Legendary musician and producer Dame Dash made some heads turn in a recent interview when he spoke on the late Notorious B.I.G. Sharing some insight into the inner workings behind the scenes in the music industry, Dash claimed that prior to Biggie's death, he was poised to leave Bad Boy Records and sign with Dash and Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella empire.
The jump would have sent shock waves throughout the rap industry and could have potentially led to even more bad blood than Biggie had with his West Coast rival 2Pac. “Biggie’s plan was give Puff and them like three more albums then come sign with us, and we was gon’ do The Commission,[sic]” Dash claims in the interview.
He goes on to detail how Biggie planned to fast-track the three albums so he could be done with Bad Boy as soon as possible and get to work with Jay-Z and his team.
Biggie's final album
Notorious B.I.G. released "Life After Death" posthumously, just weeks after his death in 1997. The double album was critically acclaimed and still ranks among the best albums of all time to this day.
Featuring tracks like "Hypnotize," "Goin' Back to Cali," and "Long Kiss Goodnight," one can only imagine how amazing the third disc to this album would have been. Where some artists of the time were criticized for releasing double albums that had filler songs just to stretch it out, "Live After Death" has too many great songs to count.
Potential impact on East Coast vs West Coast
Hip-hop in the 1990s was marred by the violent feuding between East Coast and West Coast rappers, mainly the New York and Los Angeles areas. Each area molded their own versions of the gangster rap that took the hip-hop industry by storm after NWA hit the scene.
Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac led the rival factions as each side released numerous diss tracks against one another.
There were several incidents when members from either side crossed paths that resulted in minor violence.
It wasn't until the shooting deaths of both Biggie and 2Pac that the nationwide beef finally cooled off. While both sides blamed each other for the violence, both murders have gone unsolved to this day.
Had Biggie actually made the move to Roc-A-Fella, there is no real knowledge of how it would have impacted the rap landscape.
It could have had the ability to squash the feud between the two coasts, though it could have just splintered New York into multiple factions that may have only added to the violence of the time. What is known though is the world was robbed of an amazing musician on March 9, 1997.