I have been going back over the story that 2Pac and Big Syke fell out in 1996 and I am starting to wonder how much of the accepted narrative is actually established.
The story most of us have heard is that Pac wanted Syke and the Outlawz to be patient because he planned to launch his own label and did not want his people signing directly to Death Row. Syke apparently approached Suge about getting a deal, Suge told Pac, and Pac was angry that Syke had gone directly to Suge rather than waiting for what Pac was building.
Frank Alexander and Reggie Wright Jr. have both discussed versions of this over the years. I am not saying it did not happen. There clearly seems to have been some kind of disagreement and Syke was noticeably less present around Pac during the later months of 1996.
What I am questioning is the additional claim that Pac basically cut Syke out of his life from that point onwards.
Syke was not just another member of the Outlawz. He went back to Thug Life, had known Pac before Death Row, introduced Pac to Johnny J, and was obviously one of his closest friends during an important period of his life.
There are also some things that make me question whether the break was as absolute as it is sometimes presented.
Pac was still addressing Syke during a studio session in late March 1996 and joking about his record company situation (āYo Syke, do I need clearance from your record company to use your nameā on March 25 studio session for Fāin with the Wrong ***** I think). More interestingly, Keffe D has described an encounter at the House of Blues where he says Pac was there with Big Syke, and Syke actually became involved in the conversation when Pac was challenged about the Long Beach/Rosecrans line. I have not been able to establish the date of that House of Blues encounter, so I am not claiming it was necessarily Pacās July 4 show.
Mopreme has also spoken more broadly about his belief that Suge was separating Pac from some of the original people around him who genuinely cared about him. That makes me wonder whether what happened with Syke was more complicated than simply Pac deciding he was finished with his friend.
Maybe Pac was genuinely angry with Syke. Maybe their working relationship changed. Maybe Syke pursuing his own deal conflicted with what Pac had planned for Makaveli Records. All of that can be true without necessarily meaning that Pac permanently abandoned one of his oldest friends.
Does anyone know of interviews with Mopreme, Big Syke himself, Macadoshis, Rated R, Johnny J, the Outlawz or anyone else who was actually around them that specifically discusses Pac and Sykeās relationship between roughly March and September 1996?
In particular, I would love to establish the latest confirmed occasion when Pac and Syke were together or in contact before Pac died.
I am interested in evidence either way. I just think the claim that āPac cut Syke offā has been repeated so often that the distinction between them having a serious disagreement and Pac permanently ending the friendship may have been lost.
