Will Smith says he spoke to both Prince and Biggie Smalls just hours before they died
Will Smith has recalled speaking to both Prince and Biggie Smalls just hours before they died.
The actor and rapper opened up about his connection to the two of them during a new interview on the Broken Record podcast, and said that he feels a strange connection with the two music icons because of the last discussions he had with them.
Biggie Smalls, also known as the Notorious B.I.G., was murdered aged 24 during a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles back in March 1997. Prince died in 2016 from an accidental overdose of the painkiller fentanyl. He was aged 57.
“I don’t even want to say this out loud ’cause it’s like a terrible jinx,” Smith said during the interview. “I met Biggie four hours before he got killed, and I talked to Prince eight hours before he died.”
The latter, he explained, saw Prince call him up and pitch a business venture between the two of them and Jay-Z. This, he recalled, was an entertainment company that both he and the ‘Empire State Of Mind’ rapper were interested in pursuing.
“He had talked to Jay and he wanted to do it. We talked that night, and in the morning, he was gone,” Smith said.
As for his final communications with Biggie Smalls, the I, Robot actor shared how the untimely death of the rap icon had a huge effect on him. “It was stupid and just centred on hip-hop for rapping… That one hurt me. It scared me, too,” he said.
Recalling the strange coincidence between the discussions with The Notorious B.I.G. and Prince, Smith went on to joke that it could be bad luck to talk to him. “I don’t know what that says about me. Don’t call me!”
In other news, Will Smith has been focusing on his return to music in recent times, making his comeback last year with the single ‘Work Of Art’ featuring his son Jaden and Russ, followed by ‘Tantrum’ with Joyner Lucas.
Both songs are expected to be part of an upcoming album ‘Dance In Your Darkest Days’. The album has yet to receive a release date and will be his first since 2005’s ‘Lost And Found’.
Since then, he has also enlisted Big Sean for a new single titled ‘Beautiful Scars’.
The post Will Smith says he spoke to both Prince and Biggie Smalls just hours before they died appeared first on NME.
Liberty Dunworth
NME
