Well, this is fascinating … Chris Rock has lingering beef with Tupac Shakur over the women they dated, and there’s a theory this might directly connect to the Oscar slap at the hand of Will Smith.

Chris was doing the Fly On the Wall podcast with David Spade and Dana Carvey during the Netflix is a Joke week, and they asked him to tick off his 5 favorite rappers. It’s not as important who was on the list, as who was not — namely Tupac.

When pressed, Chris confessed he had beef with Tupac because they often dated the same woman and Tupac usually won out.

Hmmm … Tupac’s most famous GF is none other than Jada Pinkett Smith … the wife of Will Smith.

BTW, Chris’ list includes most of the heavy hitters who typically make the Mt. Rushmore of rap … so, it’s clear why he’d have to explain omitting ‘Pac.

So, the burning question … Did Chris Rock also date Jada back in the day, and was there simmering beef between Will and Chris as a result — beef that boiled over on Oscar night, 2022?

As for Jada, she always denied she ever dated Tupac, although she did say they were “soulmates” … but in a purely platonic way.