'Drink Champs' | Lil Cease says Tupac was ready to squash beef with B.I.G. after his Vegas trip
“[Young Noble] was like, when he comes back from Vegas, he was gonna settle the shit.”
According to Lil Cease, who appears on Drink Champs on REVOLT TV tonight (Thursday, Aug. 18) at 10pm ET, Tupac Shakur’s Outlawz and members of Notorious B.I.G.’s Junior M.A.F.I.A squashed all their ill feelings towards each other five years ago when they collaborated on a song called “Bury The Hatchet” put together by DJ Kay Slay.
During the interview, Lil Cease details how the two legendary factions came together, and also drops a gem about each side’s mentors would have crushed the quarrels as well.
“It took us 15 years for us to sit down and talk,” Cease told hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN about an initial conversation with the Outlawz’s Young Nobel. “We didn’t like each other for 15 years and none of us never even met each other or knew each other or nothing. And one day we spoke through a female.”
“We sat there and we talked for about two hours,” Cease continued. “We got a chance to really speak on shit. He didn’t know a lot of shit that was going on our side. I didn’t know a lot of shit that was going on over there. And we spoke and then he came to New York one day and we got up, and sat down, and kicked it and them my niggas to this day. And he said–when ‘Pac was going to Vegas, before that–he was like, when he comes back from Vegas, he was gonna settle the shit with Big. So that shit was gonna get deaded eventually. It was gonna get squashed. [Tupac] really knew what happened, he knew what was going on. He knew Big didn’t have nothing to do with [him getting shot].”
With the recent release of the Tupac Shakur’s biopic All Eyez On Me, we all got to relive a major breaking point in the onetime tight friendship between ‘Pac and Big. On-screen and in real life, Shakur was vocal about feeling like The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Who Shot Ya” was aimed at him and in reference to the infamous November 30, 1994 incident where Shakur was shot and robbed at New York’s Quad Studios.
The incident has been well-documented as, has Biggie’s denial of the classic record being directed towards Tupac.
Tonight on Drink Champs, Cease is asked about the controversy.
The Brooklyn native said that “Who Shot Ya?” was recorded in early 1994 and originally intended to open up Mary J. Blige’s classic My Life which, ironically, was released on November 29, 1994, one day before the Tupac shooting.
“That was supposed to be for Mary J. Blige’s album,” Cease said. “That was supposed to be the intro for My Life. Intro to the second album. It was Keith Murray, LL Cool J, and B.I.G. on it. That’s the original. [Mary’s label] was like, it was too hard to start off a R&B album. Once they scratched it, B.I. was like, ‘Give me the record. I’m gonna fuck with it.’”
Cease admitted it was confusing for people to think “Who Shot Ya?” was a ‘Pac diss since a portion of the song leaked long before the Quad shooting.
“It was a B-side record. It was way before [Tupac got shot]. It slipped out [to the mixtapes] with just Big’s first verse,” Cease detailed. “Why would people think that when they know they heard this record before? Big didn’t sweat it. He was like, ‘He knew that song wasn’t about him. He knew that song was done before that.’”
The youngest member of Junior M.A.F.I.A. also told Drink Champs that Biggie had a strict policy about making diss records when it came to his problems with ‘Pac.
“That’s how B.I. was,” Cease described. “We trying to get money. We ain’t in this shit for that. And if it’s gonna be beef, don’t make it hot. You gonna make it hot if you make records. If you gonna do some real shit, don’t respond to nothing. Big would cut you off if you respond to anything. Don’t come to my crib. Don’t call me. We don’t do that.”
As his onstage hypeman, best friend, little brother, assistant, and confidant, Cease probably spent more time with Biggie than anyone during the late rapper’s game-changing career.
On Drink Champs, Cease speaks on Big’s aspiration to make a powerhouse clique with JAY-Z, Big’s rivalry and friendship with Nas, and the near-tragic car accident that caused Big to be sidelined for months in the hospital. Watch it tonight on REVOLT TV at 10pm ET.