Biggie - Wake Up Show freestyle (1997)

March 9th. A date Canibus imprinted on listeners' brains as the day Biggie died and also my 11th Blogiversary (?). We still here. This freestyle has done the rounds over the years but I've been playing it over the last few months since I picked up one of those not-entirely-official compilation albums that was somehow on sale in HMV in the mid 00s.

The interesting thing about this Wake Up Show appearance, aside from being the week before he was shot dead, is that he speaks about how 2Pac's death affected him ("maybe more than anybody else") but then what lyrics does he go to for the freestyle?

Long Kiss Goodnight! I mean..."slugs missed ya, I ain't mad at ya", "maniacs put my names in raps", "look what you made me do, brains blew, my team in the marine blue 6 coupe"

Oh for social media to have been around when Fat Chris (@KONY or @FrankWhite maybe? )went on LA radio and threw all sorts of subliminals at 2Pac 6 months after he died. Your favourite rapper would never. Unless your favourite rapper is 50 Cent. He probably would.

Nice beat selection for this too, and unusually for such a great moment in 90s rap radio, there's video footage too.