Touré wants to set the record straight on an interview clip featured in 50 Cent’s Netflix docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning.
In his TikTok series, Touré clarified that when The Notorious B.I.G. was speaking about fearing for his life, it wasn’t just before his death in March 1997. Touré, who conducted the interview, said he spoke with Biggie when his debut album Ready To Die was released.
“So I did that interview, he’s talking to me,” Touré explained. “The doc places this right before the Peterson Auto Museum, March 9th. But you know what? We did that interview on the first album.”
“That’s him talking about the street, not the [rap] game,” Touré continued. “That’s him saying, ‘I’m afraid of getting knocked off on the street.’”
Touré went on to say that the interview took place in the hallway of Biggie’s building while members of his entourage were protecting him.
“If anyone started walking up, somebody from the crew would go down with a hammer,” he recalled. “Big said to me, ‘I am afraid, afraid of the street. But I gotta be out here. I gotta live. I gotta show ‘em my music. I gotta show ‘em I’m not afraid, but I am definitely afraid.’”
Touré ‘s recollection of the interview coincides with his article entitled “Biggie Smalls, Rap’s Man of the Moment,” which he wrote in December 1994 for the New York Times.
He clarified that the clip had nothing to do with Biggie’s upcoming trip to Los Angeles, years later, in March 1997. Biggie was aware of tensions in the aftermath of Tupac Shakur’s murder.
“But the doc makes it sound like that bite about his fear relates to the Big–Pac situation. And his fear ahead of going to L.A.,” Touré said. “He may have been afraid because he knew he was in danger of being in L.A. at that moment. But that clip is way out of context. It’s from years earlier.”