Napoleon of Tha Outlawz has commented on Snoop Dogg saying he didn’t like the late Tupac Shakur’s landmark diss record “Hit ‘Em Up”, which was aimed at his friend-turned-nemesis Notorious B.I.G.
Napoleon said Snoop never expressed that sentiment before now, adding, “For Snoop to say he never liked ‘Hit Em Up,’ he never expressed that. You got videos of him on stage with ‘Pac, Pac rapping ‘Hit Em Up’ and he’s rapping right along with him.”
He went on to say that Snoop was even singing the lyrics with him while at the House of Blue performance and bobbing his head in the studio.He says it’s strange that Snoop would say all of these things that he’s never say if’Pac was alive.
In an exclusive interview with Big Boy for the Untold Stories of Snoop Dogg, the Doggfather himself delved into the strained relationship between him and Death Row labelmate Tupac Shakur in the months leading up to his untimely demise in September 1996.
He says he and ‘Pac were on good terms the week before his death, but the public comments made about Puff Daddy and Biggie made things more complicated for the Long Beach newcomer.
“Man, I’d say a week before he died, we was best of friends. Two days before he died, I don’t think he liked me,” Snoop said. “Because we was in New York and shit had happened. New York n-ggas had shot at me and did all kinds of shit to me, just the worst shit you could think of, and I forgave ’em. Snoop added, “Then I went and did an interview and was asked how did I feel about Puffy and Biggie. I was like, ‘I like them n-ggas, I wanna do some music with ’em.And that just rubbed cuz the wrong way, like, ‘N-gga, fuck them n-ggas, them n-ggas tried to kill me. N-ggas shot at you, and you talking about you wanna do a song with them n-ggas?’”
Snoop
“Even when he played the video for me to ‘Hit ‘Em Up,’ even when he played ‘Hit ‘Em Up,’ the song, I didn’t like the song,” he said. “I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the shit. It wasn’t the shit to me. Like, you buying more problems, cuh. You buying problems. Gangstas is everywhere. They make ’em everywhere.”
Today is the 26th anniversary of The Notorious B.I.G.‘s death, and social media is awash in posts praising the Brooklyn rapper’s impact and legacy. Of course, that includes B.I.G.’s friend and business partner, Sean “Diddy” Combs, who shared a throwback video of B.I.G. giving some motivational advice in an old interview alongside the caption,”There will NEVER be another. The GREATEST RAPPER OF ALL TIME. Today we celebrate and honor you king. Love and miss you!!”
In the video, Biggie explains the importance of remaining true to yourself. “Don’t be the fool to just sit back and do it because somebody else is doing it,” he says. “Because those of you who do just gon’ follow in somebody else’s footsteps, and you just gon’ be a shadow. Who wanna be a shadow for the rest of their life. If you got a lil’ something’ that you know how to do, progress that and keep trying. I mean, God knows what could happen. That’s what I did. Just kept on walking, just happened to get to the right ends.”
Even though so much time has passed since The Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down in Los Angeles, his peers and contemporaries never seem to get tired of talking about him and his game-changing effect on hip-hop. Recently, Usher called Big “the most profound talent I think I’ve ever seen in an MC.” Meanwhile, Biggie’s hometown, New York, honored what would have been his 50th birthday last year by lighting up the Empire State Building with a crown on its mast along with citywide celebrations like murals and limited-edition MetroCards.
Bone Thugs N Harmony’s Layzie Bone appeared on Breakbeat Media to discuss making “Notorious Thugs” with the Notorious B.I.G. for his Life After Death LP. Layzie talked about how the late Frank White tried to bounce with two ounces of weed he brought for the session.
“We first got to the studio, it was Lil Cease, Stevie J, Puffy was in there man the whole Bad Boy camp; so I come in, I had two ounces of weed,” said Layzie. He continued, “So the n***a, Biggie Smalls, put my weed in his pocket, man. I’m like ‘Ay n***a.’ [He had it] in both of them. He talking bout he thought I was giving it to him, and I’m like, ‘Nah, n***a, that’s for the party, man.’”
Jonah Hill and Eddie Murphy team up for You People, but in a scene that didn’t make the film’s final cut, more legends find their way into the movie. Specifically, a number of hip-hop icons, when Hill’s character makes his pick for the top five rappers ever and gets roasted for including Eminem.
In the clip, Ezra (Hill’s character) and Mo (played by Sam Jay) are hosting an episode of their The Mo & E-Z Show podcast when the topic of their top five rappers comes up. Ezra makes his picks: “1. Jay-Z, 2. Biggie, 3. 2Pac, 4. Nas, and 5. Eminem.”
Mo responds, “That’s in order? — Eminem though?” Ezra replies, “Why do I have to keep defending Shady? I mean, his sole purpose is to be on other people’s tracks and murder them. I mean, ‘Renegade?’ ‘Dead Wrong,’” he says in reference to tracks by Jay-Z and The Notorious B.I.G.
Mo then says, “Dog, he’s like, I don’t know the Larry Bird of rap, you know what I mean? He’s not great: He’s just great because he’s a white man in a Black man’s game.” Ezra retorts, “That is so stupid. That might be the dumbest sh*t you’ve ever said to me.”
In an exclusive interview with Art Of Dialogue, former Bad Boy bodyguard Gene Deal calls into question as to why Snoop’s version of his relationship with the Notorious B.I.G. wasn’t privy to the public ntil after his death.
“That’s something that sounds good for the media,” he said of the Doggfather’s accounts of his friendship with Biggie. “You know, ‘I’m the peacemaker. I’m the one that’s showing love. I’m the one that’s out here when everybody else is dead, wishing that I coulda did something to put the shit together.”
“It wasn’t all that love until ‘Pac was dead,” Deal continued. “Wasn’t Big out in California three, four weeks and Snoop never saw him? Snoop never came and smoked nothing wit’ him. Snoop never came and ate nothing with him. But it was a lot of love? Come on, man.”
Snoop has spoken several times about his relationship with Biggie and even talked about the moment they shared after hearing the news about the death of Biggie’s friend-turned-nemesis, Tupac Shakur back in 2018. The alleged conversation took place after a shooting in Times Square during the filming of the Dogg Pound’s “NY NY” video, of which he felt B.I.G. was responsible after announcing on NYC Hip Hop station HOT 97 where the video shoot was taking place. The two allegedly bumped heads in ATL and came to a resolve.
“It’s just me and him, one on one,” Snoop Dogg recalled. “And he giving me the rundown about how much he loved 2Pac and he didn’t wanna see cuz die. And a lot of shit that he said and did, he was wrong for. He just was apologizing like a man, to me.”
“Just getting an understanding on what he did, ’cause I never tripped on him for what he did,” he continued. “That was a Dogg Pound video, that wasn’t a 2Pac video. And we got shot at, and the direct shot came from him. But nobody got hit so we let it go. So with him apologizing to me, we became friends again.”
When asked to confirm if that conversation actually took place, Deal says he was not present, therefore, he couldn’t confirm or deny if the convo actually went down.
The newly erected nine-foot statue, in honor of the late rapper, The Notorious B.I.G., stands steps from the entrance of the Brooklyn Bridge. The rapper native dons a crown and a mic in his hands. There’s love in the city’s heart for Brooklyn’s own Christopher Wallace, also affectionately known as Big Poppa and Biggie Smalls. […]
While Jadakiss has long been considered one of hip-hop’s most underrated figures, he’s also got one of the genre’s most recognizable voices. His gravely tone has graced some of rap’s most beloved hits for nearly three decades, as demonstrated by his standout performance in The Lox’s Verzuz battle with The Diplomats, and he’s still a favorite go-to for a feature verse for contemporary artists who need his signature sound to bring some New York grit to their own work.
In the upcoming debut episode of Uproxx’s newest show, Fresh Pair, Jadakiss breaks down his own top five voices in hip-hop with hosts Just Blaze and Katty Customs. It’s a fascinating look into one of the most underrated facets of rap success from one of the most successful but underrated artists in the business.
“Nobody never asked me who I think got the top five or top three or any kind of voices,” he exclaims before settling into deep thought. “It took me a while… [to learn] how somebody’s voice can add on to what they bring to the table.”
He cites a few classic MCs as influences to his own unmistakable tone, but we won’t spoil it here. You can check out his answers in the video above and catch the full episode of Fresh Pair on Wednesday 9/28 at 3 pm ET / 12 pm PT.
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!
Former Bad Boy Records President Kirk Burrowes spoke to The Art Of Dialogue candidly about what kept the beef between rap icons and former friends Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. alive, saying that Biggie’s “Who Shot Ya?” record was one of the riff’s major culprits.
Burrowes says that the record was never directed at Tupac, but Diddy took it upon himself to take advantage of the recent shooting and robbery of ‘Pac in Quad Studios and drop a record that could easily be misconstrued as making Shakur the target.
“The way it was marketed by the company and released, in the succession of things that were going on that we were dealing with, on all the levels that we were dealing, that record did what it was supposed to do,” said the former Bad Boy executive. Burrowes continued,“That’s a perfect example of how my former business partner works and thinks. And if you could remember that three-dimensional type of thinking, then you could start to pierce through a lot of the common things that are being told and get to what’s really behind those things.”
