I don’t know if was actually gonna go for it or what the situation was. I just was relentless on wanting to work with him. I remember hearing names like Michael Bay and there were a lot of people that they were talking to. There was a lot of talk because Biggie was really hot and he had coming out-there was a lot of people who wanted to direct it. We met on set there and stayed cool with each other. We did a short scene in the opener before the video started and Biggie was a part of that. We did “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down” and Biggie came on and did a cameo. A few days before Life After Death’s 20th anniversary, the acclaimed director spoke to SPIN about his experiences shooting “Hypnotize.”

It was filmed in February 1997 and released at the end of March, just weeks after Biggie was killed. The video was a bittersweet achievement for Hunter as well. Of course, Biggie wouldn’t live to see the style’s ubiquity nor the release of Life After Death, a triumphant-turned-tragic piece of the hip-hop canon that still stings 20 years later. Centered around a Big Poppa removed from Ready to Die’s Bed-Stuy grit and now indulging mafioso excess, the high-octane, big budget visuals of “Hypnotize” were a step into the glitzy aesthetic Bad Boy Records trademarked at the close of the millennium. The song became one of Biggie’s most popular tracks not just because of his mastery of mellifluous rhyming, but also because of the Paul Hunter-directed video. introduced the world to the grandeur of his double album Life After Death with the lead single “Hypnotize,” released on the first day of March 1997.

Hypnotize biggie