Christopher George Latore Wallace. The Notorious B.I.G. Biggie Smalls.
Whatever name he took, there’s no denying that his short, but explosive career defined Biggie as the man who saved the East Coast hip-hop scene, and sees him continually regarded as the best gangsta rapper who ever picked up a mic.
HITTING THE STREETS
Biggie was born to Jamaican parents in Brooklyn in 1972. The family struggled to make money, a situation made worse when Biggie’s father abandoned him and his mother when he was only two years old.
He grew up in the neighbourhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, and though he excelled in class, Biggie was nevertheless drawn to the community of drug dealers that operated in the area. By 12, he was hustling alongside them while his mother was at work.
“The streets is a short stop. Either you’re slingin’ crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot,” he sang in Things Done Changed.
Biggie requested to be transferred from his private school (an education his mother had been working two jobs to pay for) to the state-run George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, where he studied alongside other future hip-hop stars like Jay-Z and DMX. While still achieving good grades, Biggie was said by his mother to have developed a smart-ass attitude while at the school that saw him get into trouble. He dropped out, and at 17, was given five years probation for weapons charges. Biggie was arrested twice over the next two years, spending nine months in prison.
FINDING HIS VOICE
As Biggie slipped deeper into the game, he began experimenting with music. He collaborated with local groups The Old Gold Brothers and The Techniques, before striking out on a solo endeavour. Having excelled at English during his studies, Biggie began crafting lyrics that featured quick, successive rhymes that established him as a serious talent. “Biggie was a master of the flow,” said Fredro Starr of rap group Onyx.
After leaving jail, Biggie decided to record a mix tape under his initial moniker, Biggie Smalls – a reference to a character from Sidney Poitier’s Let’s Do it Again, and his own tremendous size (he stood at 6’3″, and between 140-170kg).
Recorded to provide Biggie a creative outlet, the tape quickly ended up in the hands of New York DJ Master Cee, and covered in the country’s longest running hip-hop magazine, The Source.
To celebrate, Biggie recorded another mix, which was heard by Sean ‘Puff Daddy’ Combs, who invited him to a meeting at Uptown Records, where he was working as a talent scout.
MAKING A NAME
Biggie signed to Uptown in 1992, and started working with other artists on the label. Before Biggie could record his own album, however, Combs left Uptown to establish Bad Boy Records. Biggie followed his mentor, who soon provided him with national exposure through his work on the remix of Mary J. Blige’s Real Love. Following legal disputes, he changed his name to Notorious B.I.G., a shout out to the neighbourhood in which he was hustling.
The following year, Biggie’s ex-girlfriend gave birth to his daughter. He embraced the child, and encouraged her from the outset to focus on her education, promising that if she did, everything that she wanted would be in her grasp. It was a fact Biggie wished he’d realised when he was growing up.“It wasn’t like my mother said, ‘You finish school, Christopher, and I will buy you a Benz – you don’t have to sell drugs for that.’ They had said that, I would have been a fuckin’ graduate. Top of the class.”
To provide for her education, Biggie continued to sell drugs, but stopped when Combs discovered he was still on the streets.
Turning his attention to his art like never before, Biggie produced the only album he would release during his lifetime, Ready to Die. It reached number 13 on the Billboard Top 200, and would go on to be certified four times Platinum.
Released at a time when West Coast rappers like Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg were dominating the industry, Rolling Stone exclaimed that Biggie had “almost single-handedly… shifted the focus back to East Coast rap”. Two of the album’s singles reached number 1 on the U.S. rap chart, including a remix of One More Chance recorded with Biggie’s new wife, Faith Evans. He was named Rapper of the Year, and One More Chance named Rap Single of the Year.
Quick to share his success, Biggie began working with artists he’d collaborated with during his days in Brooklyn. These included Junior M.A.F.I.A., a group that included several rappers like Lil’ Kim and Lil’ Cease who would go on to have strong solo careers.
A BITTER FEUD
Biggie’s fame saw him become friends with the likes of Shaquille O’Neal – with whom he did a collaboration – and the most iconic West Coast rapper of all time, Tupac Shakur.
The two were close until a robbery in a New York recording studio resulted in Tupac being shot multiple times and losing thousands of dollars worth of jewellery. Tupac blamed Combs and Biggie, who were recording in the studio at the same time. They vehemently denied the accusation, but nevertheless, a rivalry between Comb’s Bad Boy Records, and Suge Knight’s Death Row Records (which Tupac signed to the following year) began to heat up.
The dispute interrupted Biggie’s work on his second album, compounded by further issues with the law. In early 1996 he attacked two fans, and was arrested only a few months later on drug and weapons charges.
Around the same time, Tupac released Hit ‘Em Up, a scathing solo that inferred he’d had sex with Biggie’s wife, and that Biggie was only successful because he stole Tupac’s style.
Three months later, Tupac was shot and subsequently died in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. Blame was immediately laid on Biggie, with Los Angeles Times writer Chuck Phillips concluding that “the shooting was carried out by a Compton gang called the Southside Crips to avenge the beating of one of its members by Shakur a few hours earlier”.
No charges were ever laid, though Phillips’s account is generally considered the most accurate recount of the shooting.
LEGACY
In the aftermath of the attack, Biggie continued work on his next album, tentatively titled Life After Death…Till Death Do Us Part. He announced that he was looking for “peace of mind” in the wake of the feud with his former friend, and started spending more time with his family.
Soon after, Biggie shattered his leg in a car accident, and had to spend months in therapy. On the album, Biggie joked “Ya still tickle me, I used to be as strong as Ripple be / Til Lil’ Cease crippled me.”
In February of 1997, Biggie travelled to L.A. to record a music video for his upcoming album.
On March 9, after attending an afterparty for the Soul Train Music Awards, Biggie was driving home when another vehicle pulled up next to his, and the driver opened fire with a pistol. Biggie was shot four times. His autopsy report, which was released over a decade after his death, revealed that only the fourth bullet inflicted a fatal wound.
Christopher George Latore Wallace, The Notorious B.I.G, Biggie Smalls, died that morning at the age of 24. Nobody has been arrested in relation to the case, but many allege that a member of the Crips killed him for personal financial reasons.
Sixteen days after his death, Biggie’s second album, Life After Death, was released. It hit number 1 on the charts, and in 2000 was certified Diamond, having sold over 10 million copies.
In 2002, The Source listed Biggie as the best rapper of all time, as would Rolling Stone and Billboard in later years. When XXL Magazine asked a collection of hip-hop artists who their favourite rappers were, Biggie appeared on more lists than any other.
In his honour, the Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation was launched. Each year, they hold a B.I.G. Night Out, where they raise donations for children’s school equipment and supplies. B.I.G., in this case, stands for Books Instead of Guns.
In 2009, a biopic was released chronicling Biggie’s life. Notorious went on to make over $44 million worldwide.
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His life may have been incredibly short, but few have had such an incredible impact on their craft as The Notorious B.I.G., even with careers that lasted far longer.
That has to be respected.
What a great post!