Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Said the Notorious B.I.G. Was ‘Chipper’ on the Night He Died
In 1997, Sean “Diddy” Combs was at a party with the Notorious B.I.G. Not long after they left, Biggie died in a drive-by shooting. Diddy said the murder came as a terrible shock, particularly because Biggie had been in such a good mood in the hours beforehand.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs said the Notorious B.I.G. was in a good mood before his death
On the night he died, Biggie had plans to travel to London. Instead, he stayed in Los Angeles to attend a party hosted by Vibe Magazine.
“Biggie was supposed to go to the studio that day. He didn’t want to go to the studio,” Diddy told Rolling Stone in 1997. “He was like, ‘I finished my album. I just want to celebrate with you. I just want to have a good time. Let’s go to this Vibe joint. I want to go there. Hopefully I can meet some people, let them know I want to do some acting.’ That made me proud. He was thinking like a businessman.”
Diddy said Biggie was in a particularly good mood that night. He discussed his upcoming album, Life After Death, and his potential acting career.
“He had a broken leg; he couldn’t walk or dance, so we sitting down,” he said. “I’m real hyper, so I usually get up and walk around the party. He’s like, ‘Yo, Puff, tonight could you just sit here with me all night?’ And I thought, ‘Cool. We just gonna sit here and kick it.’ I sat there. We kicked it. We had a good time. We was drinking and listening to records, sitting at the table the whole night. And he was just being nice. He was nice naturally, but he was being extra nice. He was… chipper.”
Diddy said it took him time to accept what happened
Diddy and Biggie left the party in separate cars, but the former was close enough to hear shots ring out. He then rushed to help Biggie and drove him to the hospital. While he said he realized the rapper was dead on the drive over, it still took him time to accept what happened.
“That’s when it was starting to hit me, but I’m still in shock. Everything’s over. They take me back to the hotel. I just wanted to go to sleep so bad. I just want to wake up and it’d be a dream. And then I woke up, and everybody was panicking, telling me to get out of L.A. And I just could not move,” he said, adding, “I was stuck. I just did not want to leave him. I still didn’t really cry yet, ’cause I didn’t really want to accept it.”
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs said he felt some responsibility for the Notorious B.I.G.’s death
In the years following Biggie’s death, Diddy said he wished he’d made him go to London as scheduled.
“I think I’ll always feel some sort of responsibility because I’m in this thing with him,” he said on The Wendy Williams Show in 2017 (via ABC News). “He’s my artist.”
He said this was one of his regrets.
“He was supposed to go to London that night and I let him talk me into not going to London and staying in L.A.,” Diddy detailed. “That’s something that really bothered me throughout my life. Sometimes you have to really go with that decision in your gut and in my gut it was like, ‘You need to get on the plane.'”
