Music mogul Jay Z shared a conversation he had with late rapper Christopher Wallace, otherwise known as The Notorious B.I.G. and Biggie Smalls about moving to Atlanta back in the 1990s recently.
The “Song Cry” rapper, whose born name is Shawn Carter, made the comments during TIDAL’s “A Toast To Biggie” to honor Wallace on what would have been his 50th birthday on May 21.
“You know, Big, Big in like ‘96 I wanna say, ‘96, ‘95 was talking about ‘Yo, let’s go to Atlanta. Get, you know, two big houses next to each other blah blah blah,’” Carter recalled. “And I’m looking like, ‘Atlanta?’ Yo, I’m like, ‘We’re the hottest guys in New York City, like in the world, in the Mecca. Why are we going to Atlanta?’ ”
Carter went on to say that the “Juicy” rapper was ahead of his time. “If you think about Atlanta, how Atlanta is today,” he added, “you see how much of a visionary this guy was.”
DJ shared an audio clip of the discussion on Instagram, and fans responded in the comments section. Several agreed with Carter’s assessment of Biggie’s vision. One fan replied, “He was a visionary!”
“Biggie seen that vision frfr,” noted one fan. “Now look at Atlanta,” added another fan. “Biggie was a genius!”
Another fan was just happy to listen to the rapper converse. “I could listen to Jay Z talk all day fam.” Other fans left remarks about Atlanta being the place to be. “There’s no place like ATL,” replied one fan followed by a one-hundred emoji. “Atlanta = Wakanda,” replied another.
“Damn. Imagine Biggie and PAC and Youngboy on. Track,” remarked one fan. “Biggie on a song with YSL would be crazy,” added another fan followed by a laughing–crying emoji.
Carter also revealed that the two used to compete to push each other and said he wrote four songs the night he heard, “Who Shot Ya” in Wallace’s car.
“Biggs gave me the ‘Who Shot Ya’ CD — he called me like it was like we had some kind of beef or something,” he remembered. “He was like, ‘Yo meet me on 125th right now.’ I jump in my car, you know, I’m heavy. I’m like, ‘What’s going on, like, with Biggs?’ I mean, I fly up there. You know, And I get out my car and get in his car and he plays the song and he was like, ‘Yeah, you keep the um, the uh’ it was a cassette tape, actually. He was like, ‘Yeah you keep that.’ I wrote like four songs that night.”
Carter also said that none of the songs he wrote that night were as good as Biggie’s song and noted the friendly competition pushed the hip-hop artists to work harder.
The “Big Poppa” rapper was also honored by the city with his own day after Mayor Eric Adams proclaimed May 21 as “Christopher ‘The Notorious B.I.G.’ Wallace Day” in his hometown of Brooklyn.
Biggie’s son, C.J. Wallace, who was only five months old when his father died, accepted the honor on his behalf. Biggie also had a 3-year-old daughter when he passed, T’yanna Wallace, who is now 28 years old. Wallace was murdered in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997. He was 24 years old.
