Chairman Mao resurrects the interview he conducted for The Source and adds a preface describing the early reception for the record amongst journos.
A day or so later a group of journalists were assembled to formally preview Life After Death in the presence of Big, Puffy, and the Bad Boy brass. Journalists can be pretty poker-faced, and no one in the room reacted to anything particularly strongly until “Kick In the Door” came on, which elicited unequivocal excitement (even from the Rolling Stone guys). “Mo Money Mo Problems” got the second biggest reaction, and that was largely due to friend and colleague Karen R. Good from Vibe literally getting up and dancing as vigorously and joyously as a person can dance while staying confined to a 2 ft. by 2 ft. square space in a crowded room of nerdy music journos. The Bad Boy people, of course, knew they had huge hits on their hands and were accordingly enthused. (I think BB exec Jeff Burrows may have actually orgasm-ed while singing along to “I’m Effin’ U Tonight” he was that hyped.)
