"I feel like my words were taken outta context" — Questlove reacts to backlash over his criticism of Tupac's Hit 'Em Up

Questlove has recently responded to the criticism which resulted from his statement about the single, Hit 'Em Up, by Tupac Shakur. During his appearance on the podcast, One Song, he described Shakur's song as the "weakest diss." While the words led to a lineup of negative reactions, the rapper shared an Instagram post on May 15, 2024, to clarify what he said.

Questlove, aka Ahmir K. Thompson, started by writing that he had seen a few texts where people questioned him on why he had a problem with 2Pac. He stated—

"I feel like my words were taken outta context from that interview so I'm making it clear that I was never a fan of that particular musical interpretation of "Don't Look Any Further.""

Questlove continued by referring to disputes that have been commonly going on among artists. He added—

"I know Battling is part of the sport of hip hop. If there was a history of cats just keeping it on wax? Yeah, idda been along w yall. But as with most battles it leaves the MCs & Their Crews & then suddenly the outside world gets involved. Those were dark times if you were there."

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Questlove also referred to the fans of 2Pac in One Song: Podcast statement explained

Tupac Shakur's diss track, Hit 'Em Up, came out in 1996 and turned out to be highly successful. The song was specifically in the headlines for featuring lyrics that insulted artists involved with the East Coast hip-hop industry. However, Questlove said during his conversation on One Song that the "music tracking" could have been improved. He added—

"Hit 'Em Up, to me, is disqualified, not because of the misogyny – forget all that. It's like, 'Dude, you're rhyming over smooth jazz dinner music.' Luther Vandross could sing over this!"

Questlove continued by aiming at Tupac's fans, saying that the people who were born after the 70s share a different kind of relationship with the artist. He also stated—

"So, when this came out, everybody was like, 'This is hard as sh*t! Yo, he killin' it!' And I was like, 'Dog, he's smooth jazzed up Dennis Edwards. It doesn't count.'"

As mentioned, he took to his Instagram page to reply to the negative response that resulted from his statement. He wrote in the post—

"I said I never liked the interpolation (when musicians replay a sample) of "Don't Look Any Further" on "Hit Em Up" I said nothing disparaging about Dennis Edwards or Pac – y'all turning this into a weird game of telephone."

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Questlove responds to the latest beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar

Drake and Kendrick Lamar were in the headlines for some time after they released multiple diss tracks targeted at each other. The songs grabbed a lot of public attention due to the lyrics and Questlove responded to the same through Instagram on May 7, 2024. He said that there was no winner in this beef and added—

"This wasn't about skill. This was a wrestling match level mudslinging and takedown by any means necessary – women & children (& actual facts) be damned."

Drake and Lamar's dispute emerged from J. Cole's song, First Person Shooter, which was released last year. Cole stated in the lyrics that he was one of the "big three" along with Drake and Lamar. Kendrick initially targeted Cole and Drake in Metro Boomin's song Like That, following which the artists started releasing diss tracks.