From a 2022 interview of Justin Tinsley, Biggie biographer, by Chuck Arnold, Billboard Magazine:
What was the most fascinating discovery that you made about Biggie in the process of writing this book?
Big had a fear of rejection, which is why he never really even pushed his own music. He never went up to anybody, like, “Yo, here’s my demo tape.” … He wasn’t really necessarily the type of guy who flocked towards the spotlight. WhenReady to Diedropped and all the adulation and the attention came towards him, he enjoyed some parts of it. But it took him a while to get used to being famous. When you’re out there hustling, selling crack, you try to stay as incognito as possible for obvious reasons. And then, out of nowhere, you get thrust into the spotlight and you’re supposed to embrace the limelight.
A lot of times people feel like some rappers exaggerate their street cred, but this was not the case with Biggie.
No, not all all. Biggie Smalls was not [Manuel] Noriega or Pablo Escobar by any stretch of the imagination, but he was at least knee-deep in that game. This is a real part of who he was. And hustling and dealing, a lot of those same principles apply to the music game as well, which is just as cutthroat as the drug game, if not more in some ways. There’s a really great story in the book about while Big was waiting on the contracts to come through that Puffy promised … he was recording music but he was also taking trips in and out of town to make sure that he had money. He had a kid on the way and so he was hustling. And Puffy did not like the fact that big was hustling while trying to make a rap career happen, because he knew if you mess up, then that’s it.
