In the ’90s, Charli Baltimore was being groomed for greatness. While under the tutelage of the late Notorious B.I.G., the Philadelphia beauty was had picked to be the Commission, an all-star group which was to include Jay Z, Diddy, Lil Cease and Biggie himself.
Die-hard fans can remember Big namedropping the crew at the top of his 1997 record “What’s Beef” and Jay’s shout-out on “The City is Mines,” but Biggie’s still-unsolved murder cut the plans short. The crew never even hit the studio.
“No, we didn’t get a chance to, it never happened,” Charli told “RapFix Live” host Sway Calloway when she appeared on Wednesday’s (September 18) show. “It was already a blessing to be around such talent and greatness, so that would’ve been crazy.”
Baltimore also for a time carried on a romantic relationship with Biggie, which caused problems between his other love interest Lil’ Kim and his wife Faith Evans. “I was interacting with Kim because I was in the ‘Get Money’ video, but I didn’t know that they had something else going on at the time,” she said, referencing her starring role in Junior Mafia’s 1995 video. “As far as Faith, as far as physically interacting, no. We spoke and obviously when he passed I offered my condolences to her and her family.”
Charli has grown now, and chalks up any past drama to living the fast life at an early age. “At the time, I was super young. We all were,” she said. “In Big’s defense, he was young and fame was fast, so it’s a lot that comes with that.”
Baltimore was signed to Biggie and Lance Rivera’s Untertainment label, but never got a chance to commercially release her debut album Cold as Ice in the late 1990s. Her subsequent deal with Murder Inc. didn’t yield a release either, but that hasn’t curtailed Charli’s rap hustle. Now she’s teamed with Detroit rapper and mogul Trick Trick and together they formed B.M.B. records, the banner which Charli released her latest mixtape Hard 2 Kill.
Over the course of 11 tracks, the Philly spitter draws inspiration from all of her experiences, so you hear about her come up as a teenage mother and years of rap hardships. Still, she shows the promise that B.I.G. originally saw in her on tracks like “Queen 2 Be” and “The 1.” And just like Biggie’s spirit, the Commission remains.
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