Filed under: Interviews, Hot Picks, Biographies
Before his untimely death in 1997, The Notorious B.I.G. frequently made headlines for his bad boy antics. Through his music and personae, he carefully cultivated a thug image born of the gritty streets of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
He was not known as a man of compassion. That was until now. In 'The Last Listening Party of The Notorious B.I.G.,' LaJoyce Brookshire, the former publicist for Arista Records, his record label, and Elijah Muhammad, an entertainment photographer, show a different side of the artist during the listening party for the album 'Life After Death,' which was released 14 years ago today (March 25, 1997).
Thirty eight striking never-before-released images show him in repose, in pensive thought and laughing with friends, including Sean "Puffy" Combs. No one would have thought that two weeks later Biggie would be dead, murdered during a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles.
"Readers will see Biggie in a different light, compared to what they've seen before in the press,'' Muhammad told BlackVoices.com. " He's down-to-earth in these pictures. It's not the tough guy image. It's the Biggie that his mother knew -- in his innocence, so to speak.''
"He went through a lot of different moods in this one setting at this one listening party,'' Muhammad continued. "The photos reflect that. It looks like he had a lot on his mind at one point. He's sleeping at another. It's interesting. I think readers will connect with a part of him that isn't normally revealed.''
Self published on blurb.com, the pair came up with the book idea after talking about it for years. Brookshire felt she had a lot to share. She was director of R&B publicity for Arista and handled Biggie from the beginning of his career until his death. With her first-hand narrative, she takes readers on an inside journey from her first encounter with Biggie to their last.
One of her first encounters with Biggie in 1994 was riotous if not outright obnoxious, she recounted.
"We were at the Bad Boy Records office and we were supposed to have a press day,'' Brookshire shared. "He needed media training beforehand. I told him to look people in the eye. I told him to answer a question with a question. I told him not to say [n-word]. He was like, 'OK, 'I'll be right back.' Twenty minutes passed. I thought he was socializing. I went to look for him. It was a catered affair, so I wanted to get things started because people were starting to show up. He never came back. No, I'll be right back; I'll see you later. He just left. That's how it started.''
Then she told us how there were many instances when he kept her waiting for hours or all day long after telling her he would be downstairs in five minutes.
"We'd just have to wait downstairs in the car,'' she said. "There was lots of trying to get him out of bed and lots of him showing up with lots of people at a TV studio and we'd have to accommodate them all. I'm talking 15 to 20 people easily.''
But their relationship changed after the release of his second album, 'Life After Death.'
"We, at the label, knew he was a star,'' Brookshire said. "He knew I cared, but I wasn't going to take any junk. He was like, 'Dag, you are a bitch.' I was like, 'It's Miss Bitch to you.' ''
The most endearing thing about Biggie is that he was an incredibly caring person, but it took time to peel back the layers of the onion, she said. In one case, she recounts how she had received news of her estranged husband's death during the iconic cover shoot of him and Faith Evans under the Brooklyn Bridge for Vibe magazine. Knowing how difficult he was to manage, Brookshire said she was reluctant to leave even though she was grief stricken.
"I kept going to the phone in the car,'' she recalled. "He saw me crying and he was like you need to go home and take of your business. He kissed me on the forehead and turned me around and pushed me toward the car.''
In another instance in March 1997, just after the listening party, Brookshire and Biggie were attending the 'Soul Train Music Awards' in Los Angeles. Brookshire said Biggie was eager to attend the Vibe party afterward, but she wasn't. She gave him her tickets because she wanted to return home to put the finishing touches on her wedding, which was scheduled to take place the next month.
"We said our goodbyes,'' Brookshire recalled. "And then the next day I found out he was gone. Just like that.''