On June 25, 1996, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, Dame Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke embarked on a creative journey that has morphed into a billion-dollar movement today with the release of the Reasonable Doubt LP.
Released courtesy of their independent Roc-A-Fella imprint, Jay’s premier album was promoted and sanctioned by the streets, with previews of the album via sampler cassettes hitting the streets in the winter of 1995. The album’s first single, “Ain’t No Nigga”, featuring a then-teenage Foxy Brown, was the introduction of “Jigga” to the industry that would eventually put him in the pole position of the rap game.
Other unforgettable tracks from one of the prototype LPs of the “mafia rap” era include, “Dead Presidents II,” “Can’t Knock The Hustle,” which features Mary J. Blige, “Brooklyn’s Finest” with the late Notorious B.I.G. and the introduction of Marcy young gun Memphis Bleek on “Coming Of Age”.
All-star production from the likes of DJ Premier, Irv Gotti, Ski and Clark Kent propelled the album along with Jay’s common street ethics surgically placed melodically on the beats.
Salute to Jay, Biggs, Dame, Pain In Da Ass and the rest of the old Roc-A-Fella staff for this timeless classic!
Shaquille O’ Neal and Jersey Legend Productions are bringing back hits from Shaq’s legendary hip-hop album You Can’t Stop The Reign; which was initially released in 1996 by O’ Neal’s TWisM record label during his prominence in the NBA and the Hip-Hop scene. The album paired him with some of the most iconic emcees of the time including The Notorious B.I.G, Jay-Z, Mobb Deep and Rakim; and also featured appearances from Bobby Brown, DJ Quik and Ralph Tresvant among others.
The album’s title track, a nod to Shaq’s success on and off the court, as well as the musical prowess of B.I.G., became a Billboard Top 100 hit on the Hip-Hop/R&B Airplays and No. 17 on the official Dance Singles Chart.
The “You Can’t Stop The Reign” single is now available for the first time at all DSP’s and the full album will be officially released on 6.28.24.
Most recently, Rolling Stone published a Diddy exposé, and Voletta Wallace, the late The Notorious B.I.G.’s mother, felt compelled to speak to Rolling Stone about it all.
“I’m sick to my stomach,” Wallace told the publication, in reference to learning about Diddy’s alleged years-long depravity. “I’m praying for Cassie. I’m praying for his mother. I don’t want to believe the things that I’ve heard, but I’ve seen [the hotel video]. I pray that he apologizes to her.”
Wallace added, “I hope that I see Sean one day, and the only thing I want to do is slap the daylights out of him. And you can quote me on that. Because I liked him. I didn’t want to believe all the awful things, but I’m so ashamed and embarrassed.”
The Rolling Stone report by Cheyenne Roundtree and Nancy Dillon surfaced even more concerning alleged behavior dating back to the 1980s, including new Biggie-related details, as summarized by Rolling Stone‘s Roundtree and Jason Newman below:
“Rolling Stone‘s investigation into Combs documented a pattern of alleged abuse dating back to Combs’ time at Howard University in the late 1980s. Early Bad Boy staffers, associates and industry sources also recalled how Biggie viewed his label boss as a ‘corny executive’ and was on the verge of leaving Bad Boy before his murder in 1997. Combs capitalized on the shock and sorrow over his star artist’s death, sources say, pushing his team to ensure Biggie’s upcoming album, Life After Death would top the charts and allegedly dismissing discussions to put Biggie on the cover of Rolling Stone.
Bad Boy’s co-founding partner and president Kirk Burrowes told Rolling Stone that he advocated for the late rapper to get the cover. ‘I was telling Sean, ‘Let’s make it Biggie. You still have a chance [for a cover in the future],” Burrowes recalled. ‘He’s like ‘No, he’s dead. I’m putting out [Combs’ debut album, No Way Out] in July. I need to be on the cover of Rolling Stone.’” (Voletta Wallace declined to comment on the anecdote.)”
“We are aware of the video that has been circulating online allegedly depicting Sean Combs assaulting a young woman in Los Angeles,” the Los Angeles Police Department stated on May 20. “We find the images extremely disturbing and difficult to watch. If the conduct depicted occurred in 2016, unfortunately we would be unable to charge as the conduct would have occurred beyond the timeline where a crime of assault can be prosecuted.”
Today, “the greatest rapper of all time” was born; Brooklyn’s own Christopher Wallace, better known as the Notorious B.I.G. Smalls had the game on lock before an unknown suspect gunned him down on March 9, 1997. His music, however, lives on.
From his debut single, “Juicy,” to charted success through his collaborations with protégé group, Junior Mafia to the infamous East Coast/West Coast beef, and his individual feud with West Coast rapper, Tupac, Smalls’ triumph is legendary and continues to resonate with fans.
The rap slayer had numerous hits in his catalog and even more memorable lines. There were several times, however, Smalls was ruthless and aggressive, although as fans we may have been unaware if there was an underlying issue or a diss record target, but we definitely rapped along with his merciless storytelling lyrics. In honor of the Notorious’ 46th birthday, here are 10 most cutthroat Biggie Smalls lyrics.
Dead Wrong
“Relax and take notes, while I take tokes of the marijuana smoke. Throw you in a choke – gun smoke, gun smoke. Biggie Smalls for mayor, the rap slayer, the hooker layer – motherf*cker say your prayers. Hail Mary full of grace; smack the b*tch in the face, take her Gucci bag and the North Face off her back. Jab her if she act funny with the money, oh you got me mistaken honey.”
Machine Gun Funk
“Sticks and stones break bones, but the gat’ll kill you quick, especially when I’m drunk off the liquor.”
Respect
“Now I’m thirteen, smokin’ blunts, makin’ cream, on the drug scene, f*ck a football team. Riskin’ ruptured spleens by the age of sixteen. Hhearing ‘ the coach scream at my lifetime dream, I mean I wanna blow up, stack my dough up. So school I didn’t show up, it f*cked my flow up.”
Kick In Ya Door
“So, Jesus, get off the Notorious penis, before I squeeze and bust. If the beef between us, we can settle it with the chrome and metal sh*t. I make it hot, like a kettle get, you’re delicate, you better get, who sent ya?”
Party and Bullsh*t
“But all we wanna know is “Where the party at?” And can i bring my gat? If not, I hope I don’t get shot. But I throw my vest on my chest ’cause n*ggas is a mess. It don’t take nothin’ but frontin’ for me to start somethin’.”
10 Crack Commandments
“Number nine, shoulda been number one to me: if you ain’t getting bagged stay the f*ck from the police. If n*ggas think you snitchin they aint tryna listen. They be sitting in your kitchen, waiting to start hitting.”
Suicidal Thoughts
“When I die, f*ck it I wanna go to hell. Cause I’m a piece of sh*t, it ain’t hard to f*ckin’ tell. It don’t make sense, goin’ to heaven wit the goodie-goodies. Dressed in white, I like black timbs and black hoodies. God will probably have me on some real strict shit. No sleepin’ all day, no gettin my d*ck licked.”
Notorious Thugs
“Armed and dangerous, ain’t too many can bang with us. Straight up weed, no angel dust, label us Notorious. Thug ass n*ggas that love to bust, it’s strange to us. Y’all n*ggas be scramblin, gambling. Up in restaurants with mandolins, and violins. We just sittin here tryin to win, tryin not to sin. High off weed and lots of gin. So much smoke need oxygen, steadily counting them Benjamins.”
Who Shot Ya?
“Who shot ya? Separate the weak from the obsolete. Hard to creep them Brooklyn streets. It’s on, n*gga, f*ck all that bickering beef. I can hear sweat trickling down your cheek. Your heartbeat sound like Sasquatch feet. Thundering, shaking the concrete….
I burn, baby, burn like Disco Inferno. Burn slow like blunts with yayo. Peel more skins than Idaho potato. N*ggas know, the lyrical molestin’ is takin’ place. F*ckin’ with B.I.G. it ain’t safe.”
Freestlye at MSG
“I got 7 Mac-11’s. About eight 38s. Nine 9s. 10 Mac Tens. The shit never ends. You can’t touch my riches. Even if you had MC Hammer and them 357 b*tches…..Oh my God I’m dropping shit like a pigeon. I hope your listening. Smacking babies at their christening.”
Speaking on Instagram Live over the weekend, Miami Hip Hop pioneer Uncle Luke delved into his unsuccessful efforts to try to broker peace between the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur before both of their untimely and tragic deaths.
Luke spoke to fans about his failed attempts to bring the two former friends to ther negotiating table for a man-to-man sit-down during their very public rivalry, which ended between the two superstars on September 7, 1996.
“I remember when 2Pac and Biggie had the beef going on. Now, mind you, I tried to get in the middle of it and squash it,” he said. “I kinda cooled it off, but it was a little too late. Outside people got involved.” Luke added, “Man, I remember going to St. Louis doing a show with Biggie. I went on before him and by the time he got to the stage, them people were screaming ‘2Pac.’ They was singing 2Pac songs. That is the most discouraging thing when you in a battle, when you in the heat of a battle on tour, that people would go to the stadium and don’t even wanna hear your songs.”
On the otherwise politically centered PBD Podcast with Patrick Bet-David, former Roc-A-Fella Records CEO Dame Dash claimed that the late Notorious B.I.G. and Diddy, then known as Puff Daddy, were emulating him and Jigga in the mid 90s, which led to friction between the two factions.
“Big was the only person I used to smoke with. I didn’t smoke before at all; we used to drink. Supposedly, Jay and Big went to school together but Jay didn’t know him,” Dash said.
“Because we were getting the money and popping the bottles and all that, in that moment, we had always felt that Biggie and Puffy were copying us. They’d see us in the club and it seemed like the next day, a record would be made.”
“That lifestyle of [a] hustler, that was us. That was them copying us, for sure. So we kinda had problems. I was run up [on] sometimes. I was confrontational with Biggie and them at first, but we finally got cool.”
On this day in 1997, Brooklyn native and Hip Hop legend Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in LA. 27 years ago
Wallace left Puff Daddy’s Vibe Magazine party in a GMC SuburbanS.U.V.V that stopped at a red light at Wilshire Boulevard and South Fairfax. While stopped a Chevrolet ImpalaS.S.S pulled up beside him and his entourage. According to witnesses, a black male dressed in a blue suit and bow tie rolled down his window and shot Biggie four times and he was pronounced dead at 1:15 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
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After years of investigations and conspiracy theories as to who killed Biggie and why, no one has been brought to justice to answer for Wallace’s death. Former LAPD Detective Russell Poole fought vigorously, even sometimes against his own peers, to get to the bottom of his untimely death. Poole died from a heart attack on August 19, 2015 while discussing the Tupac Shakur and Wallace cases at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The legacy B.I.G.. left behind is officially embedded in Hip Hop culture two decades later and will continue to influence the community as his family and friends share his story.
Jermaine Dupri made a surprise appearance during Janet Jackson’s set on her Together Again Tour, sparking rumors of the former couple getting back together again. Dupri shut those rumors down when mentioned among other famous couples, but footage of the two lounging together in an undisclosed location may keep those rumors afloat.
In the footage below, Jackson and Dupri were seen chilling together, with Dupri enjoying a hookah while Jackson sat cozily close to him going through her phone, while the duo bobbed their heads to The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Big Poppa”.
On September 13, 1994, Notorious B.I.G., alongside producers Easy Mo Bee, DJ Premier, Poke of the Trackmasters, and none other than “Puffy” (as Diddy was called then) as the executive producer, released the Hip Hop masterpiece known as Ready To Die.
As Big’s debut album, this highly anticipated release shows the lyrical prowess of the Bed-Stuy big man, and besides Method Man’s assistance on the epic “The What?” track, Mr. Wallace made it happen all by himself. Other than Nas’ Illmatic, no other solo emcee accomplished that feat during that era on the East Coast. Recognized as “The King Of New York” and as seen on a vintage 1995 Source Magazine cover, Big’s legacy was etched in stone with this LP.
Timeless classics from that four and a half mic-er include the DJ Premier produced “Unbelievable,” the back and forth storytelling adventures of “Warning” and “Gimme The Loot,” and the eerie title track itself were just a few of the highlights of this legendary project. That’s not to forget the mainstream success of singles such as “One More Chance,” the Brooklynplayalistic sound of “Big Poppa,” and of course the hood inspirational, Mtume-based “Juicy.”
We only had the chance to get one more album(prophetically named Life After Death) out of one of the game’s greatest lyricists before he was prematurely killed in Los Angeles in 1997. Still, this album will always remind us that B.I.G. was “Ready to Die” because his talent was and will always be larger than life.
Salute to Big (RIP), Premier, Easy, Poke, Lord Finesse, Diddy, Lil’ Kim, and the entire Wallace family for this classic masterpiece!
On this date in 1995, the hometown crew of Notorious B.I.G. aka Biggie Smalls, which was composed of Lil’ Kim, Lil’ Cease, Nino Brown, Chico Del Vec, Kleptomaniac, Capone, Bugsy and Trife and Larceny of The Snakes, who called themselves Junior Mafia, dropped their first album entitled Conspiracy Theory on the Undeas/Atlantic imprint.
With Biggie being one of the first East Coast artists to put his homies on from his Bed-Stuy block, Conspiracy Theory served up a suffix of hits featuring the “King Of NY,” which helped to further catapult his stardom, but introduce an entire crew of microphone astute Brooklyn kids that launched an entire movement of their own. JM also introduced a female emcee from BK that would forever change the landscape of Hip-Hop for women; Lil’ Kim.
Some of the sure shot singles from this monumental project include “Player’s Anthem” featuring Notorious B.I.G. and Lil’ Kim, “I Need You Tonight” featuring Biggie’s then-wife Faith Evans and of course the anthemic “Get Money”.
Salute to Junior Mafia, Lil’ Cease, Lil’ Kim, “Un” Rivera and the entire Junior Mafia squad for dropping this eternal Hip-Hop classic!
