For decades, rappers have written lyrics about the expensive things they buy, from chains to cars. The Notorious B.I.G. was no stranger to expensive jewelry, but he rarely showed up the jewelry store with a credit card. Instead, the “Juicy” rapper paid for his bling in cold, hard cash.
The Notorious B.I.G. came from a difficult background to making lots of money
Biggie grew up in New York City at the height of the crack epidemic in the 1980s. Although the drug was decimating communities like his in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Biggie saw it as a lucrative career path, as older guys in his neighborhood began sporting fancy clothes and jewelry. At just 12 years old, he became a crack dealer himself.
Eventually, Biggie took his business down south, splitting his time between Brooklyn and Raleigh, North Carolina, where he could sell crack for higher prices. At the same time, he was known around the neighborhood for his rapping abilities at block parties and cyphers, but never developed his talent further.
He was eventually discovered by record executive Sean “Diddy” Combs, who signed him to his label Bad Boy Records in 1993. But before he brought Biggie along, Diddy required that he give up his profession on the streets.
Biggie used wads of cash to pay for jewelry
In a 2023 interview with GQ, retired basketball star Allen Iverson looked back on a time he went jewelry shopping with Biggie and Diddy. “We was using the same jeweler,” he remembered. “I went with him and Big.”
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Iverson was taken aback when he saw Biggie paying for his new jewelry pieces with “knots” of cash. “We in there, getting whatever. But I’m using checks. I just remember Big using goddamn cash. Big-a** knots, know what I mean? He’s standing, he got on jean shorts, and you can see the big-a** muhf***in’ knots in his godd*** pants,” he continued.
Diddy bought fake diamonds
While Diddy splurged on jewelry from time to time, he also has bought fake jewels in the past. In 2018, GQ spoke with ex-Bad Boy artists and other Diddy associates about what Diddy is like behind the scenes. His former personal valet, Fonzworth Bentley, remembered when Diddy bought fake diamonds in Saint Martin.
“He went in town to get the mother of two of his children a gift,” Bentley recounted. “So there are all these really nice boutiques and we fell into this one boutique and there were these diamond watches and they were really beautiful.”
“There was something really unique about them and I remember him asking, ‘Hey let me see this one.’ He picked it up and he was looking at it and then the price tag was there, and the price tag was something like $2,500. He was like, ‘Wait, these are fake?’ And the woman was like, ‘Yeah, these aren’t real.’ And he was like, ‘Wait, hold on, let me see this one right here,’” Bentley continued.
“So he puts it on and we’re looking at it and we’re both marveling at it,” he remembered. “He looks at me and he goes, ‘They ain’t gonna think it’s fake on Diddy.’”
