Posted by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony are perhaps the only Hip Hop group in history to have collaborations with late Hip Hop legends 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G. and Eazy-E.
On Wednesday (March 9), Fat Joe honored Biggie on the 25th anniversary of his death by sharing a throwback photo of himself with Bone Thugs, Diddy, Lil Kim and the Brooklyn rap icon. In the caption, he revealed he orchestrated the Biggie single “Notorious Thugs” featuring Bone Thugs, which appeared on the 1997 album Life After Death.
“Fun fact I got a call from BIG and he said Joe I need your boys BONE on a song,” he wrote. “I said say no more BONE N BIGGIE BONE N BIGGIE. I love you BIG we will never forget you 25 years later we will never forget THE KING OF NY.”
Shortly after Fat Joe posted the photo, Layzie Bone rolled through with a post of his own and verified the story with, “I appreciate you Joey Crack.”
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Layzie Bone remembers recording “Notorious Thugs” well. After landing in New York City to record the song, Bone Thugs made their way to The Record Plant studio — in a limo.
“We came from St. Clair in a limousine going to see Biggie Smalls and Puffy in the studio,” he told HipHopDX in an interview. “Everybody was there — I’m talkin’ Stevie J, because Stevie J did the beat, everybody from Bad Boy — except for Lil Kim, I ain’t see her that day — everybody from our camp, Ruthless Records, because we was in the house. So you got to imagine B.G. Knocc Out, all our security and Bone Thug-n-Harmony. We was having a ball up in that piece, right?”
Fat Joe Takes Credit For Biggie & Bone Thugs-n-Harmony’s Classic ‘Notorious Thugs’ Collab
Layzie continued, “So the song was being made. It only took about five hours, too. We did our part. I was asleep in the limo. They woke me up. I did my shit just out of my sleep. Everybody thought they’d freestyle and all this type shit. Well, let me see you freestyle more than 16, 20 bars at a time.
“Anyway, Big was like, ‘I’m going to take this home, man’ and he stole my weed! He put my weed in his pocket. I’m like, ‘That’s a whole ounce, Big.’ He said, ‘Y’all got some good ass weed, yo.’ I’m like, ‘Man, give my muthafuckin’ weed back, Big.’ He’s like, ‘This yours?’ So, he gave me my weed back. We broke it in half, actually, and then this n-gga went home, took this song and died before he got to hear his verse.”
Biggie was shot and killed in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997 as he was promoting his forthcoming album, the aforementioned Life After Death. The murder remains unsolved.