of rap's quest beyond authenticity", in Dina Siegel & Frank Bovenkerk, eds, Crime and Music (Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, 2021), pp 279–280. drew speculations partly blaming the "rap battle."Dorian Lynskey, "Tupac and Biggie die as a result of East/West Coast beef", TheGuardian.com, Guardian News & Media Limited, 12 Jun 2011. Biggie and studio associates who witnessed his "Who Shot Ya" recording have unanimously disputed that it, or Biggie's "saying that phrase," targeted Tupac.Joel Anderson, "The B-side that deepened Biggie and Tupac's rift", Slate.com, Slate Group, 13 Nov 2019. Nashiem Myrick, the main producer, avowed "no reason, no motive, at all, to have set 'Pac up," a query tied to the song.Jake Brown, Jay-Z and the Roc-A-Fella Dynasty (Phoenix, AZ: Colossus Books/Amber Books, 2005), pp 57–58. It was reissued in 1999 on the posthumous Biggie album Born Again, in 2001 on a "Big Poppa/Warning" reissue with remixes,Joel Whitburn, Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–2002 (Menomenee Falls, WI: Record Research, 2003), p 516. in 2004 on a remaster of his 1994 or debut album Ready to Die, and in 2007 on his compilation album Greatest Hits. In 2014, the mixtape version, key inspiration to rapper Jay-Z in 1995,"Notorious B.I.G.: Still the illest", MTV.com, MTV Networks, 9 Mar 2006, archived elsewhere on 24 May 2012, including page 2, Jay-Z: "The world stopped when he dropped 'Who Shot Ya'," simultaneously archived. drew renewed notice. Rock band Living Colour's music video to a 2016 cover version protests gun violence. Who Shot Ya? is now a trope beyond music. Closing another B side Track selection In July 1993, Uptown Records' founder Andre Harrell fired his unbridled A&R man and record producer Sean "Puffy" Combs, age 23, whose new label, Bad Boy Entertainment, then found parenting by Clive Davis's Arista Records. By late 1994, Bad Boy prevailed via rapper Craig Mack's hit single "Flava in Ya Ear," yet especially by Bad Boy's first album, Ready to Die, released on September 13, 1994, the debut album of gangsta rapper the Notorious B.I.G., or Biggie Smalls.For swift summary of Biggie's entry into the music industry, see Robert C Schaller Jr, Kanye West: A Biography (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press/ABC-CLIO, 2009), p 43. The album is mostly grim and hardcore, but Puffy removed "Who Shot Ya" from it. Biggie wanted the first single to be "Machine Gun Funk." Puffy made the first two A sides instead friendly songs—"Juicy" and then