The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Who Shot Ya” inspired Jay-Z to write four songs in one night, the rapper revealed on Twitter.
In a Twitter space talking about Biggie’s life and legacy, Jay-Z said he was so inspired by the song that it pushed him to write new music. However, he claims his cuts weren’t as good as what Biggie came up with.
“Biggs gave me the ‘Who Shot Ya’ CD — he called me like it was like we had some kind of beef or something,” Jay-Z explained. “He was like, ‘yo meet me on 120th right now.’ I jump in my car, I’m heavy. I’m like, ‘what’s going on with Biggs?’ I mean, I fly up there. And I get out my car and get in his car and he plays the song and he was like, ‘yeah, you keep the uh,’ it was a cassette tape actually. He was like, ‘yeah you keep that.’”
“I wrote like four songs that night,” Jay-Z continued. “None of them was as good as ‘Who Shot Ya’ but it was still like four songs. It was just, again it was that friendly competition like just trying to push each other to be the best.”
Diddy also shared his thoughts on the conversation hosted by Elliot Wilson, telling the legendary rapper that he “filled” the shoes left behind after Biggie died in 1997.
“You came in and we definitely give thanks,” Diddy told Jay-Z. “You definitely came, and I just know how much Big really looked up to Jay. They looked up to each other. That is crazy you had to step into the shoes of two people. That’s all it was was those two people. They had things on lock.”
It’s great to hear how Bigg’s influence on other artists is still present today, two decades after his death. It says a lot about how iconic the man was, and how powerful his music was. Hearing Jay say that he wrote 4 songs in one night is amazing. I wonder if any of them ever saw the light of day?
