The VIBE Staff Remembers The Notorious B.I.G. With Our Favorite Memories of The Brooklyn Legend
We'll always love Big Poppa.
The Notorious B.I.G. holds a place in our hearts that can never be taken by another artist. As we remember the Brooklyn icon on the 19th anniversary of his untimely death, the VIBE staff looks back at our most fondest memories from the hip-hop legend.
From personal stories to music videos that resonated with us the most, read on for some unique stories on how Biggie has impacted the creative force behind VIBE.com.
Click through the gallery to begin
Datwon Thomas: Back in 2008, while I was EIC of XXL Magazine, Biggie's best friend D-Roc, who is well known as the man who held Big and their crew down in many ways called me. The call came from jail while D was closing out his bid that was tied to the Lil Kim trial.
D asked me to be part of his Biggie Smalls: Rap Phenomenon documentary -- and I gladly agreed and proceeded to record my part in my office a few weeks later. I thought about on how great of an MC Big was. My part in the doc is dope, if I must say so myself... Yet, there is this moment that I talk about when my crew and I went to one of our first really big industry parties.
We missed out the first event that night at another venue and Video Music Box's Uncle Ralph McDaniels told us about this other party. All six of us jumped in a cab and jetted to a club on 83rd street in Manhattan. After jumping the line on some slick sh*t (long story) our crew was in the house where Wu-Tang, Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, Naughty By Nature, Lil Shawn, and the whole Bad Boy Records team was lounging.
Diddy, Jodeci, Total, Jr. Mafia...everybody was lined up. Big was chilling on the wall with the team. But when Bad Boy music came on, he popped off the wall and started dancing like Red Foxx from Sandford and Son! I was in awe of how carefree he was to do so in front of so many hardcore rap acts and gangstas in the club.
Everybody was cracking up laughing. Big then hopped on the end of the congo line that Lil Cease and Jr. Mafia started and he bounced like a bunny rabbit to the beat! We were done! Tears in our eyes from laughing. That's my Biggie moment. To me, it says so much about the man we love, especially if you're from Brooklyn like me.
I talk about the scene in the clip below, starting at the 2:07 minute mark. Enjoy.
Iyana Robertson: As a kid from Brooklyn, The Notorious B.I.G. served as the faint background soundtrack on street corners as I played jump rope, at block parties as I doused myself with the fire hydrant, and in the crib when I really wasn’t supposed to be paying attention. I don’t remember being formally introduced to the late Biggie Smalls, because he was simply always around. The first time I savored the flava in my ear was when I giggled at his pronouncement, “I get more butt than ash trays,” as BCAT Flava Videos host Bobby Simmons screamed "Check it!" before throwing to Craig Mack’s now-legendary posse cut. I was sitting Indian-style on my grandmother’s bed, and had flipped the channel from whatever she turned on that didn’t hold my attention. Puff Daddy’s ode to the Warriors film, clinking glasses summoning his Bad Boy squad, is an intro I will never forget, because not soon later, B.I.G. was all in my grill–being a very visible, invisible bully–demanding my respect. The next time I heard it outside in the ‘hood, I whispered “UPS is hirin’” to myself. He had imprinted on me for good. ]
Darryl Robertson: The first time I first heard “Everyday Struggle” and “Suicidal Thoughts” is the moment that The Notorious B.I.G. became my second favorite emcee (Nas is my all-time favorite).
Despite being a youngin’ when I heard these tracks, my life was mad stressful for a shorty. Drugs had destroyed my family. This, mixed with group homes, counselors, St. Vincent Children’s Center and the constant change of homes and schools had me feeling like my life had come to an abrupt end.
And I hadn’t even been on Earth a decade yet. And when B.I.G. spit: “I don’t want to live no more/sometimes I hear death knocking at my front door,” followed by “I know how it feels to wake up f*ked up,” on “Everyday Struggle” he described every crack and crevice of my foreboding childhood.
Now, I wasn’t selling drugs nor packing guns like B.I.G. did on wax in this song, but the same dreadful feelings and misfortunes of the life that he married to the the beat, described my woeful feelings of waking up everyday, the stench of group homes, the cold juveniles jails, the loneliness of adoption, and the helplessness of watching your loved ones destroy their lives with drug abuse. And, B.I.G. didn’t’ spit of his drawbacks like he wanted one to feel sorry for him.
It was more like: ‘Here’s my f*cked up life, but I’ll keep pushing, and I’ll be fly while doing it.’ And that served as a form of motivation for me. The same with “Suicidal Thoughts,” where B.I.G. rapped that he was a “piece of shit,” the “f*cking worst,” and “my mother doesn’t love me like she did when I was younger,” and “I bet she wish she got a f*cking abortion.” Again, those words described my childhood and the relationships, or lack thereof, with my loved ones.
For a grown man to be able to describe exactly what a juvenile is going through and the feelings of a juvenile, yet make it relevant to adults, and being confident while doing it was awe-inspiring, showed the importance of hip-hop.
Richy Rosario: From the 90’s garb to all the celeb cameos featured in Big's "Big Poppa" video, watching the video for the first time is a moment I won't ever forget. Biggie was a master at storytelling through his lyricism and visuals. With his infectious flows and charming demeanor to go along with it, he scooped up one of the prettiest girls in the club. Watching this video makes me feel like I'm in a time time machine, where my destination is the golden age of hip-hop. Personally, the 90s was my favorite time period ever in rap. I could almost imagine how Biggie conceptualized how he wanted the visuals for this video to be. His imagination was probably running towards just having a good time, which to me is the whole message for it. “Big Poppa” is a feel good song and the video puts you in an even better mood. In hindsight, this makes me remember Big in a happy light before tragedy struck. ‘Big Poppa’ was a testament to how he will be always be that heavy, fly dude who was smooth with the ladies.
Camille Augstin: There are very few songs that can send you into an instant groove once the opening chords begin to play. For me, that song still remains The Notorious B.I.G.'s smooth melody "Sky's The Limit." With 112 holding down the chorus with their velvet-like vocals, Biggie vividly paints a picture of his "rags to riches" story. Everything sounded so genuine within his three-versed story, letting the chorus be that extra icing on the cake of never giving up on your dreams. There's also one line that's stayed with me since I heard the song, said by the hip hop legend: "Stay far from timid/ Only make moves when your heart's in it/ And live the phrase sky's the limit." Will do, B.I.G.
Marjua Estevez: When I think about my favorite rappers, I think of the ones who helped shape the soundtrack to my childhood and early adolescence. Biggie is undoubtedly one of a few whose braggadocio steez made me want to so badly be a part of hip-hop. I wasn't a rapper, I wasn't a DJ, and I wasn't going to grow up to be an A&R at some fancy record label. But I was a poet and a writer with a desire to contribute to a culture that spoke so much to my experience as a first generation brown girl from the Bronx.
Song / Lyric: "Juicy" – And she loves to show me off, of course/ Smiles every time my face is up in The Source
When I first heard Biggie's seminal "Juicy" oozing from an old boombox, I was pulled in by the line "and she loves to show me off of course/ smiles every time my face is up in The Source." And a light bulb went off. That was how I was going to get my foot in the door. That was how I was going to play a role in hip-hop. By writing about it. In 2010, as a sophomore at Florida A&M University, I applied for my first internship ever and sent off a résumé to The Source. Days later, I received a voicemail asking if I'd like to come in to meet my mentor and then editor-in-chief Amy Andrieux. The rest, as they say, is history.
Stacey Robertson: As a Queens girl, my relationship with Christopher Wallace doesn’t run as deep as what is typically expected of New Yorkers. I don’t have an encyclopedia-like recollection of any and all major Brooklyn MC’s lyrics. It just skipped over me growing up, I guess.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the guy and his undeniable influence on hip-hop culture. My residence now comes with a Bed-Stuy zip code, so my love for “Spread love, it’s the Brooklyn way” from Biggie Smalls’ “Juicy”—the only song I can confidently keep up with singing aloud at social functions—is doubled over. Besides that, one of my favorite works from Biggie came after he’d even be able to see it come to fruiting. From its 2003 release ‘til now, the posthumous “Runnin’ (Dyin’ To Live)” with the late Tupac Shakur strikes nerves in me that I didn’t know where there, forcing me to digest the song’s pensive refrain: Why am I fighting to live, if I'm just living to fight Why am I trying to see, when there ain't nothing in sight Why am I trying to give, when no one gives me a try Why am I dying to live, if I'm just living to die
Shenequa Golding: The 90s were a glorious time for Hip-Hop. Excellence was the bare minimum and extraordinary was the difficult, yet achievable standard many lyricists aspired to when they proudly wore the title of emcee. Biggie ascended to the culture's zenith with his natural story telling ability and a melodic voice that so easily rode whatever beat Puff created. Yet standing at an intimating 6'3 and according to whom you ask, weighing as much as 300 pounds, Big used his presence to dominate even the most clever of wordsmiths. But one brief moment that has always tickled my heart came in the Hype Williams directed video "Hypnotize." Diddy was on his cinematic wave at the time and wanted every video to feel like a feature film. While both tried to escape from helicopters chasing them on their yacht in the Florida Keys, Big, for a brief moment, drops the persona and allows for Christopher to come through as he places his arm around Diddy's shoulder and smiles. If you blink, you'll miss it, but Big's smile was as wide as he was happy in that moment. Making a video on a yacht with Puff by his side clad in Versace and beautiful women to boot is a far cry from his "heartthrob never, black and ugly as ever" days. We all know what happened March 9th and even some 20 years after his death, it's still hurts, leaving many to wonder why? But just knowing he experienced big moments to evoke that big smile during his short time eases the pain...just a little bit.
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Mikey Fresh: Ironically, one of my most personal memories of Biggie happened when I was a 20-year-old intern at The Source magazine. It was my first week at the publication and myself, along with two other interns, were ordered to clean out The Source's storage locker. I'm not talking about their storage closest in the office, I mean their actual storage unit in downtown Manhattan.
The space was literally the size of a small studio apartment in NTC and was cluttered with everything from old office computers and personal belongings from old staffers. Some of the things we found seemed more like tools for street corner pharmacists and such... but that's a whole other story.
What sticks out the most to me is the moment we opened a dilapidated cardbox box to find a treasure chest of rare issues. I mean there was stacks of issues from as early as 1991 -- and some of the most sought after The Source issues by collectors.
It wasn't until we lifted an old Wu-Tang cover when we saw several copies of Biggie's first cover. It was like when Charlie found the golden ticket in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. This was an issue I was looking to hold in my hands since middle school. As a rap magazine junkie growing up, it literally felt like I had hit the lottery. Within minutes we were at a local Burger King, nerding out over the issue BIG time.
I plan to pass the issue onto my kids.
