Treach has pinpointed the moment that 2Pac stopped making positive music, noting that the late rap legend was “fed up.”
In an interview with The Art of Dialogue, the Naughty By Nature MC explained how ‘Pac being “taunted” over his 1993 sexual assault case led to a darker, more aggressive shift in his musical persona.
Recalling the treatment the All Eyez On Me rapper received while filming the movie Above the Rim, Treach said: “The majority of the people out there was loving ‘Pac but you got your taunters and your haters and your trolls. A lot of the ones that were taunting him were females ’cause it was a sexual assault case.
“And he was like, ‘Man, I would never think my own people would come for me when I rep the thugs, I speak for the women. I always had their back. Man, I’m never doing no fucking…’”
Treach said the experience made 2Pac distance himself from uplifting, socially conscious songs like “Keep Ya Head Up” and “Brenda’s Got a Baby” and make more “thug”-oriented records such as “California Love” and his infamous Biggie diss song “Hit ‘Em Up.”
“That was the new ‘Pac,” he added. “Muthafuckas had got him fed the fuck up.”
2Pac was ultimately sentenced to one and a half to four and a half years in prison for sexual abuse, but was released just eight months later on a $1.4 million bail pending an appeal of his conviction.
The rapper and his entourage were accused of raping a female fan inside a New York hotel in November 1993. ‘Pac maintained his innocence and claimed the encounter was consensual.
In a separate clip from his sit-down with The Art of Dialogue that aired last week, Treach recalled the time that he and 2Pac got involved in a wild brawl at a Los Angeles comedy club that led to them falling afoul of the Crips.
Talking about the incident, which happened at the Comedy Store in the mid 1990s, the MC explained that members of the Rollin’ 60s Crips and rival Bloods gangsters had clashed the week before, with the Bloods coming out on top.
According to Treach, the Crips returned to the club the following week to enact revenge, which resulted in him and ‘Pac inadvertently being caught in the crossfire.
“They came in and just started picking up chairs and bottles. We heard the commotion in the back. Before we got a chance to look back, bow! I got hit in the head with a chair,” he remembered.
“That’s when I walked around with the big chain, so I took that shit off immediately. ‘Pac and everybody that was with us picked up bottles and chairs, and there was just an all-out brawl. So we ended up fighting our way outta there.”