The rivalry between Tupac Shakur and The Notorious BIG made big waves in the hip-hop world in the 1990s and prevented some major artists from collaborating. According to producer Quincy “QD3” Jones III, son of legendary producer Quincy Jones, the same was true for a possible song by Michael Jackson and Tupac.
Michael Jackson refused cooperation in Tupac
In a brief historical brief for BET on the history of the album THE DON KILLUMINATI: THE 7 DAY THEORY, which Tupac released under the alias Makaveli, QD3, who was producing for Tupac at the time, recounted negotiations between the two music legends over a song. It was probably about the song “Thug Nature”, where Michael Jackson was supposed to sing the hook. The producer described the encounter with the self-proclaimed “King of Pop” as follows:
So I organized a meeting at Neverland Ranch. I went there and spoke to Michael about it. And do you know what Michael said? He liked Biggie!
At that time there was already a joint song by Michael Jackson and The Notorious BIG with “This Time Around”, which could be heard on the album HISTORY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE, BOOK 1. Apparently, the friendship between the two musicians prevented a collaboration with Tupac that could have gone down in music history. In the end, Tupac’s “Thug Nature,” which even includes a sample of Michael Jackson’s song “Human Nature,” didn’t end up on the album, only appearing on the 2000 Death Row compilation TOO GANGSTER FOR RADIO.
Michael Jackson and Biggie’s song “This Time Around” was released in 1995:
Tupac’s song “Thug Nature” was released posthumously in 2000:
QD3 describes Tupac as “manic”
As the conversation continued, the producer went into his own relationship with the West Coast legend. Tupac and he had worked together several times at the time, including on the album ALL EYEZ ON ME. QD3 described Tupac as restless and manic in this regard:
Pac was always irritated when you sat there messing around with sounds like you don’t respect his time (…) I would say he was manic. When there were moments to be quiet and light candles, he would scream and smoke Newports. He was unstoppable in those manic moments. He was always pushing. You could see that somehow he wasn’t comfortable and that there was something that was making him uncomfortable.
The album THE DON KILLUMINATI: THE 7 DAY THEORY was released a few months after the rapper’s assassination on November 5, 1996.
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