THROWBACK THURSDAY
Hip-Hop’s Hidden History: Jumping The Gun (1994) The first Source Awards was a mess. By then, the editors and the business side were basically at war, so we were lucky to get tickets, and we certainly didn’t get any extra tickets to bring our people. The place was packed, and electricity was in the air. The miniature Nike-branded basketballs handed out as the audience filed in predictably started flying around the room. This was a time when hip-hop artists couldn’t tour because of insurance issues, so having everyone in the industry under one roof was an event. During Q-Tip’s acceptance speech, Tupac suddenly flew out from backstage and into “I Get Around.” Everybody was shocked that he would play A Tribe Called Quest like that. His move almost started a war. Literally, violence was ready to break out.
That is, until we made clear that it was a miscue backstage, an unintended mistake.
For Busta Rhymes’ take, read here: http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.21065/title.busta-rhymes-recalls-tupac-accidentally-dissing-a-tribe-called-quest (James Bernard)
