The time when Diddy named his favourite Biggie verse ever
(Credit: Shamsuddin Muhammad)

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The time when Diddy named his favourite Biggie verse ever

It’s been 25 years since the release of The Notorious BIG’s legendary Life After Death album, and people still love it. With classics such as ‘Mo Money Mo Problems’ featuring Mase, Puff Daddy and ‘Hypnotise’, the album is already in the hip hop history books and, now, certified 11 times platinum in the US it is one of the best-selling hip hop albums of all time. However, while some songs are legendary, we rarely get into the nitty-gritty to pick our favourite verses. Well in an extremely in-depth interview, Bad Boy founder and hip hop mogul P Diddy, while talking Bad Boy,  named his favourite Biggie verse ever.

Diddy and The Notorious BIG had a long history and friendship. The Notorious BIG (real name Christopher Wallace) was signed to Bad Boy Entertainment. Diddy’s label and a subsidiary of Arista Records. Colloquially known as Bad Boy, the label was a rival record label to Death Row Records, which was operating on America’s West Coast with artists such as 2pac.

West Coast hip hop was at the forefront of mainstream rap during the early 1990s, but with the rapid success of The Notorious B.I.G. and Bad Boy, tensions began to arise. The situation worsened when 2pac accused the label of attempted murder after being shot in Quad Studios’s lobby. The now infamous ‘East Coast vs Wet Coast’ feud was not only between two artists but between their affiliates and labels. 

Having survived all of that with his friend, Combs was quick to commemorate him after he passed with a tribute track entitled ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ featuring Faith Evans and 112. It is still his most successful single of all time, going three times Platinum in the US and UK. The song has been streamed approximately 1.3 million times in these countries alone. The song hit number one in multiple countries and was a tribute to the late Notorious BIG, a close friend of both Combs and Faith Evans. According to Spotify, the track has been streamed over 396.7 million times.

Revealing his favourite Biggie verse, in a sit-down interview with MTV News, Diddy reflected on the late rapper’s final album. In a struggle to pick his favourite song from the album, the mogul finally came to a decision stating, ” ‘My Downfall,’ ‘My Downfall’ is my favourite joint.” then declared, “the first verse from that track is amazing, Bigs was nice with it”. 

You can listen to The Notorious B.I.G.’s legendary Life After Death album below.