Biggie Smalls & P. Diddy's relationship: how did they meet & how many songs do they have together?
26 February 2021, 11:54 | Updated: 1 March 2021, 17:01
How did Biggie Smalls and Diddy meet? Were they friends and how many songs do they have together?
Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell, a new documentary celebrating the life of the 'Juicy' rapper, Biggie Smalls, drops on Netflix on Monday 1st March, and fans can't wait to catch a glimpse into the career of one of hip-hop's biggest stars.
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The hotly-anticipated documentary features rare behind-the-scenes footage and the testimonies of The Notorious B.I.G.'s closest friends and family, including his mentor, P Diddy.
How did Biggie Smalls and P. Diddy meet?
Diddy - whose real name is Sean Combs, and has previously gone by monikers including Puff Daddy, Puffy and more recently Brother Love - signed Biggie to his record label, Bad Boy Records, upon its launch in 1993.
So, how did Biggie Smalls, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, and Diddy meet? Well, their first link-up came around in 1992 when Diddy arranged to meet the then-up-and-coming rapper after seeing a feature on him in a magazine.
"The first time I met B.I.G., I brought him to a soul food restaurant called Sylvia's, uptown in Harlem," Diddy recalled in a 2017 interview with Revolt. "The first thing that I remember was how big and black he was... This is during the time of Al B. Sure and LL Cool J.
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"Dark skin wasn't in. He was beyond dark-skinned. I remember him sitting down and he really didn't have anything to say. So you have this big guy who has this in-your-face rap attitude, but was quiet."
"Here's the mind-blowing thing," Diddy continued. "We at Sylvia's. This is the best soul food in the world. You would actually just come to New York for this soul food. I asked him if he wanted to eat and he was like 'Nah.' He didn't wanna eat.
"I realised that's how big this moment was for him. This was really his dream. He couldn't even eat. He just wanted for this to really happen and it happened. It was all a dream. True story."
Biggie signed to Diddy's label Bad Boy Entertainment upon its launch in 1993, and dropped his debut album, Ready to Die, in 1994. This would be his only album released before his death.
The Brooklyn native was killed in an infamous drive-by shooting in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997, following an after-party for the 1997 Soul Train Music Awards. He was 24-years-old.
Biggie was shot four times while travelling in the passenger seat of a vehicle with his entourage, while Diddy travelled in another vehicle with three bodyguards.
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Two weeks later, the record label honoured Biggie by releasing his posthumous double album, Life After Death.
How many songs do Biggie Smalls and P. Diddy have together?
Diddy and Biggie's widow, R&B singer Faith Evans, released the single 'I'll Be Missing You' in May 1997 as a tribute to the slain rapper, which has since become one of the best-selling singles of all time.
Biggie's 'Mo Money Mo Problems', the second single following 'Hypnotize' from Life After Death, featured Puff Daddy and Mase and made Biggie the only artist in Hot 100 history to have two number one singles posthumously.
In the years following the Notorious B.I.G.'s tragic passing, Diddy has often paid tribute to the rapper on social media, sharing countless throwback images of the pair together.
In 2017, he told Wendy Williams he still feels a "responsibility" for Biggie's death. "I think I'll always feel some sort of responsibility because I'm in this thing with him. He's my artist," Diddy said.
He recalled a conversation he shared with the rapper right before he was killed. "He was supposed to go to London that night and I let him talk me into not going to London and staying in L.A.," Diddy detailed.
"That's something that really bothered me throughout my life. Sometimes you have to really go with that decision in your gut and in my gut it was like, 'You need to get on the plane.'"
"This is God's world. It's his plan but honestly that's one of the things I regret is not making sure that he went to London," he said.
