Was listening to Stakes Is High (which as aged good by the way) recently and I was hearing the little shots at Biggie. Why were those cats getting at him like that? I figure OGC was doin' it on behalf of Pac. The others? They weren't feelin' him? Did he snub them? He was the most visible therefore an easy target?

I don't think they were going at him personally or his music directly, moreso at the image that he was presented with via Puff Daddy as well as all of the copycats and tropes that followed it.

"I got questions 'bout your life if you so ready to die"

etc.

That Roots video had be thinkin about Biggie 1st and foremost.

Who were the copycats and tropes they were talkin' about?

and not specially one guy. however, that line is pretty direct.

that more artists were copying the Hype Williams themes from videos - highly saturated colors, super slow-motion, and imagery of wealth.

Nas came out with It Was Written, which was a successful but blatant attempt to have a more commercial sound. Mic Geronimo and O.C. came out with albums that were more radio-friendly than their previous albums.

At the time, more "overground" like The Roots and De La felt Bad Boy and other acts were exploiting the values of the culture for easy, quick wealth.

The underground felt they were self-policing by calling these new stars to task for redirecting the emphasis of the music.

Things were different in a sense because musicians couldn't have careers without record labels. Unless a label felt its mission was to put on the best music and place profit as a secondary aim, the underground felt its ability to earn a living was going to be compromised.

In retrospect, the beef seems silly because 1. the commercial acts clearly trounced the underground. But also, there was plenty of room for both levels of music. The 90s, at its most glaringly jiggy, still had albums that stand up well many years later.

Well said/articulated...

at Biggie, maybe Diddy and the commercialism he represented.

Its funny because the more conscious rappers eventually Loss the war in the long run.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Correct. This is how I remember it at least. 1995/1996ish is when there started to be a lot of people openly criticizing the burgeoning jiggy and fake mafioso stuff.

Lots of other general jabs on Stakes:
"Versace play you bitches like Yahtzee"
"The only Italians you knew was ices"
"Sick of Versace glasses"

Then you have "Ya Playin Yaself" which sure feels like a direct Big diss with that beat flip. Even still, I felt it was all just a general pushback sentiment as the energy was starting to shift into the shiny suit era.

...he was getting called out on it ...simple as that

So I don't actually think it's all that simple.

..I think that's what Dave was saying ...like you're a mega star, rich and everyone loves you ..you flaunt a fancy lifestyle in your videos ..but you're ready to die?? WHY? ..and the way Dave says it, it feels like he's not just taking a shot at BIG but asking the question seriously

So the title made more sense for a guy who came from nothing.

Re: your 2nd point tho I agree. I think he was using that album title as a jumping off point to go @ mainstream rap @ large.

"You can be as good as the best of them but as bad as the worst...so don't test me..."

The rumor was that BIG overheard some of BCC working in a studio and jacked that hook. He was able to drop it in the "Get Money" remix before BCC could release it.

I sort of scratch my head that hip hop heads seem unaware of this.

There is no question he was nice...but he straight up jacked a lot of shit. Concepts, lines, flows, album covers, etc. The tough thing to wrap you head around is he didn't give love to the dudes he was borrowing from for the most part. Just stole their shit. Tee, Pac, Dre, Nas, Rae, BCC...the list goes on.


Ready to Die is his album that gets the most love. It was him and Puff borrowing from the West sonically and he straight up stole the concept of the album from 2Pac. Even down to songs...Everyday Struggle is a fucking Pac song listen to that shit. Straight up pressured Easy Mo Bee to give him beats meant for Pac...from Easy's mouth. And that was when they were boys.


Top it off, he had a baby photo as the cover.


I find it odd how people don't know this. BIG was nice, and it is a shame he didn't live for a lot reasons...one of those reasons is it would have been interesting for him to grow into his own artist rather than some amalgamation of different dudes. Now, I think a lot of these issues are Puffy being his snake self and pushing BIG to do certain things....but its pretty obvious BIG wasn't a strong personality or a brave dude, unfortunately.

>Ready to Die is his album that gets the most love. It was him
>and Puff borrowing from the West sonically
>pretty obvious BIG wasn't a strong personality or a brave
>dude, unfortunately.

I was and am a huge west coast g-funk stan, and I caught this right off the bat when I was first hearing songs from this album. It was 100% derivative of the west coast sound. In their defense, *everyone* wanted to rip that sound at the time for obvious reasons, and they did it well, better than most, but it's still got to be a bigger part of the story when discussing this album and I rarely hear it brought up anymore.

He shouts out the BCC in the liner notes and not just a few , all of ‘em

(Along w MOP)


>
> "You can be as good as the best of them but as bad as the
>worst...so don't test me..."
>
> The rumor was that BIG overheard some of BCC working in a
>studio and jacked that hook. He was able to drop it in the
>"Get Money" remix before BCC could release it.
>

This is from 2011 and Steele is telling how it went down. My recollection was a little bit off.

***

https://planetill.com/2011/12/behind-the-beef-junior-mafia-vs-ogc/

By Odeisel

We sat with General Steele a while ago for an extensive interview after police shut down the release party of the very dope Monumental album by Pete Rock & Smif N Wessun. After we got through with the nitty gritty , I wanted to ask about a beef tat flew under the radar for years outside of BK Hip-Hop and New York. During an ongoing misunderstanding between Duck Down group OGC (Originoo Gunn Clappaz) and Biggie’s Junior Mafia, Starang Wondah from OGC got run up on in the legendary D&D Studios. Thankfully no one got seriously hurt and eventually the beef was squashed. But for those who didn’t know or those who wondered what the hell it was all about, we got that butter. Enjoy.

Planet Ill: There was a little something with Biggie and OGC . Now everyone looks back like, greatest rapper of all time, and there’s universal love. But tell us about some of the animus that was going on back then. What was the source of the problem and how did you move forward from that?

General Steele: This incident with Biggie and Jr. Mafia man, looking back at it now, and even looking at it then, it was due to immaturity. Cats were young and eager and Hip-Hop will mold your mind into something at times. I only say that because OGC, they had did a song where Top Dog starts, “I can be as good as the rest of them but as baaad as the worst, so don’t test me…” That’s how he started his rhyme.

So one night, we went to the Palladium and that was the first night that these guys performed that song. Biggie and Jr. Mafia was there. Couple days later, what do we hear on the radio? “You can be as good as the rest of them but as baaad as the worst” in the chorus that Biggie had did. Immediately cats was like, Oh Shit!” Why would he do that? Misinterpretations and dudes was upset. They like wow, he steal from us? That’s family, yadda yadda, and cats wanted to do something about it. He stole their verse.

Now mind you these are the young cats.

Planet Ill: Yeah they the babies so ya’ll gotta…

General Steele: Yeah. We taking the heat, but at the same time me and Tek was the ones that was like that shit ain’t about nothing. But not you got this industry shit factored in where it’s like, “Wait a minute, maybe you guys can use this.” We actually had producers of videos, video producers offering to say, hey why don’t we have a fake Biggie Smalls and a fake Faith and you know, you guys are kicking them off stage.”

And you know the young guys are like yo whatever. Word let’s do it

Planet Ill: We trying to get on so we don’t care what it is.

General Steele: Right! Again Tek lives up the block form them. We hang out with them, we smoke with these cats. And some of them we went to school with so we’re not really thinking like we’re about to get into some drama right now. And that’s the thing with the young artists again where you see right now being perpetuated amongst these young cats right now. Totally lack respect and if I could turn back the hands of time for anything that would be one of the things right there because that shit was so petty. It’s so petty man and that brother he wasn’t that type of cat. And not to mention that that particular line, that particular chorus, they BOTH stole! Nobody really own it, it belongs to another n***a.

The way it happened it was like, “Oh Wow! That’s our single we was about to come out with that. Yoo!” And then you have all these other cats, all these outside industry label cats that are like “Yo, let’s take advantage of this and bla bla bla. That’s a publicity stunt gone wrong on the part of the label wanting to press for that and push for that. They pushed for that shit. When you look at that video, you see Tek and Steele in there for about 1.2 seconds. Cause we wanted nothing to do with that shit. But at the same time, if we would have said, “Don’t do this guys,” we’d have looked like the older cats that was hating.

Planet Ill: Oh you gone let them diss us?

General Steele: Right. “Come on you did your shit, let me do me.” But I support the youngins but at the same time I try to guide them as much as possible. But the thing about youngins they want to make they own way. They want to make they own bones. So sometimes you get caught up in these things and get swept away. It’s fortunate that that was able to be fixed even after all the craziness

Planet Ill: It didn’t’ go too far after the studio incident.

General Steele: That studio incident was crazy man. Me personally, I be getting in trouble with Boot Camp because I be wanting to tell the whole truth and nothing but truth. But I wasn’t there at the studio, so my truth would be third party truth. So for the cats that was there at the studio, if none of them cats want to talk about the details, Starang Wondah personally, uh, Dru, Buck and couple other cats that was there. If they don’t want to tell the whole truth I guess they want of let that shit just go; it’s old news things are back.

We lost a good brother and thank God it had nothing to do with that, just some other stupid ass reason. But I love Biggie an I have a love for Jr. Mafia as well and they good cats and we all out here trying to do our thin and survive in this music.

Planet Ill: Whatever happened to Starang and the rest of OGC? Are they still in-house? What’s going on with them?

General Steele: Top Dog is on the Monumental Album. Starang was just recently released from prison and Louisville is out if Atlanta. Rockness Monstah just came and recorded in my studio to send his verse to Louisville. So Louieville had metamorphosized into this soul artist. Let ti be known the General is going to talk the truth. I’m not going to give you all these corny ass fake one liners. But these guys haven’t recorded together since their last album. Starang retired back then, he ain’t want no parts of this shit anymore. But for some reason Boot Camp will not let this guy put is pen down. Whether it’s Sean P having one on one talk with him or whether it’s Rockness Monstah having talks with him. And then you got Dru Ha. They stay trying to persuade him or coerce him to put his pen right up.

But one thing about Starang, he’s not a flashy rapper; he’s one of these character rap guys. He’s done rhymes without writing at all. Now I’m going to say a lot fo his stuff was done without writing at all cause he actually knows what he wants to say, he talks about what’s going on. He’s story orientated and it’s not too much rippity rappity like some of the stuff I do…

Planet Ill: Not technically proficient but telling a tale…

General Steele: Right he’s not into that. It’s in the works, we’re about to start working on the Boot Camp album. They have been talking amongst each other in terms of getting back in the studio and doing an OGC project, and I really hope that they do. We hope that they do because they split up and right now they really need to get back together.