What nikkas don't seem to understand when looking at the situation is that Pac was raised by Panthers. I've touched on this before.
His apparent naivete about how street nikkas moved wasn't because he was a choir boy or was soft, it was because while he was raised around the criminal element, he also saw these same people move with a code and do for their people in the process...he had a world view of the hood and of black people that pre-dated the complete dismantling of black unity and community.
This is what Thug Lyfe was about which most people gloss over...what he was really trying to do with that movement was bring Panther type codes and ethics to the streets so that the SOLDIERS out in the streets weren't fighting killing their own infantry. Yea it seems far fetched because anybody who grew up in the streets understands that after the Civil Rights movement there was no unity...but he saw what it was like BEFORE.
He wasn't soft, or dumb, he was idealistic. And when these street nikkas and AGENTS showed their hand, they killed Pac's ideals which is why he said it was dead. You can't ask somebody that hot headed to be docile, so once that somber, soul crushing reality wore off about implementing those Thug Lyfe structures and codes to the streets, his fire got directed elsewhere.
I can go in deeper, even to a spiritual level as to what Pac was on...but I can say while he sure as fukk had a big mouth and big ego, he wasn't "crazy" in the sense that he was stupid or having delusions. You look at the game and all these behind the scenes nikkas and you'll see exactly why he put himself on the cross on this final album cover...why he embraced martyrdom.
Would you call a Panther pointing out COINTELPRO agents a "snitch"? That's exactly what these "street nikkas" with no honor or code looked like to him and when you take a look at it from far back he was in the right to point these nikkas out...not to the cops, but to real muthafukkas that ain't wanna get indicted or extorted by these so called "real" nikkas that didn't even play by their own rules and regulations.
Now this doesn't excuse his behavior, nobody is perfect, Pac himself woulda told you that, but he was far from a fake nikka or a coward.
As for Biggie hating Pac after all that transpired, I can't blame him. In fact I can't blame him for not wanting to stand next to Pac either after he decided to stand up to real gangstas in his backyard. Nor can I blame Pac for being upset that the same degree of loyalty that he would have given wasn't returned. Had the shoe been on the other foot, Pac woulda rode for Biggie, to his own detriment, believe that.
They both had legit reasons to feel like they felt at whatever time, I'm fine with that, I made peace with that and I miss BOTH them nikkas as a fan.
But you can't expect him to be all somber when Pac was coming at him so viciously, but I do think their situation could have been worked out if it weren't for Puff and Suge dragging them into their personal bullshyt.
Pac was on some hoe shyt slandering Big and pretending to be a gang member to sell records. He let them death row nikkas gas him up. And got smoked for his troubles. And his reckless/foolishness also got Big smoked. Why would Big give that nikka any respect?
Ain't nothing real about that shyt. The fukk did Pac expect from Big? He got shot in NY for being dumb as fukk and tried to pin it on Big/Puff like they have any control on how hood nikkas act in NY. Then he dragged Big's name through the mud and started an over the top beef with him to (by his own admission) sell records. Got him and Big killed by being a stupid person.
