Puff Daddy wasn't absent from the droves of artists, particularly those counted among 2Pac's peers, who added their voices to the outpouring of love shown towards the late hip-hop icon following his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last week. The Bad Boy boss revealed that Pac was in his thoughts on Sunday, April 9; posting a photo of the early 90's rap heavyweights smiling shoulder to shoulder, and captioning the post with the hashtag #teamlove.
Diddy has been invoking a team love wave for some time now, keeping the narrative positive in vlog posts and in interviews, as was the case when he brushed off infighting behind the scenes of the Bad Boy Reunion tour during an appearance on The Breakfast Club last May.
On a couple of occasions, it seemed as though the risk of the type of negativity that can threaten one's legacy lingered, just as he had announced he was retiring from music. There was the statement from the mother of slain rapper Chinx Drugz at his 2016 anniversary vigil, in which she questioned why despite her son's association with him she hadn't heard from Diddy since his passing. And days later there was the video he posted in which he deemed himself a work in progress reconnecting with himself and god.
In the weeks prior, Diddy had found himself dealing with allegations that surfaced from the documentary Murder Rap, in which he was implicated in Tupac's death by a former LAPD detective. When the subject was brought up during his visit to The Breakfast Club in that instance he responded by saying, “We don’t even entertain nonsense, my brother. So we’re not even going to go there, with all due respect. I appreciate you as a journalist asking. Thank you.”
“I got this new hashtag. It’s called New Life. I had to start living a new life, man. The way I was approaching things, the way I was reacting to things, we all grow up. We all do things in ways that maybe you can do better. I’m just trying to figure out ways to do better. I know I’m in the public eye. I gotta handle all types of different stuff," he told Charlamagne, Envy and Angela Yee at the time. "You all have a job to do. It ain’t no problem. But I’m in control of what I say. I don’t get into nonsense. I don’t have nothing but love for everybody. God sent me on this earth to give life, to inspire life, to only do things that are positive. Any negative things that I’ve done, that’s the devil at work. At the end of the day, the devil’s a liar and I can’t feed into negativity or anything like that when I’m in control of myself. So I’ve gotta always be trying to strive and get better.”
2Pac's former rivalry with Diddy, Biggie, and the whole Bad Boy camp is as integral a part of hip-hop history and it's well documented. Fans will recall Pac going at the Mogul and the late Brooklyn rapper with his "Hit 'Em Up," diss record and the Quad Recording Studios shooting that pre-dated the song, which 2Pac held Puff and Big responsible for. But many of those who were around and personally knew the parties reported to have been beefing have consistently maintained that such "beefs" have often been more complex than the media has magnified them to be.
While 2Pac embraced the villainous role that pitted him against Bad Boy, especially after his signing with Death Row Records [and the contentious history Suge already had with Diddy], there are also the stories of a more innocent time, in which Pac and Big hung out and built with one another. Diddy's posting of the #teamlove photo with Pac as a hip-hop elder, encapsulating those simpler times when young Black men first enter the game, still trying to figure things out while trying their best to see and feel only love.
Source: instagram.com
