Rhetorical situation in Hit em Up

NSFW Warning

In perhaps the greatest rap diss song of all time Tupac and his Outlawz clap back at his rival Notorious B.I.G. The exigence or problem is that Biggie was apparently the one who ordered a hit on Tupac or at least knew that he was going to be shot. He came out with a song called “Who Shot Ya” where he basically claims the attempted murder for himself. This was also during the height of the East Coast vs. West Coast rap beef back when rappers were actually hardcore drug dealers and would murder people straight up. Both Pac and Biggie were former drug dealers and had ascended to fame extremely quickly.

The audience for this song is first and foremost Biggie himself, his best friend Puffy, and all of the other East Coast rappers who found themselves caught up in the mix of this iconic rap feud. He starts the song by saying that he had sex with Biggie’s wife and it only continues from there as he pokes fun at Biggie in a variety of ways while also lyrically murdering him. The other audience is the general public as this was at the time when rap was breaking through to the mainstream and many people were invested in this tragic feud.

Tupac also made several conscious decision in the making of this video and song. He made fun of multiple of Biggie’s music video and had someone who looked like Biggie and his wife in the video. Also, he used and modified a beat that Biggie had already used in order to add insult to injury. After that, he went on a 2 minute rant to Biggie and everyone who had recently dissed him. He was constrained in that many people were on the side of the East Coast rappers, but I don’t think he was really trying to change anyone’s minds. He was just trying to expose Biggie which he did, and it unfortunately led to the death of two of the greatest rappers of all time.