The Notorious B.I.G. was eager to work with Prince

The Notorious B.I.G. was eager to work with Prince, but the singer refused because of the content of the late rapper's music.

The Notorious B.I.G.'s mentor Sean 'Diddy' Combs has revealed the Juicy hitmaker was a big fan of the late Purple Rain icon and he was eager to collaborate with him, but they couldn't get Prince on one of the rapper's songs because he didn't agree with the lyrics.

"We met with Prince..., but this was during a time when (he) wasn't really rocking with hip-hop and wasn't really clearing any samples, so that really didn't go too well," Combs said in an interview with Revolt TV. "But we was always still cool with him and wound up sampling some of his records..."

"He would just go through his phases and he came back to us and just let us know how proud he was of us and the whole thing," he added. "He was just really protective at one time of just what was going on as far as the whole b**ch and h** controversy. That was a real moment in hip-hop. That was a real reflection point in hip-hop where we were being kind of asked to take responsibility and think about what we were saying."

This year (17) marks the 20th anniversary of B.I.G.’s murder at the age of 24, though no one has ever been charged with his 1997 shooting. Combs has been honouring his late friend with various tributes, including a social media campaign where he asked fans to rap their favourite Biggie verse.music-news.com