Goodie Mob have reflected on their more halcyon times, recalling the time they heard 2Pac‘s classic diss track, “Hit ‘Em Up,” before it was officially released.
“I think the 2Pac song was just so incredible because of the time and the space that we heard it in,” Big Gipp said during an interview with HipHopDX. “And just the tension in the actual industry. We was in contact with both camps and did a lot with both camps. So, it was a very peculiar time.”
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He continued: “But to hear that record at the time, it was the smash that we thought it was when he played it. It was the rawest record that we heard at that time. You know? A lot of people, for 20 years, said that he was lyin’, but now we know he wasn’t lyin’.”
“Everything about that record was true,” he concluded. “I just look at it like, just being in those kind of moments, it gives you respect, and you also honor life a little bit more. Because as much as we love ‘Pac, as much as we love everything about ‘Pac, we know that even in the music, you create the energy that comes to you.”
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Late last month, Big Gipp revealed that Goodie Mob and 2Pac were reportedly working on a joint album before the Death Row star was tragically murdered.
“Before he got out [of] Death Row, he was already calling our office and was like, ‘Yo, when I get out, I’m comin’ to Atlanta,'” he explained in an interview at the time. “He’d did New York, he’d did LA and I think he’d wanted to come and finish his career off in Atlanta.”
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Gipp has previously talked about ‘Pac and his relationship with Goodie Mob, even going so far as to claim that the “Dear Mama” rapper wanted to join the group.
In a 2021 interview, Gipp stated that his group turned down working with the rapper and actor because “being in business with Death Row — we just knew that wasn’t the right thing for us at the time.”
Gipp has always expressed his admiration for 2Pac. Earlier this year, the Goodie Mob member voiced his dissatisfaction with Billboard and VIBE’s Top 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time list, claiming that if 2Pac were still alive, he would have lyrically bested JAY-Z.
“The only reason why you inching Jay past 2Pac is because he got god-damn Beyoncé,” Gipp said in an interview with The Art of Dialogue. “You take Beyoncé away then shit, bar for bar, yeah, he might rap better than ‘Pac. But ‘Pac came with the heart. That’s different, that’s just different. You can never beat the heart, bro. Some people can be technical, just like the difference between Jordan and LeBron.”
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He continued: “If ‘Pac was here, who you think the girl would have been with? Hold up … you still can’t act. You can’t do no movies, you can’t do what ‘Pac was doing. C’mon, how can you be better than ‘Pac? … that boy was a triple threat. He did groups that was successful, solo albums that was successful and movies that was successful. If he had lived, he would have smoked everything walking.
He concluded that no one recorded “as fast” as 2Pac, and noted that girls loved him back when he starred as Bishop in the film Juice.
