The maxim says that you don't speak ill of the dead, and Jay Z has never been one to offend the spirit world. To wit, DJ Clark Kent appeared on the latest episode of ItsTheReal's A Waste of Time podcast and revealed that Hov had actually recorded a scathing diss track aimed at 2Pac before the latter passed away. "Jay did a record going at Pac," the producer says, "but right as it was about to go out, son died." There are, however a select few people who heard it: "We performed it though. We was at the Apollo. It was scathing. Crowds was like, 'Oh, shit'." 2Pac died in September, 1996, two months after Jay Z's Reasonable Doubt came out; in November of the same year, Death Row dropped The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. On the opening track from that album, "Bomb First (My Second Reply)," Pac raps, "I'm a Bad Boy killer/Jay Z, die, too."

Kent, who produced "Cashmere Thoughts," "Coming of Age" and the Biggie-featuring "Brooklyn's Finest" from Reasonable Doubt, goes on: "The chip on Jay's shoulder is so crazy that it's just like he had to perform" the song. "If [Pac] was alive, there would have been no coming back. To me, it probably was one of the hardest diss records I've ever heard." He admits that he didn't even want a copy of the record for himself, saying, "I know I would have figured out a way to play it." For other fascinating tangents--like how Sauce Money was Puff's best ghostwriter--listen to the podcast in its entirety below:

More From XXL