"On Wednesday, May 14, at 12 noon over 200 radio stations across the country participated in a 30 second moment of silence in honor of the late Notorious B.I.G., followed by the world premiere of two new tribute tracks "I'll Be Missing You" and "We'll Always Love Big Poppa." At the same time, MTV aired the tribute video to "I'll Be Missing You." Bad Boy Entertainment's CEO, producer and artist Sean "Puffy" Combs comments on why he decided to honor Biggie in this way, "I wanted to tell B.I.G. how I was feeling. I wanted to have one last conversation with him. The concept of the tribute single was to express my personal feelings and the feelings from the Bad Boy family. This is our way of speaking to Biggie, letting him know how much we loved him." ... "I'll Be Missing You" features vocals by Combs with Evans and 112; it was written by Faith Evans and Todd Gaither (Sauce Money) and produced by Combs and Stevie J. The song was inspired by the Police hit, "Every Breath You Take" and the chorus of the song is reflective of Puffy's and Faith's personal feelings of B.I.G."
"The flipside, "We'll Always Love Big Poppa" is written and performed by Bad Boy Entertainment's newest group The L.O.X. The track is produced by Damon Blackmon and was first performed at B.I.G.'s funeral. "It was their personal artistic expression of how the group felt about Biggie and how he affected the lives of so many people," said Combs. "If you knew him, you would love him," said Jay from The L.O.X. "It is sad we had to do this song as our first video." ... Bad Boy Records, Arista Records and BMG Distribution have agreed to donate all profits from sales of the tribute single to a trust for the benefit of Christopher Wallace's two children, T'Yanna and Christopher." R.I.P. B.I.G.
The original press kit from May 22, 1997...
