Earlier this year, Snoop Dogg recalled an encounter Nas and 2Pac had in New York's Central Park before the 1996 MTV Music Awards
"Pac had seen Nas in the park, and he and Nas had words," Snoop explained. "But Nas didn't want none. But Nas has 100 niggas with guns. By me saying he didn't want none, didn't mean he punked out. It mean he just didn't to go all the way there because we was in New York in Central Park. With 100 goons from New York circled us. Pac didn't even see them. I did because I had a gang bang mentality. I seen the niggas putting their hands in their pockets when Pac was in [Nas's] ear telling him 'Nigga, nigga I made a song, nigga, dissing you, JAY-Z ,Biggie.'"
Outlawz member Napoleon was there, too, but he remembers things differently than Snoop. According to Napoleon, 2Pac and Death Row had had just as many goons as Nas did, and they were very aware that Nas also had goons.
"I was walking around with a .357 on me. Half of my homies, 40 or 50 of them, most of them were strapped. Snoop, he probably forgot," Napoleon explained on Swans N Company.
"He was deep," he said about Nas. "He wasn't afraid. I'm not trying to say he was afraid ... Ever since that day, I respected Nas. It could have went either way ... we had so many guns that day and I'm sure Nas and them did to. That's why I thank God that Nas and Pac was able to come together and talk like man instead of being ignorant because it would have probably been a bloodbath."
As for Snoop's interpretation of the events ... Napoleon speculates that he "smoked something too strong" and forgot what really happened.