Biggie, Biggie, Biggie, can’t you see?
Sometimes your words just hypnotize me
And I just love your flashy ways
Guess that’s why they broke, and you’re so paid (uh)
Biggie, Biggie, Biggie (uh-huh), can’t you see? (Uh)
Sometimes your words just hypnotize me (hypnotize)
And I just love your flashy ways (uh-huh)
Guess that’s why they broke, and you’re so paid (ha)
Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m one of the biggest B.I.G. fans. As an emcee, I have always been a fan of and greatly appreciated flow; the dude was the master of the flow. He could say just about anything and make it sound so smooth for real. I can’t believe this year marks 28 years since the dude was taken away from us. That would mean it will be 29 years since Pac’s been gone later this year. I can’t believe their murders went unsolved for years. I can still remember the morning of March 9, 1997, like it was yesterday.
I had a video show called Street Vibes in New York that I wrote for, produced, and co-hosted with my man Naquan (who I managed as an artist at the time) and my man Steve Oakley. It was Soul Train Awards time. Anyway, like I said, it was the weekend of the Soul Train Awards, and everybody was heading to L.A.
I decided to stay home and chill get some rest, and chill with my girl at the time. My man Naquan went with his people. I’m at my girl’s crib, and my pager goes off at 5 something in the morning. I’m singing the beginning of Biggie’s joint Warning in my head.
Who the hell is this? Pagin’ me at 5:46
In the mornin’, crack of dawn an’
Now I’m yawnin’, wipe the cold out my eye
See who’s this pagin’ me and why
I saw the words “Yo A, Hit me back with a number I can reach you at” across my screen. It was my man Naquan. So I page him back, and my cell rings.
“Yo Dawg, they just shot Biggie,”
Now, if it had been anybody else, I would have hung up the phone on some yo stop playing tip. But this was my man, like my little brother. His family was the first family I met when I moved to Long Island. I was 7 and he and my sister was 2, so we go back.
He says it again, “Yo, you heard what I said.”
Still in disbelief, I asked for details. Naquan and his boy Mike were just kicking it with Big and Puff in the parking garage, I believe he said. We were supposed to interview him for our video show that next week, when he got back from overseas. He wasn’t even supposed to be still in LA, but he wanted to chill a little longer for the Soul Train Awards.
I turn on Hot 97, and Busta Rhymes is just callin’ in telling Angie Martinez what Naquan is telling me. I’m filling him in on what the radio is saying, like what hospital they took him to, and Naquan is describing to me the atmosphere and how NY cats were bugging at the time.
Naquan heads to the hospital but they wont let him go to the floor BIG is on, they got it on lockdown, Im still bugging, I pull out the advance joint, Keep Ya Hands High with Philly artist Tracey Lee which was comin out in another week or two and played it a few times I just wanted to hear some new Biggie lyrics and Puff wasn’t tryna come up off of Life After Death advances for the press cause of all the bootlegging. The Hypnotize video had just been shot in Los Angeles, and I don’t think it was done yet if I remember correctly.
Sometime later, the announced he was dead. To be totally honest, I don’t remember much else. Everything was a blur. I remember feeling like someone had killed my brother or my cousin, and I was mad. I wanted answers, I wanted someone to pay. I still can’t believe it’s been 28 years, and writing this now, I’m getting a little choked up like it was yesterday all over again. He died at the age of 25, he has now been dead longer than he was alive.
Every step I take
Every move I make
Every single day, every time I pray
I’ll be missing you
Thinkin’ of the day
When you went away
What a life to take, what a bond to break
I’ll be missing you (I miss you, B.I.G.)
Speculations were flying around on who shot him. Retaliation for Pac’s death was the biggest one most thrown around. Most may not admit it now, but New York artists and their labels were scrambling to get an earlier flight back to the Big Apple, fearing they may be next.
Man BIG I know you said you was Ready To Die but we’ll Be Missing You and…
We’ll always love Big Poppa (We’ll always love you Big)
We’ll always love Big Poppa (Yeah)
We’ll always love Big Poppa (We’ll always love you Big)
