Allen Hughes, whose work on the life of 2Pac has received widespread acclaim, shared that he saw the MCs death coming following the release of his most vicious diss track.
During a recent chat with Michael Rapaport, the veteran filmmaker recalled the first time he listened to the East Coast hit piece, “Hit ’Em Up.” Its immediate and long-term implications, Hughes claimed, were clear to him from the moment he heard it.
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“I remember [Interscope Records co-founder] Jimmy Iovine playing me the track before it came out and I’d go, ‘Him and 2Pac and/or Suge [Knight] would be dead in less than six months,’” he said. “And it wasn’t the words; it was the energy. It’s the power of how he did it — particularly the outro.”
Hughes also threw shade at an unnamed rapper who, per the mentioned monetary status and sequence of events surrounding ‘Pac and the Notorious B.I.G‘s deaths, led some in the comments on the video to believe he was talking about JAY-Z.
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“I’m not gonna name names, I’ll get in trouble with other iconic, legendary, gazillionaire rappers right now,” he said, “but when you shoot the two A+ students in the class, the C– student starts to rise to the top.”
Check out the discussion at the 15:44 mark below:
2Pac’s murder remains unsolved over two decades after it took place, but Allen Huges maintains the identity of his killer was never unclear to those who actually knew the late rapper.
In mid-July, the filmmaker joined ABCNews’ Linsey Davis to discuss the multi-decade conundrum surrounding ‘Pac’s death and the renewed efforts in its investigation. Whereas a culprit has yet to be officially charged, Hughes said that there were never any doubts as to who was responsible for the crime.
“In the community, as we know, and in the streets, there was never a mystery to who killed 2Pac,” he said. “It was always about Las Vegas law enforcement closing the case on this.”
The Dear Mama director clarified: “What happened that night at the MGM Grand Casino and that violent incident that 2Pac and gang had with that individual — again, that guy, everyone knows, came back and shot 2Pac.”
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Hughes’ five-part docuseries focuses on the mother-son relationship between Afeni Shakur – a revolutionary and member of the Black Panther Party – and 2Pac. It premiered in late April and quickly became the most-watched premiere episode for an unscripted series in FX’s 28-year history.
