But he began to understand the power of it.” “He didn’t want to do ‘Juicy.’ I’m like, ‘Dog, you have to!’ So I throw on ‘Juicy,’ and he was like, ‘Yo, turn that s – – t off.’ And all of a sudden the people started throwing s – – t onstage. “He was like, ‘Yo, you gotta be his DJ, dog, because you’ve been on the road for years,’ ” said Kent, who taught the rapper a valuable lesson about his newfound juice at one of his early shows in Minneapolis. When Biggie needed a DJ to start playing shows, the rapper’s then-manager Mark Pitts handpicked Kent. It sounds like a bebop solo sometimes.” Donato Sardella “And you can hear that in the way that his delivery bounces across bars. “ Donald Harrison, that great jazz saxophone player, was his next-door neighbor, and they would sit and listen and kind of study jazz records together,” he said. His lyrics superseded any thoughts that you could have of, ‘Could he succeed?’ His lyrical prowess stood out.”Īnd in addition to his mastery of language, imagery and storytelling, Light believes that Biggie’s delivery was as dope as it gets. “I began to wonder in my mind, like, ‘How is the public gonna receive him?’ But once those lyrics came out, that just took over everything. “My first impression of him, of course, was this big fat dude,” said Easy Mo Bee. Easy Mo Bee, who was a producer on both “Ready To Die” and “Life After Death,” had already heard Biggie’s demo before he met with the rapper to work on “Party & Bulls – – t” for the 1993 “Who’s the Man?” soundtrack. had buzz in the underground New York hip-hop scene before he was signed to Sean “Puffy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records. “And the fact that 25 years after he’s gone, almost any conversation about the greatest MCs of all time, he’s still right at the top. always is kind of both eyes forward,” said Light. “The thing that’s so remarkable to me is, hip-hop moves really fast. And anytime “Juicy,” “Hypnotize,” “One More Chance” or “Mo Money Mo Problems” comes on, Big Poppa still rocks the party. In fact, he became only the second solo rapper inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. still lives large a quarter century later. I just didn’t even necessarily feel like he should have been in LA.”īut after making just two studio albums in his career - with only one, his classic 1994 debut “Ready To Die,” released in his lifetime - the legacy of the Notorious B.I.G. I’m like, ‘What the f – – k?’ Because in my mind, I was like, ‘Dog, stay out the way.’ I wanted him to stay out the way because, to me, the tension was there. And then I go to the party, and he’s there. “I didn’t know he was gonna come to the party. “We were together earlier at the hotel talking about things,” said Kent. “It becomes more mythic that it’s not solved, that we don’t know ,” said Alan Light, who was editor-in-chief of Vibe at the time.Īnd Kent still can’t shake the feeling that Biggie should have never gone to that party - six months after the murder of Tupac Shakur had escalated the East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry. Twenty-five years after his murder on March 9, 1997, the case remains an unsolved mystery. Sadly, the two never made that trip: After leaving the party at the Petersen Automotive Museum, the Notorious B.I.G., a k a Biggie Smalls, was killed at the age of 24 in a drive-by shooting while sitting in his GMC Suburban. “And I was like, ‘Man, you know I got a job.’ But he was like, ‘I’m going to London and you’re coming with me.’ ” We gonna go to London for this new album,’ ” Kent - who at the time was senior vice president of A&R at Motown Records - told The Post. “He was like, ‘Yo, you gotta go on the road with me. And while the bottles were popping at Vibe magazine’s post-Soul Train Awards party in Los Angeles, he was trying to convince DJ Clark Kent to be his spinning sidekick across the pond. Two weeks before the March 1997 release of “Life After Death” - his second and final studio album - the rapper was making plans to hypnotize London in support of the ambitious double LP. on his 1994 breakout hit “Juicy.” And three years later, he was living the dream before it all came to a tragic end. “It was all a dream/I used to read Word Up! magazine,” famously rapped the Notorious B.I.G.

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