The Notorious B.I.G. – Big Poppa (The Vibe Conductor Ritz Reggae Room Edit)

Happy birthday, Biggie Smalls.

I prefer this day much more than March 9, so I made a joint to celebrate.

This joint has a few important themes.

The first is the deep Jamaican thread that runs through Brooklyn. The second is the great hip-hop and dancehall collabs that took place in the ’90s. Adding Lil Vicious in there touches on both of those.

And the third is what those first two themes mean to anyone who was either partying or learning how to DJ in the ’90s in DC. In the early and mid-90s, I was a hardcore (and hardheaded) hip-hop dude. One of my regular pilgrimages was to The Ritz downtown by the FBI building. Back in those days of the megaclub, you could experience multiple dancefloors under the same roof.

I posted up pretty hard in the hip-hop room to study my o.g. DJ Iran. You could jack your body to Baltimore club in the house room. You could even catch some live music on a stage on the early side of the night. But the reggae room? Clouds of smoke, bass to the sternum, and ’nuff battys a-winin’. Shoutout to G-Nice and Super Slice who I used to hear selecting at The Ritz in those days. The hip-hop room helped make me into the DJ I am today, but the reggae room… made me a man.

Enjoy this tribute to B.I.G. and ’90s dancehall parties from The Vibe Conductor.