Adventures In Elysian Fields 03.09.07: Think BIG
Posted by MSD on 03.09.2007
It's March 9th 2007. I had to make an appearence. Come in and blaze one with me in honor of the illest MC of all time.
I'm hard… Jehovah said I'm barred from the pearly gates
Fuck ‘em. I didn't want to go to heaven anyways.
But my momma got me on my knees with my hands gripped.
Talking ‘bout some "praise the Lord" shit… Notorious B.I.G.
I had to do it. It just wouldn't be right.
Today is one of the most important dates on the Hip Hop calendar – the greatest MC of all time died on March 9th. More than that, it's already been a whopping TEN YEARS since that fateful day in LA. Being the gatekeeper of Hip Hop at 411Mania, it's only right that I step out from behind my veil of secrecy in remembrance of this solemn occasion. So join me for a brief foray into the smoking lounge here at 411Mania headquarters as we celebrate the life and times of the East Coast's single greatest rap threat – the Notorious B.I.G..
This month's issue of XXL Magazine already beat me to it when they stepped with their collection of Biggie Smalls TOP TEN lists. Although I can't agree with everything they wrote ("Hypnotize" is his best song?) I do respect their creativity. And I'm going to throw in a few of my own TOP TEN lists in honor of his passing. But first – another episode of "where were you?"
MARCH 10th 1997
I was a Junior in High School when I first got the word. I was at my locker in the Sophomore section (Brockton High tried to keep me back every year I went there, so I always had lockers in the previous grades section) with one of my boys. A senior friend of ours passed by and exclaimed "did you hear what happened? Biggie Smalls is dead!" We were both like "yeah right". Until he asked some random kid passing down the hall, "hey did you hear what happened last night?" and the kid replied "yeah, Biggie Smalls got killed". We were both like "NO WAY!!!!" Hip Hop had never been more thrilling, exciting and downright horrifying for me than at that exact moment.
To protect my position, my corner, my layer
While we out here, say the hustlas prayer
If the game shakes me or breaks me
I hope it makes me a better man…
MSD's Personal TOP TEN list of Biggie Smalls memories
10) The weird dream I had last year about Biggie. For some reason I had set him up with some weed, but didn't get any for myself. I was downstairs in my old apartment and I called him on the phone at his telly. I was trying to get him to invite me over and smoke me up but he said there wasn't any room there (and I knew he was talking about bitches). So I laughed and said "yeah you need all the space you can get". He chuckled and that was that. Then I woke up. Weird, huh?
9) The first time I heard "Hypnotize" on the radio. I hated it. I hated the beat and I hated the regurgitated hook that has appeared on more rap songs than I care to count. Ten years later, and XXL Magazine is calling it his greatest song ever.
8) Reading a quick blurb in the newspaper one time about a bat-wielding Biggie Smalls wreaking havoc in NJ or somewhere. I also remember him getting bopped for guns and drugs and thinking "he spit it like he lived it". How real is that.
7) "Mo Money Mo Problems". I owned that single on cassette tape and listened to it over and over again, instrumental and all. I just absolutely loved this song.
6) The BIG/Rae/Ghost silent war.
5) Hearing Eminem's verse for the first time on "Dead Wrong". Mind boggling. It generated the same kind of excitement I felt when 50 Cent did the "Realest N****z" a few years later.
4) "All About The Benjamins". My all-time favorite strip club anthem.
3) "I got 7 Mac-11s, about eight .38s…" One time at some drunken house party in the city, that song came up and all the sudden the entire room broke into a rendition of that verse. There's still a lot of misconceptions about where the song came from and what it's about (it's from a song he recorded with Sadat X called "Come On" that was supposed to be on Ready to Die, and he's referencing Oaktown's 3.5.7 with his "MC Hammer and them 3.57 bitches" He also spit this verse live with 2Pac at Madison Square Garden). But irregardless, it's one of his most easily recognizable and popular verses.
2) LAbyrinth the book. Nuff said.
1) Hearing DJ Vlad and Dirty Harry's Rap Phenomenon Volume One CD for the first time while rolling on ecstasy. I can't even begin to describe to you the wave of emotions that washed over me during that listening session. In-fucking-tense to the 10th degree. THIS shit is the reason I love rap so much.
N****z talkin' but they ain't livin' it
Crystal pops I'm sippin' it, mob hats and lizard shit
Gator trunks bitch, rollin' blunts with the williest of the willy…
MSD's TOP TEN Biggie Smalls weed references
10) The skit from Ready to Die where he practically chokes to death.
9) "I got the chronic by the tree"… ("Big Poppa")
8) "Go in the ashtray, spark the weed up…" ("Long Kiss Goodnight")
7) "I'm glad I'm dead – a worthless fuckin buddha head…" ("Suicidal Thoughts")
6) "Going back to Cali strictly for the weather, women and the weed – sticky green".
5) "Straight up weed no angel dust" ("Notorious Thugs")
4) "When I get dusted, I spread the blunt like mustard…" ("Dead Wrong")
3) "madd question asking, blunt passing but I just can't quit…" ("Big Poppa")
2) "Mindblower – weed grower. Have you seeing doubles like Noah" ("Let's Get it On")
1) "As I sit back relax, steam a blunt and sip a becks… ("Dreams")
