Das Fader-Mag hat einige Personen, die wichtige Rollen im Leben von Notorious BIG gespielt haben, interviewt und die einzelnen Statements und Kurz-Geschichten verschiedenen Orten zugeordnet. Mit dabei zum Beispiel Mark Pitts, sein Co-Manager und DJ Big Kap, sein erster Tour DJ. Insgesamt ein sehr interessanter und auch sehr anrührender Beitrag, den ich euch hiermit unbedingt empfehle!

Hier ein kleiner Auszug, den Rest gibt bei Fader: How Ya Livin Biggie Smalls?

Big taking 112 under his wing meant so much to us. Everybody thinks when you sign to Bad Boy it’s all gravy, money’s flowing. But at that point we were just getting our feet wet. We walked back and forth to the studio sometimes in the rain and snow. Every time Biggie saw us, he would make sure we had something to eat, he would make sure we had rides, he would personally sit down and listen and encourage dudes. Towards the end of recording there was this one song that had an up-tempo sample that Puff really, really loved. We was all thinking in the back of our minds like, What if Biggie got on it? But we didn’t really want to ask, so we told Puff. Puff was like, “Shit, he’ll be at the club tonight. Ride with me.”

I remember we were standing outside the car—
Puff had just got the black 500 S Class, the big four door. Biggie’s just nodding his head, he’s like, “I fuck with it, I fuck with it.” This is my first group, my first single. To get the Notorious BIG on the record was just the most incredible feeling. We knew it was a dope record, but we knew that with Big on it, it was a no-lose situation. The next time we heard the record…Je-sus! The Notorious just pleased us with a lyrical thesis.

— Courtney “Brother Bear” Sills, former manager of 112 and Biggie’s occasional barber