‘The rap game would probably be way different if Pac and Biggie were still alive…’: Biggie’s Very Last Interview On Tupac’s Mυrder & Meaning Of “Life After Death” Album
In this rare clip, Rap City’s Joe Clair spoke with The Notorious B.I.G. on the set of “Hypnotize”, in what would be his very last interview ever. Recorded on February 24th 1997, Biggie discussed his “Life After Death” album, realizations after Tupac’s death and details about his last music video. BET continues to remember this legend on his birthday, and every other day.
Biggie: I kind of realized how powerful Tupac and I were. We waged a coastal beef. One man against one man made a whole West Coast hate a whole East Coast and vice versa. It really bugged me out. Like, yo, Duke don’t like me for this, so the whole Coast don’t like me. You know what I’m saying? That really let me know how much strength I have. So now, untimely demise or whatever, I gotta be the one to flip it and take my power and flip it. If he can’t do that, you can’t be the one to be like, “Yo, I wanna squash it,” because he’s gone. So I gotta take the weight from both sides. That’s why I’m out here.
The fatal rivalry between Biggie Smalls and Tupac remains one of music’s biggest tragedies. Both men lost their lives while they were at the top of the game, and the whole sorry scenario was avoidable. Following Pac’s murder, how out of hand the situation got finally struck Biggie.
To start with, the two men didn’t always have hatred for one another, and they used to be friends. At one point, Biggie even wanted Pac to manage his career, which signified just how high he thought of him. Whenever he’d be in Los Angeles, he’d stay at Shakur’s house, but things turned sour and then, tragically, they turned deadly.
Their murders both remain unsolved, but what is indisputable is the connection between the cases. They managed to turn the East Coast and West Coast against each other which ultimately would lead to both men losing their lives.
Even over a quarter of a century on, there is still immense fascination regarding how both men died, and it continues to be the source of various documentaries. However, one thing that is often overlooked is how Pac’s death affected Big.
Snoop Dogg later revealed how Biggie responded to his former friend’s murder, and surprisingly said, “He [B.I.G. ] looked me in my eyes, and he say something that, you know what I’m saying, he’s sad that Tupac is dead, but I can look in his eyes, and I could see that he hurt. He didn’t even have to say it, I could see that he hurt behind Tupac being dead.
“This is not a man that’s happy or glamorised. This is his friend that’s dead, they had a misunderstanding and he could never get no justice for his emotions, but he’s showing me his emotions. And he explained to me how much he loved Tupac.”
Behind closed doors, perhaps, Biggie was willing to be more open with his emotions than in public. When he appeared on Rap City in 1997, he remained somewhat guarded on that front, although the gravitas and unavoidable nature of the incident was also not lost on him.
“I kind of realised how powerful Tupac and I was,” Biggie explained. “We as two individual people raised a coastal beef. One man against one man made the whole West Coast hate the East Coast and vice versa. That really bugged me out. It was like, you don’t like me, so this whole coast don’t like me, so my whole coast don’t like him.
“It let me know how much strength I had for what I’m trying to do now. I’ve gotta be the one to be able to flip it and bring my power because he can’t be there. He can’t be the one to squash it because he’s gone, so I’ve got to take the weight from both sides.”
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