If he were still alive The Notorious B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls, would be celebrating his 44th birthday this year on May 21st 2016. However, even though he’s not with us physically he left a rich legacy of music behind that is still being discovered by new fans and being talked about to this day.
In memory of the fallen wordsmith, his best friend and Bad Boy label owner, Puff has organized a concert which will take place on the 20th of May 2016 at the Barclays Arena in Brooklyn New York. This won’t be an ordinary concert though. It will be a Bad Boy reunion concert which will see current and former Bad Boy artists uniting to perform some of the tracks that have been released by the label over the years. My assumption is that they’ll most likely perform songs that popped in the 90s when the label was on fire musically as majority of the lineup includes artists who had their biggest hits around that time.
Artists who are scheduled to appear include Lil Kim, The Lox, R&B group 112, Mario Winans, Mase, French Montana, and Faith Evans. Some of Bad Boy’s collaborators who were never on the label such as Biggie’s close friend Jay-Z and the queen of hip hop soul Mary J. Blige will also perform at the “One Night Only” event.
Puff Daddy released a statement stating that “the Bad Boy Family includes some of the biggest names in music and songs that helped define a whole generation of music. Also, we are celebrating one of the greatest of all time - Notorious B.I.G. This will be a night to remember. I can't wait to see you all there"
This news comes hot on the heels of Faith Evans’ announcement that the collaboration album with Notorious B.I.G. that she has been working on for the past 2 year and a half or so is almost complete. Faith also announced that there are plans to create a hologram of the deceased rapper to be used at shows. That news makes me wonder whether the hologram will be used at the memorial show as a surprise. In any case whether the hologram will be present or not the concert will more than likely be amazing. Faith isn’t the only one from Biggie’s circle who’s planning on releasing an album. Puffy is also working on a new album titled “No Way Out 2” which doesn’t have a set release date yet.
Last year there was a mini Bad Boy reunion at the BET Hip Hop Awards 2015 which got a lot of reactions. It made me feel nostalgic as I listened to the various 90s hits that were performed, not to mention that we got to witness a bit of drama when Puffy fell into some hole on stage…ahh good times, good times.
Tickets to the event will be available on Live Nation from the 2nd of April 2016.
