In Hip-Hop, March 9 is a day we both lament and celebrate the untimely passing of one of the greatest MCs of all time, The Notorious B.I.G. On the 16th anniversary of the Brooklyn legend’s death, N.O.R.E. (now known as P.A.P.I.) spoke to Radio.com and shared an untold tale about his late friend.
The Queens rapper recalled a scene from the Biggie biopic Notorious, in which the Bad Boy artist makes several calls to his loved ones. N.O.R.E. revealed that he was indeed one of the select individuals to receive that phone call, though his was omitted from the film.
“I watched the movie [Notorious] a couple of times,” N.O.R.E. told Radio.com. “The only part that made me cry was when he was making those phone calls. I was one of those phone calls.”
B.I.G. phoned him playing Capone-N-Noreaga’s song “T.O.N.Y. (Top of New York),” which was unreleased at the time. “I wasn’t honored that Big called me playing ‘T.O.N.Y.,’ I was like ‘How the f**k you get that?’ I’m thinking it’s bootlegged. Big took like five minutes before he answered.”
After rattling N.O.R.E.’s nerves for a bit, B.I.G. revealed that he was sitting with next to the song’s producer Nasheem Myrick, who played him the track.
“He was like, ‘I’m getting on the remix,” N.O.R.E. said. “‘As soon as I get back to New York, I’m bodying that. Don’t tell no one I don’t want nobody to know.’ I’m thinking I’m gonna have the biggest record out.”
Unfortunately, that would be the last time N.O.R.E. would speak to the King of New York. Though the record never materialized, the “Superthug” rapper holds B.I.G.’s words near and dear to his heart. Hear what became of “T.O.N.Y. (Top of New York)” below.
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Photo: eONE
