During Tupac Shakur’s lifetime, Jay-Z wrote a diss track about him. Jay-Z was closer friends with the Notorious B.I.G., Tupac’s rival, and this reportedly placed Jay-Z on his bad side as well. According to Sean “Diddy” Combs’ bodyguard, Jay-Z felt the heat of that feud ahead of a concert. Combs’ former bodyguard claimed that Jay-Z hid from Tupac.

Jay-Z hid from Tupac before a concert, said Diddy’s bodyguard

When Gene Deal was working as a bodyguard for Sean “Diddy” Combs, he claimed he was backstage at a Jay-Z concert. He said Jay-Z hid when he realized Tupac was there. He was friends with the Notorious B.I.G., Tupac’s rival.

“I don’t know how Pac found out that Jay-Z had a show, but Jay-Z was not coming out that room,” he told Cam Capone News (via Vibe Magazine).

Deal claimed that Suge Knight, the head of Death Row Records, had to tell Tupac to let Jay-Z get onstage.

“Suge said, ‘Yo, man, that ain’t me. That’s Pac with his wild a**,’” Deal said. “Suge Knight told Pac to give Jay-Z a pass so he could go do his concert, because Jay wasn’t coming out of that room, you know, to do nothing.”

He said he spoke to the Notorious B.I.G. shortly before his death

Jay-Z said he last spoke to Biggie shortly before his death.

“He wasn’t a troublemaker at all. He was just a funny, charismatic guy,” he said at an event for his autobiography at the New York Public Library (via Elle Canada). “For him to die so senselessly – I spoke to him that night, and he was so happy to be in Los Angeles, after the whole East Coast-West Coast thing. He felt like he finally was back in Los Angeles and everything was where it was supposed to be.”

After that final conversation, Jay-Z said that news of Biggie’s death came as a cold shock.

“He loved being in Los Angeles – and we see this happen in movies – when everything is just fine, and we hung up the phone, and one hour later, he’s no longer with us.”

Jay-Z had a Tupac diss track ready to go

According to DJ Clark Kent, Jay-Z had penned a diss track directed at Tupac. It didn’t see the light of day because of Tupac’s death. 

“It never came out, out of respect for the fact that he died,” Kent said, per Vulture. “Jay did a record going at Pac, but right as it was about to come out, son died. We performed it, though … at the Apollo.”

Kent said that people would have been shocked if it got widespread release. It was one of the more scathing diss records he’d ever heard. 

“It was scathing, like crowds were like, Oh, s***!” Kent said. “If he was alive, there would’ve been no coming back. This was so tough. To me, it probably was one of the hardest diss records I’ve ever heard.”