dream hampton, famed writer, editor, and confidant of hip-hop legends like Jay-Z and the Notorious one can recall the day of Big’s death like it was yesterday. Although today marks 14 years since his untimely passing, dream sat down with Kathy Iandoli and vividly described the events of both the day before and the day of the tragic moment Big was killed.
March 8th, 1997
“I was mad at [B.I.G.] about something, but I still took him the issue of Rap Pages. That Rap Pages cover is of course the iconic one — if I can say so myself — Barron Claiborne shot of him in the crown. I was mad at him; You know what it was? He made me do the article. He kept standing up my writer Darrell Dawsey; I didn’t want to do the Biggie piece. That ended up being a piece I had to write overnight. The magazine was the crown picture, which I fought with Puff over. Puff said it looked like Burger King, but Biggie liked it and I think [Biggie’s Manager] Mark Pitts liked it. I went over to his hotel in Westwood [California]. He had been kicked out of the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills for fighting with Charli [Baltimore]. I hadn’t even been to his room, but for some reason I had the information. I was on my way home to pick up my daughter from her sitter after work at Rap Pages, and I had the cover, and I slipped it under his door.
I knew that he was going to be at the Soul Train Awards. I wasn’t going; I had to interview the next day with Pedro [Zamora]’s boyfriend, Sean in Atlanta. Remember Pedro from the ‘Real World’ on MTV? I had done a piece for Poz magazine, which is a magazine for HIV-positive men, well, mostly men. I had done an article about the Red Hot & Rap. I had reviewed that for them, and they had me go to profile Sean for my second article for that magazine, so I had an early morning flight to Atlanta. I didn’t feel like going out. L.A. is not like New York, where you just throw on some jeans and really fresh shoes and wear your hair however. L.A. is like, be dressed. I didn’t feel like all that s—, so I didn’t go.”
Click HERE to read about her recollection of MARCH 9TH, 1997
