H is for….”Hit ‘Em Up” by 2Pac. Greg tells me there are other records I need to hear before I can fully understand Tupac’s fatal diss, though rightly points out that a track which begins “I fucked your bitch, you fat motherfucker” doesn’t leave much room for interpretative nuance. “Hit ‘Em Up” is boilingly aggressive, and what’s most effective is the way ‘pac doesn’t even sound riled, just cold. He walks through the track, finding every possible way he could back down, every little chink which might let people say, “Well, he didn’t mean it, it was only a rhyme”. And then he shuts them all off, not least with his scorched-earth closing monologue, where Tupac won’t even do Bad Boy the courtesy of rapping his insults any more. It’s a horrible, addictive, hilarious song, and yes, with hindsight it stinks of death, though if that doesn’t put you off listening to Closer or “Black-Eyed Dog” it shouldn’t put you off listening to this.