Napoleon appeared on Cam Capone News where he spoke about losing out to a feature on Ice Cube’s hit single due to his loyalty to Tupac Shakur.
“I confronted Ice Cube. Once again I was very young and ignorant, hot headed. I was in the studio with a guy name One Eye,” Napoleon recalled. “I thought Cube was dissing ‘Pac in one of these songs. I was the type of person that my loyalty comes before my career.”
According to Napoleon, One Eye was ready to link the former Outlawz member with Ice Cube. Napoleon was slated to appear on a song with Cube that later became a huge hit for the former N.W.A. artist. Although Tupac had passed away, Napoleon now as a solo artist was ready to take his career to new heights. But, his loyalty to Tupac stood in the way and Napoleon felt the need to question Ice Cube, wondering if he was ever truly dissing Tupac or not.
“Had to clarify this before…. cause the dude [One Eye] wanted me to get on a song. So, myself as a solo artist probably would have been bigger than what it ever been if I would have gotten on that song,” Napoleon explained. “That song became a hit.”
After approaching and questioning Cube in studio about dissing Tupac, Cube denied ever taking a shot at Shakur. Shortly after, Cube left the studio and his collab with Napoleon never happened. “Of course after that he never put me on the song,” Napoleon said.
On two separate occasions, Tupac did not shy away as he was very vocal on his issues with Ice Cube. On Tupac’s last interview by Rob Marriot, Shakur explained his problem with Ice Cube. “I dig Ice Cube. I looked up to him, but because I looked up to him and I studied his style, I mastered his sh*t, I know what he is doing is wrong,” Tupac said in the August 24, 1996 interview. “His sh*t ain’t selling, so now he’s going to the war sh*t. And, he’s using us as the gas. He just dropped some sh*t called ‘Bow down.’ And, if you listen to it, you can see that he heard ‘Hit ‘Em Up’ and was like, ‘Oh that’s how it is suppose to be.’ Why wasn’t he making them bow down when I was in jail. That’s what I mean. That’s wrong.”
Back in 2019, Ice Cube was interviewed by Genius where he spoke about Tupac’s ‘Hit ‘Em up’ diss record. Genius host Rob Markman touched on Tupac and The Outlawz diss record “Hit ‘Em Up,” labeling the song as a game changer in the world of hip-hop. But Ice Cube thought ‘Pac went too hard saying, “I think he went to far. If I’m mad at you trust me I could think of five verses for just you I don’t have to go at your family, your kids, your whole life. It’s one on one mano a mano in a way”
The friction between Tupac and Cube goes further than 1996. According to DJ Assassin, Yo-Yo was signed to Cube’s label and did not allow the female artist to appear on Tupac’s classic hit ‘Dear Mama.’ Tupac and Yo-Yo had a very close friendship and relationship during the time.
Years later, Assassin would finally break the news to Yo-Yo after seeing her on Money B’s show. Yo-Yo was not happy about the news. According to Assassin, at the time, neither was Tupac. “Tupac was mad as F***. He was mad. “I never seen him mad like this unless somebody was fighting with him. This was on the business tip. I never seen ‘Pac get mad on the business tip.”
