In the glory days of Roc-A-Fella, it seems that then-partners Dame Dash and Jay-Z wanted to work with Texas’ Underground Kingz really badly. In fact, the Harlem hustler offered their manager $1 million during their first meeting to get Bun B and Pimp C to come over to The Roc.
The problem was … Pimp C didn’t want any parts of Jay-Z.
According to an interview this week with former music executive and deal maker Greg Taylor on “The Art of Dialogue” YouTube channel, Jay-Z even overheard the Pimp C dissing him while they were trying to close the deal.
Originally meeting with Dash and his A&R to talk about doing work with his other artist, Too Short, Taylor says the label wanted to talk about doing business with UGK and presented the seven-figure check to seal the deal.
Immediately, the manager got excited and called up his artist to tell him the good news.
“Once Pimp locked in, he was like, ‘Wait a minute… Roc-A-Fella. Ain’t that where Jay-Z at?’” Taylor animatedly recalls, “He was like, ‘Tell him to take that check over to Tupac’s mother for stealing all of Tupac’s s—t!’”
Rumors have long circulated that Tupac hated Jay-Z for stealing his lyrics. While that might not be the case, the “California Love” artist made it clear that he was not fond of the Roc-A-Fella frontman.
Before his premature death in 1996, it seemed that rapper Tupac Shakur was obsessed with Jay-Z, mentioning him in multiple interviews and songs.
Hip-Hop producer and insider Irv Gotti said that the feud started when the Notorious B.I.G and Jay-Z collaborated on the song, “Brooklyn Finest.”
“That’s why ‘Pac was sh—ting on Jay because of ‘Brooklyn’s Finest,’” he said, according to NME.
Too Short recently explained on “Club Shay Shay” why Pimp C was so connected to Tupac and wanted to keep his distance from Hov.
“I knew Pimp’s opinion on the situation, and it was open and shut,” the Oakland native said. “If you don’t fool with Tupac, I don’t fool with you. Right, no bending of the rules. We talking about a guy who never met Tupac.”
Short added, “He’s like I ride with Pac till the end. So anybody whoever said a diss on Tupac, ever, Pimp C didn’t like him.” Jay-Z fell in that category.
Taylor said he did not get the connection initially because Tupac wasn’t his client. Pimp C was.
What complicated the matter was that Jay-Z, who heard the entire exchange, was standing behind him while he was talking to the UGK founding member on speakerphone.
Thinking quickly, Taylor explained to Jay-Z that there was going to have to be some schmoozing to get the guys to even consider working with him.
“They move different down there,” he remembered. “They already rich. Too much concrete up here in New York.”
He continued, “Unless you take his mom out to dinner and sit down with them boys, then you could do some things with them. I had to turn down the check.”
Taylor said the money was too great for him to take without knowing how his artists would respond.
While UGK never signed to Roc-A-Fella, they did collaborate with Jay-Z on the classic song “Big Pimpin.”
The late Pimp C carried the same energy over to the track — recording only an eight-bar verse — and even on the million-dollar music video set. Originally, the shoot was supposed to happen in Trinidad and Tobago, but Pimp C refused. Then they decided on Miami, where he showed up in a mink coat.
“They’re like, ‘Pimp, you’re really gonna wear this coat?’ Jay-Z was like, ‘My n—a, you know it’s hot out here,” his partner Bun B said, according to Complex.
“Pimp looked at him and said, ‘TV ain’t got no temperature.’ And walked off,” the Trill Burger owner recalled. “Jay-Z looked at me and said, ‘Your brother’s a motherf-cking star.’”
