Busta Rhymes Recalls 2Pac Choking An Audio Engineer On His Behalf
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Busta Rhymes has enjoyed a lengthy career filled with interactions with numerous legends in Hip-Hop. One legend he encountered during his early years in the business was 2Pac, who he says he witnessed yoke up an audio engineer on the behalf of Busta and his Leaders of the New School groupmates.
The Brooklyn native shared his recollection of the memory while speaking with Men’s Health as part of their Hip-Hop 50 issue. “We doing a college show somewhere on the West Coast, and Digital Underground, [Tupac] was still with them,” Busta explained.
“We get to the soundcheck late, so the sound man was kind of turning off the equipment and was like, ‘Y’all kind of missed your window for the soundcheck.’ Pac goes to the sound man ‘cause he hears the sound man trying to tell us we ain’t gonna get the soundcheck today, we late,” he remembered. “Tupac starts choking this motherf**ker.”
As Busta and his groupmates attempted to quell the tension in fear of losing their booking fee, he says that Pac referred to the trio as “legends” in spite of their relatively short tenure in the game. “[Tupac said], ‘You not gonna disrespect motherf**ker. Leaders of the New School, motherf**ker,” Busta recalled. “We ain’t asking for none of this. So, we grabbing Pac like, ‘Stop, B! You gonna f**k around and not even get us the opportunity to perform. You gonna f**k up the whole bag.’ [He said], ‘Man, f**k that! They can’t be disrespecting y’all. Y’all legends.’ We one album deep. He calling us legends.”
Busta Rhymes and 2Pac never appeared on a song together, but the Flipmode Squad leader has spoken fondly of his friendship with the West Coast rap icon on previous occasions. In 2020, he shared his thoughts on how Pac’s loyalty and love led to his tragic demise when he was murdered in a drive-by shooting in 1996.
“It’s a little frustrating for me, but it’s the truth,” the “Touch It” rapper expressed to Fat Joe at the time. “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.”
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