Patra Shares Throwback Photo Of ‘Source Award’ Moment With Biggie Smalls
Dancehall legend and ‘Queen of the Pack’ Patra recently shared a throwback photo at the 1995 Source Awards with non-other than the rap legend Chris Wallace, better known as The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls.
At what was considered one of the ‘wildest most legendary nights‘ in Hip Hop’s history—due to the simmering tensions between members of Death Row and Bad Boy Entertainment music labels—Patra had the honor of presenting Biggie with one of his four awards at the second staging of the event. The Big Poppa rapper had scooped up the awards for New Artist of the Year – Solo, Album of the Year – Ready To Die, Lyricist of the Year, and Live Performer of the Year, to the ire of his nemeses.
“Me and Biggy at the Source Music Awards back in the day. I love this pic a lot …,” Patra wrote in the caption of an Instagram post from her Chateau 7 Jerk restaurant on Friday.
Both around 23-years-old at the time, the photo showed Patra and Biggie on stage and was originally shared by the Source Magazine.
Biggie, who was born to Jamaican parents in New York City, was known to incorporate many island slangs into his rap bars and mentioned Patra (among several female stars) in his 1994 release Just Playing (Dreams). In 1995, Patra also was among the 15+ star cameos in Biggie’s classic Hype Williams-directed video for One More Chance.
Smalls had also collaborated with Dancehall rude boy Super Cat on the extended remix to Dolly My Baby and with Jamaican singer Diana King on his track Respect.
Meanwhile, Patra definitely got in with the elites in the Hip Hop world at the time. In 1993, rap icon Tupac made a cameo as her love interest on her single Romantic Call with YoYo. She also recorded a song with R&B crooner Aaron Hall called Scent Of Attraction.
In 2019, she paid tribute to Biggie on the late rapper’s birthday, with more stills from the Source Awards. “Happy birthday to my friend Biggie Smalls. TBT me giving Biggie his last award at Source Music Awards,” she wrote at the time.
The Notorious B.I.G. was shot and killed in March 1997 by an unknown gunman in Los Angeles. According to CheatSheet, a new biography documenting the life and times of the rapper is set for release just in time for what would have been his 50th birthday on May 21, 2022.
Patra, whose real name is Dorothy Smith, shot to fame after she was featured in Shabba Ranks’ Family Affair, which peaked at No. 84 Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart in 1994.
Her debut album Queen of the Pack peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard’s Reggae Album Chart and was later certified Gold in the United States in 1994. She’s best known for songs like Queen of the Pack, Worker Man, Romantic Call, Scent of Attraction, Think About It, and Pull Up to My Bumper (a Grace Jones cover released in 1995).
Nowadays, you can spot the singer at her popular Jerk spot, Chateau7 Gourmet Jerk, the “Home of Sexy Food” and a ‘New York Times Recommended Restaurant’ that she runs out of her hometown in Kingston, Jamaica. From time to time, Patra shows off her popular industry friends as they pass through to sample her cuisine.