On Wednesday (Aug. 2), LL Cool J stopped by Shade 45’s “Sway In The Morning” to promote his upcoming Rock The Bells Festival, which takes place this Saturday (Aug. 5). He also spoke on his forthcoming album, ageism in hip hop, and more.
At one point, host Sway Calloway mentioned a previous interview where journalist Bonsu Thompson opened up about The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Who Shot Ya?” According to him, the 1994 classic contained a shot at the Queens emcee. Thompson also claimed that LL’s Mr. Smith standout, “I Shot Ya,” was a response to the alleged diss.
“I need him to stick to his day job. And if that is his day job, he might wanna reassess that s**t,” LL jokingly said in response to Thompson’s comments. “Nah, that’s not true. I was in the studio when Biggie wrote ‘Who Shot Ya?’ Literally. Like, I was literally in the studio when he made the song.”
He continued by recalling a humorous memory from that very encounter. “I said, ‘Yo, Biggie, why you smoke so much weed when you writing your joints?’ And it was at this time he was, I guess, still writing,” the “Mama Said Knock You Out” veteran explained. “He said, ‘It makes me feel like I’m in the track.’ And we just started laughing.”
LL further drove the point home by bringing up additional moments with the late Brooklyn rapper and stressing how important competition was within hip hop as a whole. “B.I.G. was my man, you know what I’m saying? I did ‘Flava In Ya Ear (Remix),’ we did that together. I used to see him at The Tunnel. I’d be like, ‘Yo, B.I.G., you good?’ He’d [say], ‘Chillin!’ He was just a great dude, and I liked him a lot. No, he wasn’t taking a shot at me. He was doing what rappers do. He was saying whoever want it can get it. That’s regular.”
Check out the full interview below.