8 Ways "Above The Rim" Changed The Rap Game Forever

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Above The Rim: The Soundtrack was the third Death Row / Interscope release to reach the top of Billboard's R&B charts—where it would stay for a total of 10 weeks—and the first to feature so much R&B. Opening with SWV's "Anything" (featuring Method Man, ODB, and U-God of Wu Tang Clan) the all-killer-no-filler soundtrack segued into Sweet Sable's "Old Times Sake" (the track Alicia Keys and Kanye West would rework for their 2005 jam "Unbreakable" ) and H-Town's "Part Time Lover" before the first rap joint, Snoop & Tha Dogg Pound's original "Big Pimpin." Although the cassette version balanced things out with three extra rap cuts, more than half the 18 tracks on the CD were sexed-up R&B. There's not one but two joints from Jewell, as well as a remarkably raw track by old school L.A. gospel/soul vocalist D.J. Rogers—former director of the Watts Community Choir—called "Doggystyle." As if Death Row wasn't already a powerful force to be reckoned with, this double-platinum release established them in a new musical genre and in the movie soundtrack game.

Right out of the gate the soundtrack's biggest hit was "Regulate" by Warren G featuring Nate Dogg. Warren Griffin III grew up in Long Beach with Nate and Snoop Dogg where the three formed a group called 213 that broke up when Snoop and Nate signed with Death Row. Warren decided to focus on his solo career, which kicked into overdrive with the release of "Regulate," which was built around a moody sample from "I Keep Forgetting" by former Doobie Bro Michael McDonald. "I'm tweaking into a whole new era," Warren boasted on the track. "G-Funk step to this, I dare ya. Funk on a whole new level..." At which point Nate chimed in, cryptically, "The rhythm is the bass and the bass is the treble." Though the G-Funk sonic recipe would remain top secret, the song soared to No. 2 on Billboard's pop charts and eventually landed Warren G a deal with NYC rap powerhouse Def Jam. His solo debut album went on to sell over 3 million copies.

The 1995 Source Awards are usually cited as the initial flashpoint in the East Coast versus West Coast rivalry. Between Death Row CEO Suge Knight subliminally taunting Puffy from the awards podium to Snoop's outburst after Dr. Dre's producer of the year award received a mixture of cheers and boos, the rivalry was out in the open from that day forward. But tensions had been simmering beneath the surface for years. Above The Rim was a movie set in Harlem's Rucker Park, the legendary NYC street-ball mecca, and its soundtrack album, produced by Death Row, did not include a single New York rapper (with the exception of the Wu features on SWV's "Anything" and Treach's guest verse on one bonus track).

Instead it was chock-full of tracks from Snoop, Tha Dogg Pound, DJ Quik, 2nd II None, O.F.T.B., and—the star of the film—2Pac, who was not signed to Death Row at the time, by the way. It wasn't until 1995 that Suge posted $1.4 million to spring him from prison and officially sign him to Tha Row.

Illmatic would drop just four weeks later, and Bad Boy Records' first release was still months away at the time, but the subliminal message here was that New York rap was irrelevant. It didn't help matters when the trophy for Soundtrack of the Year at the 1995 Source Awards went to Above The Rim: The Soundtrack.

Not content with taking over the entire west coast rap, Death Row CEO Suge Knight paid a visit to the offices of Uptown Entertainment boss Andre Harrell to renegotiate the contracts of Jodeci and Mary J. Blige. During a now-legendary negotiation that took place in the label's men's room, Suge reportedly sprung both acts from their Uptown management contracts—being managed by the same label you're signed to is never a good look—and doubled their royalty rates.

The strong-arm victory fueled speculation that Suge would soon be opening up an East Coast branch of Death Row. By 1995 Mary was describing Suge as "That guy in the movies who goes around getting the bad people—Charles Bronson, right?" When VIBE's Kevin Powell asked Suge about the methods he used to get Harrell to renegotiate the contracts, Suge replied: "It's like this. Was you there? ...Then there's nothin' to talk about." Suge never did get Mary to sing on any Death Row releases, but when the Above The Rim soundtrack included two tracks produced by Jodeci's Devante Swing and one by Mr. Dalvin, there was a lot to talk about.

Track No. 10 on the soundtrack was the classic "Afro Puffs" by the hardest female rapper since MC Lyte, The Lady of Rage. Virginia-born Robin Yvette Allen got her start working with the Original Outlaw Brothers from Queens and also recorded with Chubb Rock under the name Rockin' Robin. She caught the ear of Dr. Dre who put her gruff vocals on several cuts from The Chronic as well as the "G Funk Intro" on Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle, from which her breakout single's unforgettable hook—"I rock ruff and stuff with my Afro-Puffs"—was sampled. With Dre and Daz on the beat and Snoop encouraging Rage to "Rock on witcha bad self" on the hook, the song became an instant classic. This record should have been the start of a brilliant career, but Death Row would soon be distracted by the singing of Tupac Shakur and took three years to release her debut album. Rage's enduring legacy of hardcore lyrics and self-respect without preachiness or positivity was confirmed most recently when she was shouted out on M.I.A.'s latest album Matangi.

Five months after Above The Rim hit stores, Biggie dropped his single "Juicy," whose images of yesteryear included Word Up! magazine, Salt N Pepa & Heavy D up in the limousine, and the unforgettable line "I let my tape rock till my tape popped." Cassette releases would continue well into the next decade, but Above The Rim was that joint you needed to get on cassette, if only because of three bonus tracks—Lord G's "Mi Moni Rite," "Loyal to the Game" by 2Pac, Treach, and Riddler, and most of all Tupac's sublime "Pain," featuring and produced by his then close friend Randy "Stretch" Walker.

A member of the late 80s rap crew Live Squad, Randy "Stretch" Walker linked up with Tupac Shakur during his Digital Underground days and the two remained close friends. They collaborated on "Crooked Ass Nigga" from Pac's debut album 2Pacalypse Now, and Stretch produced Pac's hit single "Holler if you Hear Me." They would go on to make several other tracks together, the best of which was "Pain," which included such unforgettable bars as "I'm drinkin' Hennessy / Runnin' from my enemies / Will I live to be 23?"

Eight months after the song's release as a bonus track on the Above The Rim soundtrack, Pac and Stretch made a fateful trip to Quad Studios in New York where they were ambushed, beaten, shot, and robbed. Pac later gave an incendiary jailhouse interview which suggested that Biggie and Puff had something to do with the robbery, and also questioned Stretch's loyalty for not defending him against the attackers. Exactly one year to the day later, Stretch was shot to death at age 27 in Queens following a car chase that left his green minivan flipped over. Although the murder remains unsolved, many insiders believe that the date of his death was no coincidence.

During the fall of 1993, Tupac began hanging out in New York to film Above The Rim. Riding high off the release of his album Strictly 4 My Niggas, the rap star attracted the attention of street dudes like Haitian Jack and a few of his associates. "I was kicking it with him the whole time I was in New York doing Above The Rim," he told Kevin Powell from a jail cell on Rikers Island, where he was doing time on sexual assault charges stemming from a young lady he met through his new friends. "He said 'I'm going to look after you. You don't need to get in no more trouble.'" Famous last words.

"I got close to them," Pac told Powell. "I used to dress in baggies and sneakers. They took me shopping; that's when I bought my Rolex and all my jewels. They made me mature. They introduced me to all these gangsters in Brooklyn." He met their families and even tried to get one in the movie, but he didn't want to do it. "That bothered me," Shakur said. "I didn't know any nigga that didn't want to be in the movies."

Maybe Pac should have trusted his instincts. During the sexual assault trial he was invited to Quad Studios to lay down a verse by one of his new acquaintances. As he walked into the lobby, he was ambushed, robbed of his jewels, beaten, and shot. Because Biggie and Puffy happened to be in the studio that night, Pac assumed they had something to do with the set-up, and threw their names in the press, ratcheting up the tensions between Bad Boy and Death Row. Biggie, who tried to warn Pac to be careful about the friends he was associating with, always insisted he had nothing to do with the shooting. Although his release of the song "Who Shot Ya" didn't do much to clarify the situation. Within three years, the East-West beef escalated to tragic proportions leaving Pac and Big dead.

Three years later, on his posthumously released The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, Pac (in Makaveli mode) aired out his former friends on the track "Against All Odds" (aka "the realest shit I ever wrote"). "Set me up, wet me up, niggas stuck me up/Heard the guns bust but you tricks never shut me up."