On Thursday (March 9), Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) used the House floor as his stage to honor The Notorious B.I.G. on the 20th anniversary of the icon’s death. He began his speech by rapping several lines to Biggie’s 1994 hit, “Juicy,” including “It was all a dream/I used to read Word Up Magazine/Salt-N-Pepa and Heavy D up in the limousine/Hanging pictures on my wall/Every Saturday Rap Attack, Mr. Magic, Marly Marl.” He then went on to pay homage to the slain Hip Hop legend.
“I’ve got the privilege of representing the district where Biggie Smalls was raised,” Jeffries said. “We know he went from negative to positive and emerged as one of the world’s most important Hip Hop stars. His rags-to-riches life story is the classic embodiment of the American dream. Biggie Smalls is gone but he will never be forgotten. Rest in peace, Notorious B.I.G. Where Brooklyn at?”
The impassioned speech also caught the attention of one of Biggie’s closest confidantes, P. Diddy, who shared it with his followers on his Instagram account.
As if that wasn’t strange enough (but also incredibly impressive at the same time), an Atlanta news team cleverly injected Biggie lyrics into their daily news and weather reports on Thursday as if it was the most natural thing they’d ever done in their lives. WSB-TV anchors Fred Blankenship and Mark Arum, who paid homage to Phife Dawg last year, once again delivered a subtle tribute.
Blankenship explained there were “delays right now on Georgia 400 and if you don’t know, now ya know, about those” while Arum added, “I know you thought birthdays were the worst days, but I think Thursday might be the worst day.” Watch the full clip below and check out Rep. Jeffries’ speech above.
