For DJ Enuff, the annual anniversary of Biggie Smalls’ death is a busy time.
Biggie’s former road DJ gets a lot of calls for interviews to share stories of Billboard’s “Greatest Rapper of All-Time,” and he takes them to celebrate the life of his close friend. For him, it’s about telling the world that Notorious B.I.G was just as good of a person as he was a rapper.
On Sunday, Enuff will celebrate Biggie by spinning his tracks during halftime at the Brooklyn Nets-New York Knicks game at Barclays Center, part of Nets Biggie Night, a tribute to the life and legacy of the Brooklyn icon.
DJ Enuff will be one of many special guests who are on hand to celebrate Biggie 20 years after his passing. He chatted with BrooklynNets.com to talk about Biggie’s life, cultural legacy and what Nets Biggie Night means to him.
Nets: How do you feel about the Nets hosting a tribute to Biggie?
Enuff: I think it’s an honor to have the Barclays Center and the Brooklyn Nets honor our very own Biggie, who grew up in the backyard of where Barclays is.
It’s bigger than hip-hop. Biggie has reached a feat where it’s truly, naturally bigger than hip hop. I’m honored to be there on Sunday to play the best of Biggie and to make the fans proud and to ultimately make my peers proud. Faith and Puff and Mrs. Wallace being there too means a lot to me. When you put all of those components together we have a job to do, but at the same time we’re just repping the best that we can for someone that we loved truly. That’s the only way I can summarize what I think Sunday means too.
Nets: What does it say about Biggie’s impact that he’s still celebrated and missed 20 years after his passing?
Enuff: I’m blown away, it’s official. It’s always been official in our hearts, but 20 years later, it’s official, he’s as big as your Bob Marley’s, your Bruce Lee’s, your Frank Sinatra’s, your James Brown’s. Just look at pop culture across the board. Michael Jackson, you can put B.I.G amongst these greats that America and the world once they pass they miss them. I look back and in 30, 40, 50 years people will still be wearing Biggie t-shirts and people will still be celebrating his music. At this point it will be considered standards.
It’s incredible, Big and Pac to this day their songs register just as powerful as a brand-new Drake record and that means a lot to me.
Nets: How does it make you feel knowing that Biggie will get his name in the rafters at Barclays Center?
Enuff: It makes me feel incredible. You know why? Because as much as the neighborhood has changed and everybody will disagree when it comes to change in New York, I don’t care if it’s Times Square, I don’t care if it’s downtown Brooklyn and the emergence of hipsters to us getting a basketball stadium. At the end of the day, I think these guys are smart enough to recognize that Biggie is a landmark. He truly is a landmark of BK. If there is laws and paperwork that protects landmarks I think he deserves that and the fact that you guys are going to do that is a blessing and I appreciate it.
Nets: What’s one thing you try to talk about every year when you’re asked about Biggie?
Enuff: A lot of things have been asked, but the one thing I vow to always promote every year - I don’t care who I talk to - was how wonderful of a person he was. Even though he talked gangsta rap and unfortunately media always talks about the East Coast-West Coast beef and the problems he had with Pac and gangsta rap and it’s always negative, negative, negative. For me, he was a human being, he was a good father, he was loved by his mom and his boys and his peers. Sometimes even bigger than that, he was just a great guy overall, a good person. I love to see the pictures and the videos of him smiling and laughing. Because there’s not enough footage of that available. So I always tell people, friends, if you have a picture or a video of Biggie smiling send it, let us get a copy of it, let’s promote that. That way there’s balance.
Nets: Favorite Biggie tracks and have you thought about what you’re going to play?
Enuff: I love Party and Bullshit from the very beginning. It was so different, so unique. I always loved the magic between him and Primo for Kick in the Door, I love Unbelievable… to me that’s the pure essence of hip hop at his highest. I love Warning and I love the story telling in Gimme the Loot. Those are real stories. Those are gangster stories, but they are real and I love them. Even I got a story to tell. Those are all stories. He’s not just rhyming with metaphors. They’re stories and I love that.
During the anniversaries, extending those records and giving it additional life is important because I think it extends it. We might not get all of them, but we’ll get a lot of people who are still interested in learning Biggie’s stories and other MC’s just as important to the culture as Biggie.
There’s just so much. Just give them energy, just give them fun. Just give them the best that we can.