Oakland councilmember drops Tupac diss track on public works boss
Biggie-level beef hits Oakland City Hall! Public Works director says IG post amounts to a threat against a public official. Councilmember says, "it wasn't me" who created the offending video
☕️MORNING BUZZ
—The escalating feud between Oakland Councilmember Ken Houston and Public Works Director Josh Rowan is now drawing comparisons to the notorious East Coast–West Coast hip-hop war between Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.
In this version, it’s East Oakland versus West Oakland.
The conflict intensified last month when Rowan accused Houston of interfering with Public Works operations in Houston’s East Oakland district. Houston responded by reportedly filing a complaint against Rowan with the Oakland Public Ethics Commission.
But the war of words, already simmering through multiple council and committee hearings this year, took a sharp turn last week.
Houston reposted a lengthy Instagram video of himself gesturing while Tupac Shakur’s “Hit ’Em Up” played in the background, alongside screenshots of an article detailing his dispute with Rowan.
—To anyone familiar with hip-hop history, the choice of soundtrack was striking. “Hit ’Em Up” is widely considered one of the most aggressive diss tracks ever recorded.
In it, Tupac unleashes a barrage of personal attacks on Biggie Smalls and Bad Boy Records, boasting about sleeping with Biggie’s wife, threatening violence, and declaring his intention to destroy his rivals’ careers.
The track’s relentless hostility became a defining moment in the rap feud. Its message is widely understood as a call to hit back with maximum force.
Three months after the single was released, Tupac was killed in a still-unsolved drive-by shooting, cementing the song’s grim place in pop-culture lore.
Rowan said he fully understands the meaning and cultural weight of the track and believes Houston’s post amounts to a threat against a public official, an offense that can be charged as a felony.
—Houston, however, said he didn’t realize the edited video included the Tupac song when a content creator tagged him, and then Houston approved it for reposting to his own account.
Houston acknowledged he is not an expert in Instagram and questioned why the platform allows users to attach licensed music if it might be interpreted as threatening.
Notably, the video did not appear on Houston’s Facebook page, where he typically posts and frequently engages—sometimes heatedly—with commenters.
Houston added that he will remove the Instagram post only if instructed to do so by the city attorney, the city administrator, or city council president.
—During Houston’s first year in office, he’s exhibited intense independence, defiance toward the status quo, and a default-setting for candid, quotable soundbites.
For example, earlier this year, Houston reminisced during a council meeting about attending sideshows in Oakland as a young person and carrying a “strap,” a reference to a firearm. Houston added that his younger self was mainly at sideshows for the attention of women.
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