"The greatest rapper of all time died on March 9th."
Those are the words of rapper Canibus, uttered on "Second Round Knockout," his famous 1998 diss record aimed at LL Cool J. They're a nod to the late, great Notorious B.I.G., who was killed in Los Angeles the year before.
Nearly two decades later, people are still paying homage to Biggie Smalls.
Sunday, the Nets will host #NetsBiggieNight, a celebration of Biggie's life and music, to coincide with the 20-year anniversary of the Brooklyn native's death, according to NBC New York.
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Biggie's mother, Voletta Wallace, along with his friend and Bad Boy Records label head Sean "Diddy" Combs, will be in attendance at Barclay's Center. The matchup against the Knicks will feature Biggie's tunes throughout the game, and the Nets' cheerleaders have a special performance planned.
Biggie's sports ties run deep. He inserted basketball references into his rhymes on the regular.
Early in his career he teamed up with Heavy D for a track called "Jam Session" and delivered lines such as, "I'm stripping like Scottie Pippen giving the serious butt kicking/Breaking bones like Karl Malone, yeah I'm flippin'/Or Isaiah, say ya prayer when I step inta your lair/Leave the lane clear; I'm welfare like Lambier" and "Rebounding, outstanding, no one surroundin'/I'm screwing and doing like I was Ewing/The only one soaring and scoring is Jordan /He musta had his Wheaties this morning."
He also traded bars with Shaquille O'Neal on the Big Aristotle's 1997 single "You Can't Stop the Reign." And, of course, there was the infamous tale he penned, featuring a mystery Knick of the 90s, on "I Got a Story to Tell."
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Yeah, we'll always love Big Poppa.