Fat Joe confirms collab with Biggie featuring Tupac diss tracks, recalls their 'Spanish-Black don' partnership
Several years after reports claiming that Fat Joe and The Notorious B.I.G. (aka Biggie) had a collaborative album in the works before Tupac's death, Fat Joe has confirmed the rumors with extra surprising details.
According to a 2016 article by Revolt, Fat Joe recalled the first time he watched Biggie perform live at The Lyricist Lounge and the start of their friendship. "I was going there to give the DJ my vinyl, I had just got my vinyl for 'Flow Joe', and Biggie came on stage with a backpack and Puff [Daddy] was with him," he said at the time.
Joe reminisced the time he watched Biggie battle "like 10 different dudes" and "crushed all 10 of them." Later, the rapper spoke of how they met and became friends. "That's where we originally met and then we kept in touch from there."
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The pair allegedly went on to work under the radar on several projects, including a collaborative album. "Me and Biggie was supposed to do an album together," he explained. Apparently, that project led to Joe landing a deal with Atlantic Records.
"That's how I got my deal, because Biggie told Puff and this was around the time that he had all that beef. So he was like, 'Yo Joe, let's make an album together. You the Spanish don, I'm the Black don.' So we did like four songs, but we was talking reckless on them records — beyond," Joe said.
Fast-forward to a recent interview with Verzuz creators Swizz Beatz and Timbaland on a new Instagram Live show, and Joe revealed that he and Biggie had already recorded about five songs, which included disses aimed at Tupac, Biggie's friend turned rival. Much to Joe's relief, those songs were never released.
"You know I say stuff, Tim, and they always say I lie or I say too much," Joe expressed during the session. "You know I worked on an album with Biggie? We cut about five songs together."
"He was like, ‘You the Latino don, I’m the Black don,’ he said similarly to his earlier statement. "And we was in that studio going crazy. It’s verified by Puff Daddy and everybody. I’ma keep it real – at the time, we were dissing Tupac a lot and all that and so that should have never seen the light of day."
He continued, "Which is respectfully so, because you know they both passed on. But yeah, I worked with the B.I.G. for real." Watch the video here.
According to HipHopDX, Swizz Beatz shared earlier this year that he plans to feature Biggie and Tupac's catalogs going head-to-head in Verzuz, but he just has to figure out how to make it work.
Swizz said, "My dream one, I want to figure out how to do Pac and Biggie in a way that the people is gonna really love it." Timbaland didn't necessarily reject or accept the notion, but added, "I got a couple ideas. I’ma text you! I’ma call you later! Oh, but not even that, we gotta go Prince and Michael Jackson!"