Celebs Speak On The 14 Year Anniversary Of The Death Of Notorious B.I.G [VIDEO]

Top Stories | hiphopucit | March 9, 2011 at 2:45 pm

It’s a sad date in hip-hop.

On March 9, 1997, The Notorious B.I.G. was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles.

Fourteen years after his slaying — which remains unsolved — celebrities are remembering the fallen rap star.

Diddy
The Notorious B.I.G., who was born Christopher Wallace and also known as Biggie Smalls, was famously tight with Diddy. Tuesday, during an interview with New York City radio station Power 105.1, he shared some thoughts about the anniversary of his friend’s death. It’s not a sad occasion, he said, but a happy one, because everyone joins in remembering B.I.G.

“[T]o be honest March 9 for us is a day of celebration, it ain’t really like a day of mourning,” he said. “It goes off in New York City. Like tomorrow everywhere, all the stations especially here. It’s gonna be going hard in the paint on Biggie and then at night it goes down. Even throughout the weekend so it’s really great when you wake up on March 9 and you just hear all his records and how up to date they sound.”

Shaquille O’Neal
Shaq and The Notorious B.I.G. were close — in fact, Shaq was supposed to be with the rapper the night he died, but he fell asleep and didn’t make it out. Their friendship began after Biggie name-checked Shaq in a song, and they bonded over rap as Shaq tried to develop a music career. They eventually recorded a song together called “Can’t Stop the Rain.” A recent segment on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” examined their relationship and the guilt Shaq feels about the rapper’s death. “It was a sad day for everyone,” Shaq said of Biggie’s death. “If I would have been standing by his truck, would the killer still have shot? I’ve always asked that question,” he wrote in his autobiography “Shaq Talks Back.”

Method Man
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last month, Method Man shared some memories of The Notorious B.I.G. Method Man was the only guest artist on Biggie’s debut album. “Big was a close friend of mine; I had a lot of fun with him working on the album,” he told the Journal. But he says he was unable to watch the 2009 biopic “Notorious.” “I didn’t watch the biopic because I don’t like death at all,” he said.

Jadakiss
Jadakiss, who was an up-and-comer on Bad Boy Records, told MTV recently about the time he was scared to ask Biggie to come to his birthday party. But it was worth the effort. “Dudes was coming up to him, amazed that it was him. He was passing out champagne and cigars. I said, ‘I’m the man right now. I got Big at my party. I’m chilling.’”

In a 2009 interview, Jadakiss said, “He would have still been incredible” if he were still around. “He would have made turning 40 or turning 39 feel flavor, made people feel happy about turning 39 or 40, the same way he made fat dudes feel like they’re looking fly … and made ugly dudes feel like they weren’t ugly anymore. … He would have bridged the gap with the young guys.”