On May 21, 1972, one of hip hop’s greatest MC’s is born in Brooklyn, NY. Christopher Wallace, who would become known to millions of music fans as the Notorious B.I.G., was raised under the watchful eye of his mother Voletta.
But the lure of the streets became too enticing to ignore as a teenage Biggie started dealing drugs during the peak of the 1980’s crack era. After several brushes with the law (In 1991 he spent nine months in a North Carolina jail for dealing crack cocaine), Biggie, who started rhyming for fun, began to see the artform as an alternative to hustling on the streets.
The skillful 300 plus pound lyricist made a demo tape under the name Biggie Smalls, which was eventually heard by Big Daddy Kane producer and turntable master DJ Mister Cee. When the tape got into the hands of Source Magazine editor Matty C lauded the swift-tongued MC in his Unsigned Hype column.
The glowing review soon caught the attention of a 20-year-old Sean “Puffy” Combs, who promptly signed Biggie to his newly created Bad Boy Records.
After garnering notice on various remixes and guest spots, the Notorious B.I.G. released his landmark 1994 debut Ready To Die (Bad Boy), an album that would take East Coast hip hop back to its commercial heights at a time when West Coast rap was the dominant musical force. Biggie’s smooth phrasing, witty wordplay and gifted street-infused story-telling on singles like “Juicy,” Big Poppa,” “The Warning” and “One More Chance” proved to be a dynamic combination—pushing Ready To Die to more than four million copies.
Amid a much-hyped battle with West Coast based Death Row Records (the equally successful multi-platinum home of feared label head Suge Knight, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and later rap icon Tupac Shakur), Biggie set about work on an ambitious double album Life After Death (Bad Boy). Yet Biggie’s war of words with former friend and now rival Tupac Shakur escalated beyond music as Pac accused the fellow rapper of setting him up in bloody robbery in New York’s Times Square. Biggie adamantly denied the charge.
On March 9, 1997 tragedy struck as the Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down on the streets of Los Angeles following a VIBE party. The murder remains unsolved to this day. But Biggie’s influence lived on with the release of Life After Death, which became one of hip hop’s biggest selling albums selling over 10 million copies. As for the legacy of the Notorious B.I.G., it soldiers on through a series of compilations and the recently acclaimed biopic Notorious (Fox Search Light).
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