“We were still stealing music like crazy. So I happened to go through one of my DATs, and I found a whole session of Diddy and Biggie on there. I think an unfinished version of ‘Who Shot Ya’ was on there, and Clue played it first, so I got the DAT later on. I got it from Trackmasters. They were like, ‘Clue used it first, but there’s probably some acapellas on it you can use for a blend.’ [I had it because] we were gonna do a Trackmasters mixtape, but we never did it. So I just had the DAT collecting dust.
“One day, I was playing the shyt, and I was like, ‘What the fukk? There’s [an unreleased] Biggie verse on here.’ I called Spyda, and he was like, ‘Yo, I don’t think I ever heard this.’ I was like, ‘You sure?’ I called eight people in the industry, and they were all like, ‘I don’t know what the fukk this is. Where’d you get this from?’
“Then I called Fif, like, ‘Yo, I think I got a Biggie acapella that nobody’s ever heard.’ Diddy had been recycling Biggie, so I didn’t want to do it like that. Then Fif was like, ‘Yo, bring that shyt over here.’ We heard it, and we were like, ‘What the fukk?!’ Then Red Spyda did some crazy track, and Fif got on there.
“So I went to get on Hot 97. I wait until Flex went home, and was driving home. And I was like, ‘Yo, New York City, it’s about to go down right now!’ And I did a mixtape with Diddy a while before, and he had did drops for me. So I put Diddy on the intro. ‘Yo, Whoo Kid, Shadyville Entertainment, Bad Boy collabo.’ So Diddy’s in his office, and just imagine an intern being like to him, ‘Yo, there’s a new Biggie song on the radio.’ So Diddy’s listening to ‘Realest nikkas’ like, ‘Yo what the fukk is going on?! I’ve never even heard this shyt!!!’ I played that shyt like twenty times. My boy said Diddy was swinging like dude in Boyz n the Hood after the cops fukked with him, flipping tables. Flex was in the car like, ‘Where’d you get this shyt from?!?!’
“Then Diddy was trying to call up. There’s like an artist line that’s green [on the phones at Hot 97]. But we were like, ‘We ain’t picking that shyt up.’ And I kept playing it, bombing. Bomb, bomb, bomb. I knew that shyt was serious when we were in Africa performing that shyt, and like 20,000 Africans knew every word. I was like, ‘Yo, this shyt is outta here!’ I don’t even wanna remember what tape I put that on. I just remember that Hot 97 moment.”
“Diddy was looking for me for months, but he couldn’t find me. Then we were doing Saturday Night Live, so we had to go for rehearsal. So Diddy’s like, ‘Yo, I gotta go to Saturday Night Live to get this nikka, have him tell me where he got this shyt from.’
“I’m last off stage, and I see Diddy’s head in the back. So I start to run off stage, and go into 50’s dressing room, because Diddy wasn’t gonna do nothing with 50 there. So I’m trying to run, and Diddy corners me. Then he puts me in a headlock, and brings me to 50’s room. So 50’s drinking apple juice or whatever, and can you imagine the door opening, and it’s Diddy with me in a headlock? At Saturday Night Live?
“He’s like, ‘Yo Whoo Kid, where’d you get the song from?!’ I’m like, ‘Yo, I don’t be snitching. Yo Fif, you want me to snitch, man?’ And 50’s laughing like, ‘Yo Whoo Kid, just tell him where you got it from.’ I’m like, ‘I can’t tell. Code of the streets, yo!’ And Diddy’s like, ‘I wanna know right now!’ So I’m like, ‘Trackmasters.’ He’s like, ‘What?!?!!’ Them nikkas?!?!!?’ Because you know him, he’s supposed to have every Biggie joint. So the fact that I had a Biggie joint he never heard, and I put him on the intro, it made him even more crazy. I played that like a hundred times on purpose. Man, I wish there was a video camera of when I first played it. Him flipping tables like, ‘Yo, nikkas is ripping me off!!! nikkas is hiding shyt from me!!!’”
