Hip-hop titans bolster B.I.G.’s ’Duets’

NEW YORK - Some of the biggest names in hip-hop, both dead and alive, have contributed to “The Notorious B.I.G. Duets: The Final Chapter,” including Eminem, Tupac Shakur, Jay-Z, Nas, Snoop Dogg and Missy Elliott.

The 22-track set is due Dec. 20 via Bad Boy and features songs built around unreleased music from the late rapper.

The first single “Nasty Girl,” which goes to U.S. radio outlets on Nov. 14, features Diddy, Nelly, Jagged Edge and Avery Storm. Another song, “Hold Ya Head,” debuted in late September on AOL Music. It features a sample of the late Bob Marley’s “Johnny Was.”

“The Final Chapter” also features rock act Korn on “Wake Up Now.” “All we got was two verses,” Korn frontman Jonathan Davis told Billboard.com. “We changed everything around. It’s ... weird to be doing a song with someone who is deceased!” (Notorious B.I.G., a.ka. Biggie Smalls, was gunned down in an L.A. drive-by in 1997).

Fat Joe is paired with Biggie and the late Big Pun on “Get Your Grind On,” while R. Kelly and Charlie Wilson guest on “Mi Casa.” Twista and Krayzie Bone team up for “Spit Your Game,” while Biggie’s mother, Voletta Wallace, closes the disc with a poem, “Love Is Everlasting.”

Other artists confirmed to appear on the project include Mary J. Blige, Obie Trice, Nate Dogg, Redman, Freeway, Ludacris, Faith Evans, the Game, Slim Thug, T.I. and Bobby Valentino.

“This movement has been both an emotional and therapeutic experience, one that finds us at the end of the road in terms of original releases for a great man and at the threshold of a sound and a quality which may have fallen by the wayside after losing him,” Diddy said in a statement.

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