{"id":807796,"date":"2020-05-26T07:49:45","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T13:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=1003929"},"modified":"2020-05-26T07:49:45","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T13:49:45","slug":"flashback-the-notorious-b-i-g-rhymes-as-lil-kim-in-queen-bitch-demo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/flashback-the-notorious-b-i-g-rhymes-as-lil-kim-in-queen-bitch-demo\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashback: The Notorious B.I.G. Rhymes as Lil\u2019 Kim in \u2018Queen Bitch\u2019 Demo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In late 1995, Carlos Broady was an aspiring hip-hop<\/a> producer from Memphis, TN when his girlfriend pushed him to submit beat tapes to five different production companies. One of the tapes ended up in the hands of Nashiem Myrick, a New York City producer who had previously worked with Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs on Mary J. Blige\u2019s second album, My Life.<\/em> Broady and Myrick traded beat tapes for a bit, until Broady got a call that would change his career.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA week after I sent him one tape, he called me back and said, \u2018Yo, Biggie picked two of your beats. You gotta come to New York,’\u201d Broady tells Rolling Stone<\/em> from his Memphis home. \u201cI went from Memphis to New York, getting off the plane, straight to the studio. I\u2019m freakin\u2019 starstruck [by Notorious B.I.G.] telling me I got some shit.\u201d Following the phenomenal success of his debut Ready to Die,<\/em> Notorious B.I.G. was considering one of Broady\u2019s tracks \u2014 a piano-led beat anchored by a sample of Roberta Flack\u2019s 1969 cover<\/a> of Leonard Cohen\u2019s \u201cHey, That\u2019s No Way to Say Goodbye\u201d \u2014 for a future album and paid him $3,000 for the instrumental. <\/span><\/p>\n

Broady says Diddy rejected the beat for Biggie\u2019s own album, but Biggie liked it so much, he wanted to use it for a new rapper named Lil Kim<\/a>. One week after Broady and Myrick completed the instrumental, the rapper had recorded a rough draft of what would become \u201cQueen Bitch,\u201d a standout track for Lil Kim who, at the time, was still a year away from releasing Hard Core,<\/em> her debut album. \u201c<\/em>I called him back and got his pager message, and it\u2019s him wilin\u2019 over the beat,\u201d Broady says, laughing. \u201cJust imagine the excitement that the first beat you lay down has Notorious on it rhyming on his answering machine. I tried not to call it too many times, but I couldn\u2019t help it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Months would pass before Broady \u2014 who by then became a full-time member of Diddy\u2019s in-house production team The Hitmen \u2014 would work on the track more. An early version featured Aaliyah on the hook<\/a>, but Broady, spurred on by Biggie, sampled and scratched Kim\u2019s vocals from \u201cBack Stabbers,\u201d<\/a> a track off Junior M.A.F.I.A\u2019s Conspiracy<\/em> album released the previous year, for the final hook.<\/span><\/p>\n

The track\u2019s original demo remains one of Biggie\u2019s more unusual curios, as the rapper rhymes about \u201cs<\/span>hopping Bloomingdale\u2019s for Prada bags\u201d and getting \u201cbuffoons eating my pussy while I watch cartoons.\u201d The demo\u2019s as-yet-recorded chorus consists of Biggie mumbling a placeholder melody for the future track, with the rapper appearing on a few lines of the final version.<\/p>\n

Hard Core,<\/em> propelled by singles \u201cCrush on You\u201d \u201cNo Time\u201d and \u201cNot Tonight,\u201d would go on to sell more than 5 million copies worldwide, with Kim\u2019s fearlessness and empowerment influencing a generation of rappers. (In 2016, she told XXL<\/em> that \u201cQueen Bitch\u201d was one of her favorites<\/a> on the album.) Notorious B.I.G.\u2019s final album Life After Death<\/em> would come out four months later and two weeks after his death.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what, I\u2019ve never paid it any attention,\u201d Broady says, laughing, about Biggie spitting female-centered lyrics. \u201cI was just so excited to hear his voice on my beat, it didn\u2019t matter what he said.\u201d<\/p>\n