Smoke DZA chopped it up with Lil Cease during a recent Instagram Live session where, naturally, the subject The Notorious B.I.G. came up. At one point, they started talking about JAY-Z and Biggie’s relationship with the billionaire Hip Hop mogul.
Cease, who was a member Junior M.A.F.I.A. and Biggie’s cousin revealed Biggie always thought Hov was the superior MC.
“Once Big met him at the Palladium, and they bonded on some g-shit ’cause they respected each other as men and they respected each other as artists,” Cease said. “Big wasn’t afraid to tell him … Big thought JAY-Z] was doper than him. Big used to say, ‘Yo, that nigga nicer than me.’
“These are straight facts. When JAY-Z said that line on ‘Dead Presidents,’ ‘Niggas take a freeze f my kneecap, niggas believe that?’ Big was like, ‘Yo, he got me.’”
Cease thought Biggie was “buggin’” though and explained he found Big’s content more relatable.
“I adapted to Big’s shit because it was more my lane,” he continued. “Jay was digging in the books saying some other shit. I had to go get a dictionary like, ‘The fuck is he talkin’ bout?’ You know what I’m saying? We wasn’t tappin’ into it ’cause we was some young, bad ass kids. But I adapted to Big ’cause I feel like Big was just more direct.”
The Notorious B.I.G. recorded two classic albums before his 1997 murder, Ready To Die and Life After Death.