It was not just a battle between east and west coast, but between two types of hustle. The rough, in the form of Compton-born Marion "Suge" Knight, a failed American footballer whose intimidating physique and links to street crime became an asset while running gangsta rap label Death Row Records. And the smooth, epitomised by Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, suburban New Yorker and founder of the Bad Boy label, a marketing genius with an ego even bigger than his mouth.
Both sought to dominate hip-hop as it went mainstream in the mid-90s. Their respective rosters were home to rival talents – Dr Dre, Snoop and Tupac on Death Row, Biggie Smalls on Bad Boy – but the Californians took their allotted role a little too seriously. In 1992, Knight pistol-whipped, then threatened to kill, aspiring rappers George and Lynwood Stanley, for using a studio phone while he was expecting a call.
Chart rivalry and lyrical pot shots gave way to escalating threats, with Tupac and Biggie murdered within six months of each other in 1996 and 97. It's a sign of the chaos of the era that both killings remain unsolved. Long-term, Combs's business acumen won out, with Knight ending up in prison and bankrupt. But, for a while, criminality paid.
