April 23rd 2024.
Damon Dash, one of the co-founders of Roc-A-Fella, recently reminisced about the early days of the label. During an interview on Patrick Bet-David's PBD Podcast, he shared some stories from the '90s when he and Jay-Z were making a name for themselves in the hip-hop industry. At the same time, Diddy and The Notorious B.I.G. were dominating the scene with their label, Bad Boy Records.
Interestingly, Jay-Z and B.I.G. had a history together as they both attended Westinghouse High School in Brooklyn, New York. This connection eventually led to Dash feeling comfortable enough to smoke marijuana with B.I.G., who was known for his hit song "Juicy."
As the two crews spent more time together, Dash and Jay-Z became convinced that Diddy and B.I.G. were imitating their lifestyle. "We had always felt that Biggie and Puffy were copying us," Dash asserted. "They'd see us in the club and it seemed like the next day, a record would be made."
According to Dash, the way Jay-Z and B.I.G. hustled was on two different levels. While Jay-Z was making connections and pushing narcotics from state to state with the help of high-level contacts, B.I.G. was limited to the streets of Brooklyn. "We were really getting money," Dash explained. "No disrespect to Biggie but it was a different hustle. We weren't on the streets pitching work. We were all about connects."
This belief that Diddy and B.I.G. were possibly copying their style caused tension between the two crews. Dash admits that there were confrontations and it took time for them to become cool with each other. "But that lifestyle of a hustler, that was us," he confessed. "That was them copying us, for sure. So we kinda had problems. I was run up on sometimes. I was confrontational with Biggie and them at first, but we finally got cool."
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