Hear Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans’ ‘NYC’ With Jadakiss
UPDATE: Faith Evans has released a lyric video for “NYC” featuring an array of images from the titular city alongside verses by Jadakiss and Notorious B.I.G.
Nearly a year after Faith Evans confirmed plans to release a duets album featuring unreleased verses from her late husband the Notorious B.I.G., “NYC,” the first sampling from The King & I, has been revealed.
The track, a tribute to the city that bred the artists involved, features fellow Bad Boy rapper and Biggie protégé Jadakiss doing the majority of the lyrical heavy lifting, with Evans singing on the chorus.
Biggie’s verse on the track, which is repeated throughout “NYC,” is culled from an unreleased but oft-bootlegged 1993 freestyle dubbed “Mumbling and Whispering,” Hip Hop N More reports.
After years of dropping hints about The King & I, Evans opened up about the project in March 2016, adding that the duets album would likely arrive in 2017. No release date for The King & I has been announced.
“Today, if he was alive, I know, ultimately, we would’ve done something like this,” Evans told the Dame Dash Radio Show at the time. “But the way the stuff has come together, and the way I’m using his vocals, it’s giving the stuff new life, it’s totally different. So I think people are really going to enjoy it.”
Evans also talked about how she teamed with a hologram company to bring a Biggie hologram to the stage, adding that the spectacle could make an appearance if “this Bad Boy tour ever really happens.” Although the Bad Boy Family Reunion hit arenas in 2016, the B.I.G. hologram never manifested as part of the concert.