The Notorious B.I.G.

“The What” features Wu-Tang Clan standout Method Man as he was the only other rapper to appear on Ready To Die. In a retrospective published by XXL, Meth revealed the early tensions between Biggie and some Wu members as well as how he was only paid $2500 for his verse. Producer Easy Mo Bee talked about how the song got its simple title: “With ‘The What,’ the song was done and everything, and Big, Puff and me was standing there. And I remember Puff in particular was like, ‘Yo, what we gonna call this shit?’ And I told him, ‘Yo, I nickname all my beats on the disc that I saved them to, so I know what each disc is.’ So for whatever reason, I wrote on this disc, ‘The What.’ Puff was like, ‘Yo, that shit is cool.’“ Meth told Complex: “We were in Atlantic City and ran into Guru of Gang Starr. He was with this kid name Dan Smalls, whom I used to work with at the Statue of Liberty. Guess who he’s working for? Uptown Records. He’s like, “I’ve got a CD for you. It’s the Who’s The Man? Soundtrack, but I want you to listen to my man. It’s a single called ‘Party & Bullshit.’” I listened to that shit, I was like, ‘Ri-diculous. This nigga’s insane!’ But then I didn’t hear nothing of it after that. Long story short, my man Raider Ruckus was like, ‘Yo, you need to do a song with this Biggie dude.’ There goes that name again. I’m like, ‘Yeah? Why?’ He’s like, ‘He’s got this song called ‘Me & My Bitch,’ here’s the tape.’ So I take the tape, play the shit, and I listen to the record. It was like when you see a great movie and the credits are rolling, but you’re sitting there reading the credits, because the movie was just so fucking good. You’re sitting there until the last credit rolls out, and even when the lights come on you’re still a little reluctant to get out of your seat, because you want to savor that experience. That’s how I felt when I heard ‘Me & My Bitch.’ Then, we did a show at The Muse and I met Biggie. I remember because he had the Big shirt on that he wore in the ‘Juicy’ video. He walked up to me and he had a scarf around his head trying to cover up the eyeball bag. He had it pulled it down and he was like, ‘Yo, I’m Big. I’m trying to do this record with you.’ I was like, ‘Yo, I’m with it. Whenever you want to do it.’ He was like, ‘Alright, cool. I’ll be in touch.’ At that time, nobody had cell phones so we didn’t exchange numbers. But Tracy Waples—who got me my deal at Def Jam—was the bridge that got me in the studio with Big. On the way to the studio, she was playing the album and she was saying every song on there was ridiculous. I thought she was fucking fronting [Laughs.] I was like, ‘That’s why we don’t trust industry motherfuckers. Whatever, motherfucker. You’s an industry motherfucker. You don’t know nothing.’ She wasn’t fronting. Tracy knows her shit.“