Hip-hop journalist, Bonz Malone missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime after losing a dice game to the Notorious B.I.G. In a recent interview, Malone recalled the time he almost signed Biggie while working as an A&R for Island Records.
Hit the jump for more.
Malone was neighbors with Biggie and had a solid relationship with him. He recalled the day the Biggie came up to Island Records and they rolled dice for a record deal.
“We were rollin’ dice for like three hours, seriously,” he said, “And the bet was if he won, I wouldn’t sign him, but if he lost, I would sign him. And I rolled a five–we were playing Cee-lo–and he rolled a six and he won. That opened the door for him to go to Bad Boy, and Puffy signed him.”
Things worked out for both Malone and Biggie in the end however. Malone moved on to writing for The Source. It was him who named B.I.G. ‘The King of New York’ on the July 1995 cover story. Malone explained the title did not exist until that point. He said, “Before then, there was no ‘King of New York’ title in hip-hop at all,” he continued, “Nobody aspired to be the ‘King of New York,’ it didn’t exist. Not Nas, not Slick Rick, not Run DMC; it did not exist.”
Imagine how different things would have been if Malone won the dice game or if Biggie was never named “The King of New York” Check out the clip below.
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