JAY-Z came out on Wednesday (April 6) with a poem Rare on Pusha T's new single "Neck and Wrist." Featuring vocals and production from Farrell, the track refers to Biggie's death and commission to Hov—their supergroup that never materialized.
"They're like, 'If Big was alive, Hov wouldn't be in his position,'" Jay-Z raps on the song. "If BIG had survived, you all would have got the commission / Hov gon' always be Hov / It would have been the universe ' because Allah said so, and now I'm here."
Biggie made references to commission members, Lance "Un" Rivera, Diddy, Lil' Siege, Charlie Baltimore and Jay-Z, on the 1997 Life After Death track "What's Beef".
He says on the introduction, "Commission... Uncle Pauli, P. Diddy, Cez-a-Leo DeGenero, Charlie Baltimore, Iceberg Slim, Shady Most, Frankie Baby."
In 2017, Dame Dash claimed that Biggie intended to sign Roc-a-Fella Records and move things along with the commission.
"Biggie's plan was to give Puff and him three more albums because that's his deal, so sign with us, and we were about to do 'The Commission,'" he told Hip Hop Motivation. "We were looking like a Charlie Baltimore, it ended up being him, it wasn't our choice that was his. But, you know, that's what was going to happen, or at least very seriously about it The talk was done.
"I guess that's why he did a double album. Then he was going to do a triple album, and he was going to be out of his contract, and then he was going to fuck with us. I tried to sign The Firm. But then Steve Stout snatched us up for that."
Jay-Z previously talked about talking to Biggie the night he was shot and killed in Los Angeles, California, in 1997.
"He was in great spirits," he said during a Power 106 interview in 2013. "He was like, 'Yo, playboy! Why aren't you out here, playboy? I was doing something in New York and yeah yeah, I had to get off first. Actually Irv Gotti was at the party and he called me up and on the phone kept.
He continued, "I take him wherever I go. I've had him at every step, every accomplishment. He'll be there in some way or the other, whether it's a live concert or a record, or some acknowledgment."