Hot 97: "I'm a Soldier" (1996)

Original: Radio interview · Hot 97 (WQHT), New York · hosts not recorded · 1996 according to the archive, exact date unknown

What we know about this interview

Only a short excerpt of this conversation survives, transcribed without a date or the names of the hosts. The station is certain: Hot 97, New York’s WQHT, had become the East Coast’s leading hip-hop outlet by the mid-1990s, the very camp Tupac was feuding with. The topics place the excerpt firmly in 1996, in the months after his release from prison in October 1995, when the conflict between Death Row and Bad Boy was being fought in public. Who conducted the interview, and whether it was done in the studio or by phone, could not be established.

A separate, documented Hot 97 conversation from the same year was held by host Angie Martinez: about two hours, of which only roughly twelve minutes aired (The FADER, March 15, 2016). Whether the surviving excerpt comes from it cannot be confirmed, so host and date remain open.

The situation in 1996

Tupac was signed to Death Row, and All Eyez on Me had debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart in February 1996. Ever since the Quad Studios shooting in November 1994 he had accused the circle around The Notorious B.I.G. and Sean “Puffy” Combs of knowing more than they admitted, both denied it. With “Hit ‘Em Up” in June 1996, the dispute became an open war of words.

What they talked about

Tupac described his role with an image that turns up in other interviews from those months too:

“I’m playing a soldier, that’s all.” Tupac Shakur on Hot 97, 1996

He compared himself to KRS-One, who had once called himself “God”; he was simply doing his part in deciding where hip-hop should go. And for him that meant more money, new sounds, different beats, because only money could pay for community centers and buildings in the neighborhoods the artists came from.

When the host objected that attack and counterattack would not end well, Tupac drew a line. He was not attacking anyone physically:

“Do you see me running into Bad Boy with a gun?” Tupac Shakur on Hot 97, 1996

Told that the feud was hurting bystanders too, he was blunt. Life was hard, and anyone who wanted to make millions in rap would have to fight for it the way he had. He listed what music had cost him: bullets, prison, criminal cases and lawsuits that had cost him millions.

Why it matters

The excerpt is brief, but it captures Tupac’s stance in his final year with precision: he saw himself as a warrior in a contest fought with records, sales figures and words, and he rejected any responsibility for possible violence. That he argued this on a New York station makes the exchange a document of escalation. Within months both central figures of the feud were dead, Tupac in September 1996, Biggie in March 1997.

Read more: KMEL, April 1996 · MTV Video Music Awards 1996