Prescient of the Day the World Changed, but a reference to the 1993 “small fries” bombing

Rappin Duke was a proto-rapper posing as a rapping John Wayne. His hit single, “Rappin' Duke”, contained the chorus, “duh-ha, duh-ha”

Tape players … I miss the hiss..

When you overplayed a tape, it would blow out and break.

A brand of malt liquor favored by the poor as a cheap way to get drunk

Influential early rappers:

• Salt ‘n’ Pepa are arguably the best female rappers of all time; the fact that B.I.G. lists them as one of his earliest rap inspirations draws attention to his feminine side (he ghostwrote most of Lil Kim’s lyrics, including such gems as “I be sitting at the bar eating sushi playing with my Coochie”)

• Jamaican rapper Heavy D was one of the prescient inventors of “bling rap” — he and Biggie eventually became friends, with Heavy D making a cameo on the video for “One More Chance”

You could really earn points if you included the picture. Going back to the late 80’s there was an actual picture in Word Up! magazine of Salt & Pepa and Heavy D in a limousine. The magazine was one of the few visuals we had into the hip hop world at the time.

Word Up magazine was one of the first publications to focus on rap

Biggie would read it and imagine his head on Salt N Pepa’s body (“if only!”)

This may be the specific issue he recalls:

Hey, nice come-up! (Very safe car too)

His friend had a God-given talent for blending into any social situation

Hyperbole. You cannot fit a pound of weed into a single blunt:

If you’re “the shit” (“the shit” meaning “good”) then I am “sewerage” (VERY good, since there’s a lot of shit in the sewer, and the sewerage is the whole sewer infrastructure…you see where he’s going with this?)