Just one week before his life was cut short in a hail of bullets on March 9, 1997, The Notorious B.I.G. gave what would become his final interview — a conversation that revealed a side of him few ever saw. Calm, reflective, and weary of the chaos that had come to define East Coast–West Coast hip-hop, Biggie used those last public words to address his fractured friendship with Tupac Shakur — not with anger, but with regret.

Speaking from Los Angeles, where he was promoting his soon-to-be-released album Life After Death, Biggie told interviewers he was tired of the rumors, tired of being painted as Tupac’s enemy. “A lot of that stuff got twisted,” he said quietly. “I never wanted it to go like that. I still got love for Pac. It just… it went too far.”

Those who were in the room recall that Biggie seemed exhausted but peaceful, as if trying to move beyond the bitterness that had fueled so much of the rivalry. He spoke about wanting to focus on his music, to be a father to his children, and to distance himself from the violence surrounding the industry.

“He didn’t want war,” a close associate later recalled. “He wanted respect. He wanted to be remembered for his art, not the beef.”

By early March, Biggie had spent months trying to rebuild his image, insisting that he had no involvement in Tupac’s 1996 shooting in Las Vegas — the event that many believe turned a friendship into a feud. “People think I had something to do with it,” he said. “That ain’t me. I don’t wish death on nobody.”

Tragically, just seven days later, Biggie was killed in a drive-by shooting outside a Los Angeles party — eerily mirroring the violence that took Tupac’s life only six months earlier. The two young icons, once friends and later rivals, would both be gone before either turned 26.

Today, Biggie’s final words about Tupac stand as a haunting reminder that beneath the bravado and the headlines were two men trapped in a storm of fame, fear, and misunderstanding. Both were dreamers from humble beginnings who changed hip-hop forever — and both, in their last moments, seemed to be searching for peace.

Nearly three decades later, those words — “I still got love for Pac” — echo with heartbreaking clarity. They remind the world that behind the music and the myths were two human beings whose greatest tragedy was never getting the chance to make peace.