Biggie Once Attributed the Suicidal Despair of ‘Ready to Die’ to Smoking Weed

Photo by Clarence Davis

On The Notorious B.I.G.’s masterpiece Ready to Die, the M.C. documents the trials and tribulations of street life: poverty, drug dealing, feeding his daughter, beefing with rivals. “Fuck the world, fuck my moms and my girl,” Biggie rhymed on the title track, “I’m ready to die.” The album even includes the suicidal lament ‘Suicidal Thoughts.’ During an interview for the 1995 documentary The Show, Biggie confessed that his suicidal feelings had been caused by marijuana:

Ready to Die was ninety-five percent the chronic, five percent me. All the rest of that shit was the weed, man. All that ‘Suicidal Thoughts’ shit, all that extra shit that niggas ain’t really supposed to be talkin’ bout? That was the weed talkin’, man.”

Biggie had heaps of legitimate stresses in his life – but it sounds like his marijuana habit only exacerbated matters. His habit was enormous, too: according to Damon Dash, Biggie and his crew smoked a whopping 60 blunts during the making of ‘Brooklyn’s Finest.’ Here’s the interview with Biggie Smalls: