They say the best go firstand the saying is particularly true in rap. Tupac, Biggie, Prodigy, Pop Smoke, XXXTentacion ou encore Big Punthey all miss this music very much. Among them, Big Pun, legend of the Bronx, is perhaps the one who is least highlighted, yet he is a real captain of the rap game, with an impressive delivery and flow, and above all a way of living that makes him memorable. Xzibit remembers it very wellsince he was hanging out with him a lot at the time, and he chose to bring us out his best anecdotes about the Big Punisher.
Bullet holes on the tour bus
There was a time when the term “gangsta rap” actually meant something: there was a real difference between “classic” rap and “gangstas”who lived a much less peaceful life, while today everyone seems to want to play gangster, especially those who have experienced nothing. None of that with Big Pun, who was a real skinned alive who went to the end of the lease, too bad if it was dangerous. During an interview with Bootleg Kev, Xzibit recalls:
We did this first promo tour together. We had two buses. I think we were on the East Coast, heading to Detroit or Flint. Their bus crashed, and Pun had his family with him, so he asked me if they could come up. So they all come on my bus.
I knew it was going to be crazy but I didn’t realize how crazy. So iThey’re trying to get a hotel, because they don’t want to be on our bus any longer, they feel like they’re bothering us.
They have called a car and it is an old-fashioned old man, with a mule, who arrives in a Limousine. He comes out of there acting… It was like watching a silent movie, you can tell just by his body language that he doesn’t really like what’s happening.
He opens his mouth like: “you all can’t fit in my car you bastards”. The whole Terror Squad is with Pun. Then I see him raise his hands in the air and I say to myself “this is not going to end well…”. And all the Terror Squad guys end up chasing him around the car. It was incredible.
The story doesn’t end there, since that evening, they had a concert planned, in a town in Michigan. A concert that didn’t go as planned:
There was a guy in the Terror Squad called Bobbie The Boxerhe was on stage with Pun. Bobbie talks about something happening in the front row, and that’s it, the silent movie starts again (laughs).
SO someone starts throwing something, then there’s a fight. And the fight comes on stageUltimately. And there, a guy from the team takes out a gun and shoots in the air. Baw! The guy takes his gun out of a briefcase in the middle of the stage.
Obviously, this creates panic in the crowd and people rush to get out of the room. Xzibit and his entire team end up returning to their tour bus, but they then see that the cops are there.
The guy threw his gun in the trash, but there was no trash in the trash, so you can hear the thing ringing. So the cops come and shine their flashlight on the gun, and they ask ‘who threw that there?’ Then, handcuffs for everyone.
A few hours later, Xzibit and his team are eventually allowed to leave the postand return to their tour bus. But then they discover that a group of people who were at the concert have been actively searching for the Terror Squad: “so now we just want to escape quickly, put everyone on the bus and get the hell out of here. I mean, they still shot up the bus and everything… It was crazy. We don’t never bothered! (laughs).
Indeed, we imagine that a tour with Big Pun and the whole Terror Squad must have been anything but boring! Fortunately, no one was injured that evening, apart from those who received a few good potatoes from the team members. Quite a story…
