A revelatory new biography of the Notorious B.I.G., Justin Tinsley’s It Was All a Dream: Biggie and the World That Made Him, is due out May 10.
Tupac’s claims on “Hit ‘Em Up” of an affair with Biggie’s wife, Faith Evans, were fiction, and getting caught up in the feud was devastating for her.
Evans had gotten Biggie’s blessing for a studio collaboration with Tupac, with no idea how bad the conflict was going to become. “She went through hell in a war that she didn’t ask to be a part of,” Tinsley says. A jazz musician named Donald Harrison was a young Biggie’s Mr. Miyagi, teaching him and his friends the secrets of music-making.
“They would go over there and he would teach them art,” says Tinsley. “‘Here’s where you stand in front of a mic. Here’s breath control. Listen to these jazz artists and understand, this is how you can ride a beat.”“You can say whatever you want to about Puffy,” says Tinsley, “but there is no denying the impact that he had on the Notorious B.I.G.’s career.