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Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G., and Michael Jackson have been gone in spirit for quite some time. But we’re still learning new things about their time in the game seemingly every year and the latest tidbit is quite the eye-opener.
According to HypeBeast a Tupac and Michael Jackson collaboration was supposed to have happened but interestingly enough, Michael backed out of the duet do to his loyalty to Big Poppa. Quincy Jone’s son, Quincy “QD3” Jones III used to work with Pac and in an interview for BET’s oral history of The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, QD3 revealed that he pitched the idea of a Tupac collaboration to Michael Jackson, but the King of Pop turned him down citing his preference to Biggie.
“So I set up a meeting at Neverland [Ranch],” he said. “I go up there and told Michael about it. And do you know what Micheal said? He liked Biggie.” The track, which actually sampled Jackson’s “Human Nature,” didn’t make it to Makaveli but eventually found its way to the Death Row Records compilation album Too Gangsta For Radio amongst other 2Pac posthumous projects.
Just another example of how the ridiculous beef between Big and Pac cheated the culture out of another would be gem for the ages.
Michael and Biggie ultimately collaborated on History‘s “This Time Around” and though the cut never really blew up like the World Trade, it was still a pretty cool collabo.
Continuing to reminisce on Tupac’s work ethic, QD3 recalled how Pac would go about his studio sessions, taking all of Q’s beats and just run with them whenever he could. Q learned from Pac that sometimes you just have to be “spontaneous” with your gig and create whenever you can and however you can.
“I would say he was manic. There would be moments that called for quiet voice and candles and all that and he would be screaming and smoking Newports. He was on fire with this manic push. He was always pushing. You could tell he wasn’t comfortable in some way and there was something that was making him uncomfortable.”
What could’ve been. Who knew Mike was like this?
What do y’all think? Did Michael Jackson drop the ball by not collaborating with Tupac Shakur? Let us know in the comment section below.
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