How Biggie Smalls stopped a fight between Wu-Tang Clan and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
Widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the hip-hop business – if not even one of the greatest rappers of all time – there is loads to be said about Biggie Smalls. Multi-platinum album selling musician; Grammy Award nominated; Billboard Music Award winning. The man has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; he’s sold millions upon millions of records; Rolling Stone reckons he’s the greatest rapper that’s ever lived.
One thing Biggie might not be as remembered for is his inclination for peace. The rapper is as famous for his beefs as he is for his beats, most notably playing a major role in the East Coast and West Coast hip-hop rivalry of the 1990s. His increasingly intense feud with Tupac Shakur was the stuff of international legend, and when Tupac was fatally shot, it was natural that rumours would spread that Biggie was in some way involved.
And yet peacemaker, Biggie did upon occasion prove himself to be. In an interview with The Art of Dialogue, Layzie Bone of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony explained how Biggie once broke up a fight between his group and Wu-Tang Clan in 1996.
“So Russell Simmons’ Christmas party. We had just signed Flesh-n-Bone to Def Jam so we was invited to the Christmas party,” Layzie explained. “Mo Thugs family, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony — we from out of town so we was there all day… until we shut that muthafucka down.”
“Something happened, Wu-Tang came in, one member or another member had some — it had nothing to do with the main characters; it was our up-and-coming artists and people that were around, our entourage,” he continued.
“So pushing and shoving started,” Layzie says, “bottles get to throwing, a fight broke out. When [Bone Thugs’ “Everyday Thang 2” came on at the party] all hell broke loose. And then we had to get up out of there.”
“Thank God, rest in peace to Chris Lighty and his brother Dave Lighty got us out the party. Coming out the party, we was finna get rushed. Now, we just went to breakfast with Method Man that morning so we didn’t understand the confusion.”
“So Meth was like, ‘Ya’ll gonna get up outta here.’ But it was n*ggas coming with them thangs, though. It was finna go there and that’s when Biggie showed up. He kinda cleared the path for us to get outta there. That’s a long story short. Way more shit happened than that.”
This fight, which erupted right at the peak of the decade’s coastal rap wars, has been discussed before by fellow rapper Consequence. Best known for his work with A Tribe Called Quest and Kanye West. Consequence claimed that Ghostface Killah of Wu-Thang Clan threw a champagne bottle at Wish Bone of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.
As fans will know, Biggie’s involvement in the major hip-hop feuds of his time ultimately led to his death at just 24 years old. He was murdered in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, and buried back in New York City with a funeral that was attended by the likes of Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, Run-D.M.C., Busta Rhymes, and Salt-N-Pepa.