Then you have Big becoming ‘Big Poppa.’ He’s now got that style and pizzazz, and he’s in the clubs and the girls are loving him. “Look, Puff, you came with ‘Juicy.’ Anyone could understand that struggle.
“Yo, Puff, you gonna scream at me or you want to hear my idea?” Stone remembers asking. It was now or never, and Stone went for it. Stone had the idea in his head, but he’d never rehearsed it. He put the phone on mute and demanded, “F-ing tell him! F-ing tell him!” Puffy was still cursing, but he hadn’t hung up yet. He thought he had just botched one of the most important relationships he had in the music industry. Stone lost count of how many “motherf-ers” Puffy yelled over the course of the call. “What the f- you should be doing is getting my s- played on the radio! And I’ll worry about what the f- Puff needs and does.” Related Story A hustler’s prayer: Biggie Smalls’ final 24 hours encapsulated the man he wanted to become Read now “All you motherf-ers think you know what the f- I should be doing!” Puffy screamed. Before he could even get his next thought in, the reins to the conversation had already shifted. Not exactly the greatest way to start a conversation with the budding executive.
“I think you’re making a mistake with ‘Machine Gun Funk,’ ” Stone said. If not, he ran the risk of Puffy going berserk. Stone had a very respectable working relationship with Puffy, but it’s not like they hung out or anything, so he had to keep this strictly business-related and get to his point quickly. Stone’s boss had told Puffy that he didn’t think “Machine Gun Funk” was the best choice for Big’s next single. “Sup,” the young mogul responded, his voice in a monotone. “Hey, Puff,” Stone said, preparing himself for what was to come. Puffy was on the phone, and without saying a word, Stone already knew which Puffy he was getting. Stone didn’t know what was going on, but he didn’t have to wait long to find out. An hour after mentioning his suggestion to his boss, Stone was told he needed to report back to his boss’ office immediately. “One More Chance” was far too explicit for it to have a chance of ever getting played on the radio. “I think it should be ‘One More Chance.’ ” His boss asked him what it should be if not “Machine Gun Funk.” But as a single? In particular, a summer single? That didn’t sit well with him. The next single was going to be “Machine Gun Funk.” Stone loved the Easy Mo Bee-produced heatrock, which was one of the hardest on the entire album. Rob Stone was in a marketing meeting at Arista when he heard the news. He was in the studio with pop icons like Michael Jackson for the record “This Time Around.” But Puffy Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, was also looking for Biggie’s next single. Big wasn’t just in-demand in rap circles, either. And his feature on Total’s smash hit “ Can’t You See” made the opening lines, “Gimme all the chicken heads from Pasadena to Medina,” as infectious as anything to come out that year. His “Flava in Ya Ear (Remix)” verse was blazing the clubs. Big had more than enough product on the streets.
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“ Big Poppa,” with “Warning” on the B-side, showed that just as easily as Big could take your girl, he could eliminate haters trying to stick him for his paper.īy the summer of 1995, Bad Boy Records was in full swing, and it was Big leading the charge. “ Juicy,” from 1994’s Ready to Die, was an undeniable success out the gate and served as a pristine introduction for the Notorious B.I.G. But that meant that the decisions about which tracks were singles was crucial. Instead of every track hitting streaming services instantly on the release date, labels carefully doled out singles over many months, boosting album sales and keeping an artist in the spotlight. In the nineties, an album had a much longer shelf life than it does today. p.0.L.\4.Excerpted from It Was All a Dream: Biggie and the World that Made Him.