I don’t even want to say this out loud ’cause it’s like a terrible jinx,” Smith admitted
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Will Smith is sharing an eerie connection he has to two legendary musicians’ deaths.
During a Feb. 18 appearance on the Broken Record Podcast with Justin Richmond, the actor — who was promoting his upcoming project Based on a True Story — said that he met Notorious B.I.G. hours before he was murdered in 1997. Smith, 56, added that he had spoken to Prince ahead of his death in 2016.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actor was asked about his only interaction with Biggie, which happened “the night he got killed.”
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“I don’t even want to say this out loud ’cause it’s like a terrible jinx,” Smith said. “I met Biggie four hours before he got killed, and I talked to Prince eight hours before he died.”
Smith added that Biggie’s death left him in tears. “‘Cause it was stupid and just centered on hip-hop for rapping. That one hurt me. It scared me, too.”
Meanwhile, Prince called Smith to pitch a business venture between them and Jay-Z to start an “entertainment company.” “He had talked to Jay and he wanted to do it. And we talked that night, and in the morning, he was gone,” Smith said.
“I don’t know what that says about me.” The King Richard actor then jokingly told the podcast host, “don’t call me, don’t call me.”
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Notorious B.I.G. died in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles in March 1997. While riding in an SUV in Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile, the driver of a Chevy Impala pulled up beside the car and began shooting. He was 24 years old.
The murder took place six months after rapper Tupac Shakur was killed similarly in Las Vegas in September 1996. Both shootings remain unsolved.
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Prince died in April 2016 when he was found unresponsive in an elevator. He was pronounced dead less than 30 minutes later. His death was listed as an accident caused by “fentanyl toxicity” and that “the decedent self-administered fentanyl,” according to a press release from the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office.
In 2018, his toxicology report revealed that the “Purple Rain” singer had a high amount of fentanyl in his system at the time of his death. The levels of the drug Prince had in his system “seem to represent overdose or fatal toxicity cases,” the report stated.