In the same Fat Joe Show appearance that left Busta Rhymes wanting all the smoke with his buddy T.I, the legendary Flipmode rapper took a moment to reflect on his “incredible” friendship with the late 2Pac Shakur. “I had an incredible relationship with Pac,” says Busta, around the twenty-five-minute mark of the interview. “Me and Pac been friends from early Leaders days. Before he put out his shit, when he was still dancing with Digital Underground. 

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“Interesting story about one of the early Pac interactions,” he continues. “We had a college date to do, to do a show at one of the colleges. Digital Underground was performing and Leaders was performing. We only on our first album, and we had to do soundcheck. So we get to the soundcheck a little late, Digital had already done their soundcheck. I think Pac and Money B was still in the neighborhood.”

“We getting ready to do the soundcheck, but the soundman was on some bullshit,” continues Busta. “He’s shutting shit down and acting like he’s getting ready to leave. We kinda on some ‘damn, we really want to get this soundcheck done.’ The crazy thing is that Pac saw there was a little bit of friction going on. And he just came and involved himself in the situation. Pac turned to this white man and he was like ‘yo, I need you to cut this motherfuckin’ sound board on. Leaders of the New School are going to get their soundcheck done, right now. Fuck you talking about you ain’t turning on the equipment?’”

“He just started spazzing on dude,” continues Busta. “The man wasn’t trying to hear what Pac was talking about, so Pac just ran up on this motherfucka and started choking him. ‘You mothafucka!’ So we had to grab Pac, cause we ain’t askin’ for all of this, we just want a soundcheck! This ain’t war! But that’s the type of dude Pac was. He went out of his way to extend love.” 

Fat Joe chimes in, noting that every time he saw Pac, the late rapper was “in violence.” “You know what it was, bro?” says Busta. “It’s a little frustrating for me, but it’s the truth. I think Pac really felt–he took on more of this responsibility to have to prove his love, when he really didn’t need to. The love he felt he needed to show people, that he wanted in return, he was already getting it. I don’t know why he felt the need to go above and beyond to the point where he would get himself in trouble, just to prove to somebody he got love for them. That’s what ended up getting him killed.”

“The situation that happened in Vegas, he went and got himself involved in something that ain’t have nothing to do with them,” he explains. “But because he was moving with those dudes on that team, he felt he had to go out of his way to prove to them that he gon ride for his family his team, whoever he moving with. It unfortunately ended up the way it did. It’s beautiful in one sense, cause he’s holding you down no matter what. But it’s also the thing that got him into a lot of situations he could have avoided.”