Photojournalist T. Eric Monroe recently discussed a photograph he took featuring Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. wearing matching Bad Boy t-shirts.
“I don’t remember the full what happened,” Monroe said in a recent interview with Monster Children. “But it was the typical moment where, as a photographer, dudes will see you with a camera and they’ll be like, ‘Yo, take a picture of us.’ I’m not going to say no. But it was a moment when someone in their entourage – it wasn’t B.IG. – said ‘Yo, take a picture of us.’
“I turned around, made sure they were symmetrical to take the shot,” Monroe continued. “At some point, ‘Pac threw up his finger, just being typical Tupac, and I was just like, ‘Okay, whatever,’ and shot the picture because there was no concept in it. It was just like, ‘Okay, leave me alone.’ Not to say, ‘Leave me alone.’ That’s disrespectful. But it was like, ‘Okay, you want me to take the picture? Now can I keep going?'”
Monroe says he didn’t understand the importance of the image for years.
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“I didn’t think about it for years,” Monroe said. “I didn’t even know it existed for years just because I saw a shadow over a dude’s face and just didn’t think about it until many years later when something made me stop and actually look at the frame. I was like, ‘Fuck, Biggie and ‘Pac in the same picture together and they’re all wearing ‘I’m A Bad Boy” shirt.'”
The photograph can be viewed below, following the interview.
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