Y Combinator Gerry Tan on San Francisco crime: Tupac lyrics, ‘gouging out its own eyes’

“F— Chan Peskin Preston Walton Melgar Ronen Safai Chan as a label and motherf—ing crew,” Tan tweeted in the early-morning hours of Jan. 27, naming members of the city’s Board of Supervisors.

“And if you are down with Peskin Preston Walton Melgar Ronen Safai Chan as a crew f— you too,” he wrote in a since-deleted post. “Die slow motherf—ers.” 

Tan also posted a picture of what he said was his private liquor cabinet. Responding to a user who suggested Tan was “hammered” while writing the post, Tan said, “you are right,” and “motherf— our enemies.” 

Tan apologized the next day, while deleting the posts, saying there was “no place, no excuse and no reason for this language and this type of speech.” Sam Singer, a spokesperson for Tan, told Fortune, said “Garry Tan made a terrible, terrible mistake in quoting rap lyrics and referencing members of the board of supervisors. He withdrew the tweet and apologized to the supervisors for his lack of judgment.” 

The post was a reference to a Tupac Shakur track, Hit ’Em Up. One of hip hop’s most famous “diss tracks,” it was a little over five minutes of expletive-laden fury that fueled the East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry in the 1990s and, according to Mission Local, contributed to Shakur’s shooting death in Las Vegas just three months after the song’s release. 

Tan has been a loud and pugnacious commentator on the state of San Francisco, weighing in frequently on X and recently pushing to get more tech entrepreneurs involved in politics. 

But despite Tan’s regret over his Tupac tribute, he clearly still feels strongly about urban crime in his city. “San Francisco, to some extent, has gouged its own eyes out,” Tan told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month, while hosting a gathering of political donors in his condo. And Tan is…