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| by kenn on 3/09/2005 08:44:00 PM |
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JAY-Z, FRIEND (ON BIGGIE)
Source:MTv
 MTV: How did you first meet Big?
JAY-Z: In high school, we used to see each other, passing things, like, you know, what's up type of thing. Then, I was moving around with Kane, and C had bought me a tape of this cat, he was rappin' on the tape. He was asking me what I think about it. I was like, "Homes is real nice." So then I seen C in the city at a club and we introduced ourselves. I guess C made the introduction like, "Yo this is Big..." and you know blazy blah, but it was still like a passing thing. Like, when I would see him, just, "What's up?"
MTV: When did you hear the tape?
JAY-Z: It had to be around like '92, maybe '93. It was just like freestylin' over a lot of a beats. It wasn't a major production, no producers or anything. He was just rhyming over like Eric B for President, things like that.
MTV: Was he going to stay in music?
JAY-Z: Yeah, but it was definitely music. He definitely had to keep making music. Big was a plotter. He plotted, very visionary, very deliberate, like he knew exactly what he wanted to do and how he wanted to go at it.
MTV: Did you ever talk to him about the whole East Coast/West Coast thing?
JAY-Z: Yeah. I try to stay away from that 'cause when you got somebody who's under, stress like that, you don't want to really talk about it. They hear it enough and they got to do enough interviews, so the conversation on that was tight, brief. The only thing, I could remember him always sayin' was how much love he had for Pac and how he used to be cool and everything. You really don't understand what was goin on.
MTV: Did he say much to you after Pac was killed?
JAY-Z: No, no. That was a short conversation. That was something that we stayed away from. Your friend going through some problem in a certain situation, what you really tryin' to do, you tryin' to keep their mind off it. You don't want to keep bringin' them back to that.
MTV: I heard interviews right after "Ready to Die" in which he said he feared for his life and that he was paranoid.
JAY-Z: That's way before rap. You live a certain lifestyle, that's way before rap. It doesn't change because you a rapper. You understand this is just the reality of things, like when you runnin' in a situation and you tryin' to improve your situation, you know the consequences and you know the consequence your actions could bring you. So, it's up to you whether you take that chance and that paranoid feelin'. It's a part of you, you lived this way for the majority of your adult life and all of the sudden, in '94 you drop an album, two or three years later, it just don't go away like that, you know? This is what your accustomed to, this waking up every morning and brushing your teeth and taking a shower. It's just what you do. All of the sudden, now you a rapper; but you can't shake it like that.
MTV: Do you remember where you were when you heard he had been shot?
JAY-Z: Yeah I was in the house, actually. I just got off the phone with him, I was talking to him on the phone and he was just so, so happy. He was ecstatic 'cause I was supposed to go out there in a couple of days. I was gonna go that day but I didn't because I was moving and Kane came back from somewhere and I wanted to be out there. So it was just like a playboy screaming on the phone, music in the background. I was groggy and tired, talkin' on the phone like, "Yo dog, I'm gonna be out there tomorrow or the next day, you know what I mean?" And then I hung up the phone and the phone rang again like maybe a half hour behind that, but see I just spoke to him. I was like nah... I immediately dismissed it. I was like, nah, go make sure, go find out. I think that's a rumor 'cause I just got finished speakin' to him. So then D Rock called right after that. A little while after that, that's when I was gettin' a flood of calls, the whole night, so that's when it was really setting in. I was still in shock, like nah, this can't be.
MTV: Did you go through any levels of reaction after the initial shock?
JAY-Z: Yeah. I went from shock, I just couldn't believe it. I just got finished talkin' to this man on the phone. He was in the club having the time of his life. And it was just like, that couldn't happen... and me knowing that, I've seen it, you know what I mean, I've been around it, I've been exposed to it. I still didn't want to believe it.
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