Questlove and Chris Rock stopped by for a chat on the bi-monthly hip-hop podcast, Juan Epstein, hosted by Hot 97's Peter Rosenberg and Cipha Sounds. Throughout the two-hour conversation, the group debated who was hip-hop's greatest producer and what was the best year for rap releases, among other topics. Rock shared stories about his early years on the comedy circuit opening up for rappers as well as the hand he played in Kanye West's "Blame Game," and the group ended up in a conversation about how each of them found out about Biggie's death.
Questlove said wasn't on the best of terms when Biggie passed away. He explained that prior to the release of Biggie's Life After Death album, things were "not all good" between The Roots and the Brooklyn rapper. It all came down to what seems like a big misunderstanding. Biggie had been one their biggest champion, but their beef began when The Roots' "What They Do" music video dropped. The end result made it look like the visual was poking fun at Biggie's "One More Chance" when it was only supposed to be a comment on the emerging "champagne culture."
"So, right around the time when Life After Death was just about to come out it was not all good between The Roots and Biggie...We was always good," Questlove said on the podcast. "Biggie was like our biggest champion. When he did Ego Trip magazine he championed us and Jeru higher than anyone. He put Brooklyn onto The Roots. So, we did this 'What They Do' video. And it's sort of like a sarcastic look at what was then becoming champagne culture...We told the director we don't want to do a direct reference to someone's video. We just talking about the impending lurking of this new--At the time it seemed like the new apartheid. The have-nots versus the haves. So, we didn't know based on the way the set looked. We didn't know we were doing a direct reference to 'One More Chance.' So, when we saw the final cut...They showed it to us and I was like 'Oh, damn.' But it was too late...Of course he caught feelings."
Quest goes on to explain that after Biggie made some comments about being disrespected in an interview with The Source, he chose to write an op-ed for the publication instead of just giving them a quote. But it was too late. Biggie was killed the next day, and they could never officially clear the air.
"The Source hits me up on March 8th to do a quote," he said. "And I was like 'Well.' I said, 'I don't wanna do a quote. Can I do an op-ed? Cause I really want to explain the position'...I wrote this beautiful manifesto. It was like a 1,000 pages. Faxed it to The Source. Literally, I called The Source. It took me 10 hours to do it. Proofread it. It was great. Called The Source and said 'Okay, I'm ready to send the response-to-Biggie op-ed.' And they're like 'Oh God, you didn't hear what happened did you?' And I was like 'What are you talking about?' They said 'Biggie's dead.' And that killed me. I never made it right."
Watch the podcast below, and let us know what you think in the comments section.
