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Who Shot Ya?

"Who Shot Ya?" is a song by The Notorious B.I.G. that can be found on the rapper's posthumous release Born Again, the remastered edition of Ready to Die and The Greatest Hits. It is also the b-side of hit single, "Big Poppa".

This song is known for stirring up the East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry, since Tupac Shakur believed it to be a subliminal diss song mocking his robbery/shooting in November of 1994 inside a recording studio in Manhattan, New York. Although Biggie and close friend Sean Combs were only one floor above Pac when this happened, they vehemently denied the rapper's accusations. The song samples David Porter's "I'm Afraid The Masquerade Is Over".

Originally the song was recorded for the Mary J. Blige album My Life and meant for what eventually became the K. Murray Interlude (as evidenced on the track by use of the same instrumental) however Biggie's version was deemed too violent for an R&B album and Keith Murray was asked to record his version instead.

In 2006, lead vocalist of System of a Down, Serj Tankian, did a remix of the song for the video game Marc Eckō's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. After the death of Notorious B.I.G. Lil' Kim resang it and used, also in 2008 Papoose (rapper) used the beat and some of the lyrics from this song to make his version of Who Shot Ya, which was a diss record to Uncle Murda. It is featured on his 2008 mixtape "Build or Destroy" and lasts 8:03.

The song has a lyrical reference to the Wu-Tang song "C.R.E.A.M.", and refers Brooklyn as "Crooklyn".

Appears On

• Ready To Die (Remaster Edition)

• Born Again

• Greatest Hits (The Notorious B.I.G. album)

• Big Poppa 12" Single