Although a legend in his own right, Fat Joe lost out on the opportunity from joining Biggie and Tupac in a cypher during a Big Daddy Kane show. However, the Terror Squad rapper thanks the “Smooth Operator” hitmaker for preventing him from embarrassing himself. During an episode of Angie Martinez’s Iconic Records podcast, Fat Joe detailed the freestyle session, which took place at the 1993 Budweiser Fest at Madison Square Garden. Joe explained that he was in the front row when Biggie and ‘Pac walked through the tunnel to an uproar from the audience.
“The whole crowd’s like, ‘Ahhh!’ They couldn’t believe it was ‘Pac and Big,” Joe recalled. He recalled Tupac inviting him on stage where they delivered the iconic live freestyle. However, the Bronx rapper said he was “nervous as hell” to join the two legends on stage as he didn’t have any rhymes prepared. “You want to talk about standing next to somebody, I was on fucking stage with Biggie and ‘Pac! [I was] nervous as hell because all I had was ‘Flow Joe,’ I ain’t have no bars ready, fucking nothing,” he said.
Big Daddy Kane Intervenes
The microphone got passed around the stage with Tupac and Biggie delivering an incredibly rare performance together. However, once it got to Joe, Big Daddy Kane intervened and prevented him from dishing out bars. “They passed me the mic. ‘Yo, Fat Joe!’ Then Big Daddy Kane interrupted and goes, ‘Yo, yo, we ain’t go no time’ … It’s ok, Big Daddy Kane, I love you,” he said. “Big Daddy Kane might have saved me ’cause I would’ve did some bullshit.”
Kane previously corroborated this claim, although he didn’t seem aware that Fat Joe was unprepared. During an appearance on Drink Champs, he explained that he was signaled to wrap up his set, which ultimately led him to grab the microphone from Joe. “Joe was next up to rhyme when they gave me the ‘wrap it up,’ like, ‘You got five minutes.’ So I wasn’t even able to bring Joe on, but Joe was standing with the mic ready,” Kane recalled. “If I would’ve had five more minutes, he would’ve been on there, real talk.”