Tags
Atlanta, B.I.G., Bad Boy Records, Biggie Small, Blue Lines, Brooklyn, Busta Rhymes, Christopher Wallace, Coogi, DKNY, East Coast, Funk Master Flex, Hip-Hop Quotable Wednesdays, Hypnotize, I-85, Key Yemaya Walker, Los Angeles, March 9th 1997, Moschino, New York, North Carolina, Puff Daddy, Queens, Rene Cecil Sotolongo, Sean Combs, Starsky and Hutch, The Notorious B.I.G.
Wow, I can’t believe that it has been 14 years since March 9th, 1997. It is funny how the events around that Sunday served as the preface that would eventually lead to my writing Blue Lines.
I can remember that early morning as we drove from Atlanta to New York for our family emergency. I had to abruptly leave school, and while my younger brother and sister sat on the back bench of the rented van, my mother had taken over the driving duties somewhere on I-85 in North Carolina, actually the worst leg of the trip between Atlanta and New York. My father slept, as my mother, surprisingly composed due to her state the days before. When I heard her mention, they just said on the radio Biggie’s dead. My ears perked up, and I raised from my college student form being sprawled across the middle bench of the van.
“Damn,” I thought as she turned up the radio so that we could get more details. A very shaken Busta Rhymes was reached by phone, and he said that all East Coast rappers were trying to get out of L.A., that proved that this was senseless violence. My heart sank, and at the moment I thought of how my family tragedy and the murder of Christopher Wallace would be tied from that moment forward. The events of that weekend would eventually lead to my meeting the future subject of my future manuscript, and future novel Blue Lines.
I have chosen “Hypnotize” as this week’s installment of Hip-Hop Quotable Wednesdays submission, because as we finally made our way into New York and Funk Master Flex was playing Biggie’s new single back, to back, to back.
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