ED NOTE: Twelve years ago today, The Notorious B.I.G. was brutally murdered at the all-too-young age of 24. Since his untimely death, VIBE has been at the forefront of remembering Biggie Smalls. We continue by digging into our archives and reproducing a special commemorative package, which was first seen in our October 1999 issue.
Part 2 appears below. Check back at 3:00 p.m., and 6:00 p.m., for parts 3 and 4, respectively.
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1990-1995
“NOW I’M IN THE LIMELIGHT ‘CAUSE I RHYME TIGHT…”
DJ Mister Cee: I was always close to 50 Grand. I was deejaying for Big Daddy Kane and [50] kept telling me, “Yo, I got this kid Biggie Smalls, and he’s dope.” He gave me this home demo tape. It wasn’t even like he had songs. He was rhymin’ off of other people’s beats, like he rhymed over the instrumental of this song called, “Blind Alley” that we used for [Kane’s] “Ain’t No Half Steppin’.” I listened to the tape one time and that was it. It blew my mind.
Justice Rivera: Biggie used to hang with this kid named Chico who let me hear the tape, and I was like, Damn. He could really rap. It kinda reminded me of Big Daddy Kane’s style, but hardcore and with a different voice. Everything he kicked was Brooklyn. I told [Biggie] that I had connections with Kedar [Massenburg, president/CEO of Motown], who was working with [rap group] Freestyle Fellowship at the time. Kedar’s hands were tied but he told me to bring the tape back later. Soon after, Big hooked up with DJ Mister Cee. Kedar once told me that the biggest mistake he made was having [Biggie] on his couch and then letting him get away.
DJ Mister Cee: [Big] came to my house- I’ll never forget- wearing a white T-shirt and black jeans, looking gimy, hungry. I told him about a Source [magazine] contest [for the Unsigned Hype column]. We remade the same tape and I submitted it to Matty C [former Source editor] who called me and was like, “Yo, this kid is ridiculous.” Puffy called Matty and said he was lookin’ for a hardcore rapper. Matty told him about Big, so Puff gives me a call.
Damion Butler: [DJ Mister Cee] was like, “This guy wants to meet Big.” So Big was like, “Please. For what?”
Lil’ Cease: Puff came through Fulton Street lookin’ for him. Biggie wanted to know, “Who the fuck is this nigga, man?” Nobody really knew who he was. But it wasn’t until Puff came lookin’ for him that Biggie started taking the rap thing seriously.
Puffy: When I first met him it was bugged because he was this big, black muthafucker. Now how am I gonna market him? My man looked like a liquor-store robber! But damn, he could spit.
Damion Butler: Once he really knew he could get a record deal, that’s when everything else went out the window. He was 150 percent focused on rap.
DJ Mister Cee: Puffy went the extra mile to get [Biggie] ‘cause he was the most hungry. I just knew nobody was gonna know what to do with Big besides this kid. That’s why I told Big that I would rather he be with somebody [like Puffy] that’s young, black, business-savvy, and hungry.
Sybil Pennix: I was Puffy’s assistant [at Uptown Records] and he used to stuff everybody into my little office even though he had the big VP office. He would make Biggie wait for him in my office all the time. It almost became a big sister/mother/girlfriend type of thing. He told me everything. Before he signed his deal he was worried about getting in trouble with the law ‘cause he was having little issues back then. And he was carrying a gun because he thought he needed it to survive, but I made him give it to me. I kept it in a drawer in the office and no one ever knew. He ended up going to jail for a day or so, so it was a good thing that he didn’t have the gun on him after all.
Tupac and Biggie first connected during Bad Boy’s first trip to L.A. and they were, like, immediate friends. Tupac knew Biggie was coming and he respected him as a lyricist. He brought us to his house in L.A. and barbecued for everyone. After that, the two of them were like Frick and Frack.
Lil’ Cease: Sometime in ’93, Tupac came to [New York] to do a show at The Ritz. Big had just met him, like a month earlier, and Tupac asked Big to come down there to perform. So Big’s out there doin’ “Party and Bullshit,” and he went crazy ‘cause everybody was givin’ him love. Big got so hyper and was movin’ around so much that he fell and bust his ass right on stage! The whole crowd saw, but he kept goin’. It amazed me ‘cause nothin’ stopped his flow. He was on his back still rhymin’. We laughed, but not for long’ cause the crowd thought it was part of the show and went crazy. There was somethin’ about that show that let me know he was gonna be big.
Damion Butler: Tupac was in New York filming Above The Rim, and we would make sure that he was alright. We’d get on the train and go meet him at whatever hotel he was staying in. Tupac would let Biggie open up for him at shows and everything. This was while we were recording Ready To Die. Thinking back, you’d never imagine that the two of them would end up on such a sour note.
DJ Premier: [In the studio] he was very quick. When we did “Unbelievable,” we had been in the studio for the longest time doing nothing but listening to the track. I was getting worried. We still smoking and drinking and he ain’t writing nothing. Then he just said, “Okay, I’m ready.” He went into the booth and just did it.
Damion Butler: Big never wrote a rhyme down in his life. That used to be my fun. Every time he had to do a song with a different artist, I would know that they were thinking Big was bullshitting. They’d give him a pen and a pad and Big would move the pen, pull out his weed and crush it up on the pad. He’d say, “Keep rewinding the beat and turn it up.” When he died he had six songs done in his head. That’s why I don’t believe weed messes up your brain cells, ‘cause that dude had a photographic memory like a muthafucker.
Puffy: He would talk about concepts and that was it. It was all in his head. I said [he should] do a song about a chick setting you up, and that became [1997’s] “Niggas Bleed.”
DJ Premier: We did a show in Virginia when Biggie just had “Party and Bullshit” out. It was me, Jeru [the Damaja] – who only had “Come Clean” – Damion, Cease, and Biggie. We were real hungry, and Big was sitting in his hotel with no clothes on and a bucket of chicken, clipping his toenails. Jeru said, “You need to stop eating that.” Big said, “My name is Biggie, not Rakim.”
Lance “Un” Rivera: Big was that nigga who wouldn’t wear no drawers, no socks. He loved showin’ his naked ass. He’d pull his ass out in a second, and his ass crack would be three feet long! He was that nigga who had food growing underneath his bed. This nigga had sweat rings in his mink coat. And don’t think that changed when he got rich. He stayed exactly the same.
DJ Mister Cee: Before [Ready To Die] came out, he was traveling with me to do a party in Raleigh, N.C. We’re drivin’ down and [Big] starts to get real hungry. This boy literally damn near cried a boo-hoo cry because I wouldn’t make a stop to get something to eat [because we were running late]. I finally stopped so he could chow down on some chicken, and I don’t know, I guess it was like spinach to him. Everything just changed and he was happy again.
dream hampton: Big was hilarious. He used to pay girls a Snapple to do the butterfly. Girls would walk by and he’d be like, “Yo, I got a dollar for anybody who can bogle.” He was so excited when his daughter T’Yanna was born that he’d pay cats to clean his room so that he could wheel the bassinet next to his bed so she could sleep in there. His room was disgusting. It was this little, hot-ass yellow room in the back of his mother’s railroad apartment. Everybody’s been in there, like all of Junior M.A.F.I.A would be tight in there listening to music and playing videos.
Faith Evans: (Faith and Biggie were married August 4, 1994, nine days after they met.) [Big] could walk into a roomful of people and get their attention. Nobody ever said that he was the GQ Man of the Year as far as appearance, but he had a sense of humor. He would just smile like, Hey, ma, what’s up. I don’t know, [he was] magnetic.
Damion Butler: I remember one time we were going to the Billboard Awards or something and we were gonna meet Michael Jackson. On the ride over Big kept sayin’, “What can I do to Michael Jackson that’s not bad, but will make him remember me?” So we got to the meeting and Mike stuck out his hand. Big grabbed his hand, pulled him into a close hug and then flung him back out, like Wassup? He roughed Mike up with a real, old-fashioned, ghetto love hug. Mike was fucked up by that one.
Lil’ Cease: The first show we did was in L.A at Glam Slam. It was our first promo stop and just as we were about to go on stage Big was like, “Here, take this mike.” I go, What’s up?” He says, “Just hold me down.” He told me not to say the whole verse, just to rock. I was scared, but they was lovin’ Big so much that they was lovin’ me [too]. That’s how [Biggie] made me feel.
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