. Dre releases The Chronic on Death Row Records. Becomes a multi-platinum hit.

1993 – Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs starts Bad Boy Records, signs The Notorious B.I.G.

Nov. 23rd, 1993 – Snoop Dogg releases Doggystyle on Death Row Records – quickly becoming another multi-platinum hit.

1994 – The success of Death Row records brings the spotlight to Los Angeles and the West coast, while their East coast counterparts struggled to maintain commercial viability.

Sept. 14th, 1994 – The Notorious B.I.G. releases Ready to Die on Bad Boy Records.

Nov. 30th, 1994 – 2Pac is shot at Quad Recording Studios in New York. Puffy and Biggie were in the building on a different floor. This combined with the release of “Who Shot Ya?” by Biggie led to 2Pac becoming convinced that Puffy and Biggie were involved in his shooting.

Aug. 1995 – Suge Knight taunts Puffy at the Source Awards stating “Any artists out there who wants to be an artist and stay a star, and don't wanna have to worry about the executive producer trying to be…all in the videos, all on the records, dancing…come to Death Row!”



Oct. 1995 – In exchange for his bail being paid 2Pac signs with Suge Knight and Death Row Records, further establishing the rivalry with Bad Boy Records.

Late ’95 into 1996 – 2Pac released many songs attacking Biggie, Bad Boy Records and the east coast.

1996 – Death Row act Tha Dogg Pound releases a music video for their single “New York, New York” which features the two West coast emcees knocking over skyscrapers in New York. New York rappers Tragedy Khadafi, Capone-N-Noreaga and Mobb Deep respond with a video for “LA, LA” in which the murder of Tha Dogg Pound is portrayed.

Sept. 7th, 1996 – 2Pac is shot in Las Vegas.

Sept. 13th, 1996 – 2Pac dies from his wounds.

March 9th, 1997 – The Notorious B.I.G. is shot and killed in Los Angeles.

While artists from both coasts helped spur this rivalry forward, it was often the media that helped sensationalize the events. Following the murders of 2Pac and Biggie, artists, fans and the media reevaluated their roles in the feud and how they would handle similar situations in the future.

Hello & Welcome

As I wrap up my senior year of college I’m looking into the events surrounding the publishing of an article for the LA Times that was written by Chuck Philips.

On March 17th Philips and the Times published a story on their website (it has since been pulled from their site – I provide you with a copy here) that detailed the shooting of 2Pac at Quad Recording studios in 1994. Philips story claimed that Puff Daddy and Jimmy Rosemond orchestrated the shooting. The story was run on the entertainment front page of the Times print edition on the 19th.

On the 26th the website The Smoking Gun published the story “Big Phat Liar” examining the documents that served as the basis for much of Philips article and looking into the history of a one James Sabatino. The report found the documents Philips relied on to be forgeries that were most likely created by Sabatino, who also plays an integral role in Philips story.

The following day the LA Times issued an apology and on April 7th a formal retraction was published, along with the apology once again for extra emphasis.

The events surrounding this situation are not entirely clear. My purpose here will be to analyze the responsibility and ethics surrounding the issue and to consider how it could have been handled differently.