Runnin' (dying To Live) - 2pac (feat. Notorious B.i.g) -

Featured verses from 2Pac, Biggie, Stretch, and Dramacydal over a lighter, up-tempo beat with a hook by Lil' Vicious.

Biggie's verse is a 1993 recording, while 2Pac’s verse is a re-recorded take intended for the Thug Life: Vol. 1 album before the bicoastal feud escalated. Lyrical and Contextual Analysis Runnin' (Dying To Live) - 2Pac (feat. Notorious B.I.G)

Eminem stripped away the original guest verses and replaced the upbeat production with a melancholic arrangement centered around a high-pitched sample of Edgar Winter's "Dying to Live". Featured verses from 2Pac, Biggie, Stretch, and Dramacydal

The Edgar Winter sample— "Why am I fighting to live if I'm just living to fight? / Why am I trying to see when there ain't nothing in sight?" —acts as a philosophical inquiry into the "thug life" ideology. Lyrical and Contextual Analysis Eminem stripped away the

The song is a posthumous remix of the 1994 track " Runnin' from tha Police ," originally produced by during a brief window when 2Pac and Biggie were friends.

While the original 1994 verses focused on "runnin'" from law enforcement, the 2003 remix reframes the lyrics as a struggle for survival within the violent culture that eventually claimed both artists.