Will Smith has opened up about a strange connection he has to the deaths of two iconic musicians—Notorious B.I.G. and Prince.
During a Feb. 18 appearance on the Broken Record Podcast with Justin Richmond, the actor shared his personal experiences with the legendary figures shortly before their untimely deaths. Smith, 56, revealed that he met Notorious B.I.G. just hours before he was murdered in 1997 and had spoken to Prince just hours before his death in 2016.
Smith was asked about his interaction with Biggie, which occurred the night the rapper was killed. “I don’t even want to say this out loud because it feels like a terrible jinx,” Smith confessed. “I met Biggie four hours before he got killed, and I talked to Prince eight hours before he died.”
The actor expressed how deeply Biggie’s death affected him. “It was stupid and just centered on hip-hop for rapping. That one hurt me. It scared me, too,” he said, emotionally recalling the loss.
Smith also shared that Prince had reached out to him with a business proposal. “He called me to pitch an entertainment company venture between him, Jay-Z, and myself,” Smith explained. “We talked that night, and the next morning, he was gone.”
Reflecting on the events, Smith joked, “I don’t know what that says about me. Don’t call me, don’t call me,” as he laughed off the eerie coincidence.
Notorious B.I.G., 24, was tragically killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles in March 1997. He was shot while riding in an SUV in Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile, in a case that remains unsolved. His death followed the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, who was killed in a similar drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.
Prince, 57, passed away in April 2016 when he was found unresponsive in an elevator at his home. His death was later ruled an accident caused by fentanyl toxicity, with toxicology reports revealing a fatal amount of the drug in his system.
These two devastating losses have stayed with Smith, and his connection to both artists continues to haunt him.
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