Big Pun Remembered In Final Magazine Interview
Big Punisher's last known magazine interview will arrive on newsstands this week, as the March issue with "Industry Insider" features a cover story on the Latino rapper, who suffered a fatal heart attack last month.
The article was based on a phone interview conducted with writer Cherie Saunders a week before Big Pun's death on February 7. In an editor's note, the magazine's Chang Weisberg recalled how Saunders had described her difficulty in transcribing the interview, as Big Pun was noticeably sick during their chat, although he downplayed his illness as a case of the flu.
Weisberg also writes of how "Industry Insider" rejected the publicity shots that Pun's label, Loud Records, had originally sent to be used in the piece, because "Pun looked horrible in the photos.... Never in a million years did we think that these would be signs that our hero was about to pass.In the article, Pun talks about first hooking up with his good friend, Fat Joe, and makes aneerie reference to how his "I'm Not A Player" single led some to draw comparisons between his style and that of the late Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur.
I'm pretty sure people thought I was like a dope rapper," Pun told the magazine. "Then after ['I'm Not A Player'], they were comparing me to Biggie and Pac, because that's what those two would do. They would rhyme hard core, then also rhyme party songs.Big Punisher also discussed how he had constructed his second solo album, "Yeeeah Baby," in order to reach out to even more fans that his platinum-selling debut, "Capital Punishment.The first album was 99 percent hard core to show you I was the best rhymer in the world," Pun told "Industry Insider." "With this album, I was like, 'Let me do five of those, and then some slower ones for those kids that can't understand what I'm sayin'.' I wanna cover more ground, get a bigger fan base.For more from the last known interview with Big Punisher, pick up acopy of "Industry Insider" this week, or click over to the magazine's official Web site at www.industryinsider.com for additional information on how to get the March issue.
Big Pun's posthumous new album, "Yeeeah Baby," is due out on April 4, and Loud Records has completed shooting a video for "It's So Hard," the first single from the record (see [article id="1425717"]Puffy, Busta, Missy, Nas Come Out For Big Pun Video"[/article]).
