This would be by far, one of the most expensive and most elaborate shoots to date, requiring a lot of planning. We couldn’t skimp out on anything, especially try to do an homage to someone as legendary as Biggie Smalls. I started purchasing props representative of the lines and words in the song about 3 months prior to the shoot off of eBay. Some of the items were straightforward (“hanging pictures on my wall” – various posters tacked up on the wall, including a Notorious B.I.G. one) and some were inspired (“I’m the rappin’ Duke, duh-ha, duh-ha” – John Wayne a.k.a. “The Duke” VHS video tapes, “born sinner, opposite of winner” – “Se7en” movie VHS & MR10’s basketball trophy). Additionally, we added our own mementos and touches from each of us and a lot of SICK STAR memorabilia to make it feel like it was Dianna’s room – the Pochacco and Hello Kitty dolls are hers and mini figure skates are found in the room and PhotoHuynh’s photos from old shoots and events are found on the wall. A lot of the stuff was originally mine growing up, that I gathered from my parents’ house back home in Las Vegas.

I brought an IKEA shelf from my room and loaded it up on MR10’s truck to bring to his room which was the location of the shoot. I had free reign of his room and moved his furniture as I pleased, staging all the props and putting all the stuff on the walls. After the shoot, I left the IKEA shelf and MR10’s room stayed just the same quite a while after the shoot.

The actual shoot was long and tedious, trying to find the right angles for both Dianna and to get everything into frame for the shots. We shot for around 6 hours, and Dianna liked to drink. It was literally shot after shot – a few photography shots followed by shots of Henny. With the length of the shoot and the pace that we were drinking, we polished off a handle of Henny between the 4 of us.

I was proud of what we out together yet it was difficult trying to display and portray the meaning of the work because a lot of the concept is really in the details. We did an 18×24 poster that we sold but found that we were still explaining what was going on. But when we did, people loved it. Biggie’s song speaks volumes to people. It’s the ultimate rags to riches story.