https://www.amazon.com/Ready-Die-NOTORIOUS-B-I-G/dp/B014Q2980U/?tag=2022091-20
https://www.amazon.com/Born-Again-EX-Notorious-B-I-G/dp/B00002S5DF/?tag=2022091-20
https://www.amazon.com/Life-After-Death-NOTORIOUS-B-I-G/dp/B0000039QA/?tag=2022091-20
https://www.amazon.com/Duets-Final-Chapter-Notorious-B-I-G/dp/B000BJS4P8/?tag=2022091-20
Biggie Smalls was born in on May 21, 1972, at ‘St. Mary’s Hospital’ in Brooklyn, New York to Voletta Wallace and Selwyn George Latore as their only child. His mother was a Jamaican preschool teacher and his father was a small-time politician and welder.
He had a rough childhood as his father left the family when he was just two. His mother had to take up two jobs to sustain the family.
He attended the ‘Queen of All Saints Middle School’ where he excelled in class and won many awards as a student of English.
Although he was a good student, he dropped out of high school at age 17 to live his life on the streets.
He was interested in rap from a young age, performing with local groups like the Old Gold Brothers and the Techniques, the latter of whom brought the teenaged Wallace his first trip to a recording studio. He had already adopted the name Biggie Smalls at this point, a reference to his ample frame, which would grow to be over six feet tall and nearly 400 pounds.
Attracted by the money and flashy style of local drug dealers, he started selling crack for a living. He got busted on a trip to North Carolina and spent nine months in jail, and upon his release, he made some demo recordings on a friend's four-track. The resulting tape fell into the hands of Mister Cee, a DJ working with Big Daddy Kane; Cee, in turn, passed the tape on to hip-hop magazine The Source, which gave Biggie a positive write-up in a regular feature on unsigned artists. Thanks to the publicity, Biggie caught the attention of Uptown Records producer Sean "Puffy" Combs, who signed him immediately. With his new daughter in need of immediate financial support, Biggie kept dealing drugs for a short time until Combs found out and laid down the law. Not long after Biggie's signing, Combs split from Uptown to form his own label, Bad Boy and took Biggie with him.
Changing his primary stage name from Biggie Smalls to the Notorious B.I.G., the newly committed rapper made his recording debut on a 1993 remix of Mary J. Blige's single "Real Love." He soon guested on another Blige remix, "What's the 411?," and contributed his first solo cut, "Party and Bullshit," to the soundtrack of the film Who's the Man? Now with a considerable underground buzz behind him, the Notorious B.I.G. delivered his debut album, Ready to Die, in September 1994. It's lead single, "Juicy," went gold, and the follow-up smash, "Big Poppa," achieved platinum sales and went Top Ten on the pop and R&B charts. Biggie's third single, "One More Chance," tied Michael Jackson's "Scream" for the highest debut ever on the pop charts; it entered at number five en route to an eventual peak at number two and went all the way to number one on the R&B side. By the time the dust settled, Ready to Die had sold over four million copies and turned the Notorious B.I.G. into a hip-hop sensation -- the first major star the East Coast had produced since the rise of Dr. Dre's West Coast G-funk.
The Notorious B.I.G. was named MC of the Year at the 1995 Billboard Music Awards. After the quick success of the album, Biggie went back to get his friends, some who didn't even rhyme. He had several run-ins with the law, on charges that ranged from beatings to drugs and to weapons, while all claimed that Biggie was a gentle person. He soon met a rapper from the west coast named Tupac Shakur, and the two became friends.
Tupac supported Biggie and was often giving him advice. However, their friendship turned into the most violent era of hip-hop music on November 30, 1994. While Biggie and Puffy were at a recording session at Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan, Tupac went there to record with another rapper for his third studio album, "Me Against The World" at the same time, but in the lobby, Tupac was held at gunpoint and robbed of $40,000 worth of jewelry. Tupac was shot five times. Biggie rushed down just in time to see Tupac being loaded into an ambulance. Extending a middle finger, Pac blamed Biggie for the shooting and said that Biggie knew about it and failed to warn him. This sparked the East Coast, West Coast rivalry. Tupac later recovered from his injuries. During this encounter, Biggie admitted that he was scared for his life. Biggie never responded to any of Tupac's disses. Tupac attacked Biggie in every way he could, even starting strong rumors that there was a love affair between Tupac and Biggie's wife, Faith Evans.
Later, The entire country became divided into two groups, the west side and the east side, which became Death Row Records versus Bad Boy Records, Marion 'Suge' Knight versus Puff Daddy, and Tupac versus Biggie. The two of them finally met again late in 1995, and Tupac secretly said to Biggie, "I'm just tryin' to sell some records." Unfortunately, it became very real when on September 7, 1996, Tupac was shot four times in a drive-by shooting off the Las Vegas strip after he left a fight he was involved in inside of the MGM Grand Hotel after a Mike Tyson boxing match. He died six days later on September 13, 1996 as a result of those gunshot wounds at the age of 25. The case is still unsolved. Biggie was scared for his life, but he wanted to put an end to the rivalry between the two coasts.
Observers hoped that Shakur's murder would serve as a wake-up call for gangsta rap in general, that on-record boasting had gotten out of hand and spilled into reality. Sadly, it would take another tragedy to drive that point home. In the early morning hours of March 9, 1997, the Notorious B.I.G. was leaving a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, thrown by Vibe magazine in celebration of the Soul Train Music Awards. He sat in the passenger side of his SUV, with his bodyguard in the driver's seat and Junior M.A.F.I.A. member Lil' Cease in the back. According to most witnesses, another vehicle pulled up on the right side of the SUV while it was stopped at a red light, and six to ten shots were fired. Biggie's bodyguard rushed him to the nearby Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, but it was already too late. As much as Shakur was mourned, Biggie's death was perhaps even more shocking; it meant that Shakur's death was not an isolated incident, and that hip-hop's highest-profile talents might be caught in the middle of an escalating war. Naturally, speculation ran rampant that Biggie's killers were retaliating for Shakur's death, and since the case remains unsolved, the world may never know for sure.
Hip-Hop faced its greatest tragedy when both Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. were killed. Biggie was only 24 years old.
His funeral was held on March 18, 1997 (the 30 year anniversary of the opening of the Pirates Of The Caribbean ride at Disneyland), at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan.
After the funeral, his body was cremated and the ashes were given to his family.
Considered one of the best rappers of all time, Wallace was described by AllMusic as "the savior of East Coast hip-hop".
Ready to Die was released on September 13, 1994. It reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200 chart and was eventually certified four times Platinum.
He was an MC who had released two albums before his death, plus another released posthumously.
Awarded the 1995 Billboard Magazine Award for hip-hop artist of the year.
The Source magazine named Wallace the greatest rapper of all time in its 150th issue in 2002. In 2003, when XXL magazine asked several hip hop artists to list their five favorite MCs, Wallace's name appeared on more rappers' lists than anyone else. In 2006, MTV ranked him at No. 3 on their list of The Greatest MCs of All Time, calling him possibly "the most skillful ever on the mic". Editors of About.com ranked him No. 3 on their list of the Top 50 MCs of Our Time (1987–2007). In 2012, The Source ranked him No. 3 on their list of the Top 50 Lyrical Leaders of all time. Rolling Stone has referred to him as the "greatest rapper that ever lived". In 2015, Billboard named Wallace as the greatest rapper of all time.
Since his death, Wallace's lyrics have been sampled and quoted by a variety of hip hop, R&B and pop artists including Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, Fat Joe, Nelly, Ja Rule, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Game, Clinton Sparks, Michael Jackson, and Usher. On August 28, 2005, at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, Sean Combs (then using the rap alias "P. Diddy") and Snoop Dogg paid tribute to Wallace: an orchestra played while the vocals from "Juicy" and "Warning" played on the arena speakers. In September 2005, VH1 held its second annual "Hip Hop Honors", with a tribute to Wallace headlining the show.
In 2005, Voletta Wallace hired branding and licensing agency Wicked Cow Entertainment to guide the estate's licensing efforts. Wallace-branded products on the market include action figures, blankets, and cell phone content.
The Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation holds an annual black-tie dinner ("B.I.G. Night Out") to raise funds for children's school equipment and to honor Wallace's memory. For this particular event, because it is a children's schools' charity, "B.I.G." is also said to stand for "Books Instead of Guns".
There is a large portrait mural of Wallace as Mao Zedong on Fulton Street in Brooklyn a half-mile west from Wallace's old block. A fan petitioned to have the corner of Fulton Street and St. James Place, near Wallace's childhood home renamed in his honor, garnering support from local businesses and attracting more than 560 signatures.
A large portrait of Wallace features prominently in the Netflix series Luke Cage, due to the fact that he served as a muse for the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's version of Marvel Comics character Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes.
Wallace had begun to promote a clothing line called Brooklyn Mint, which was to produce plus-sized clothing but fell dormant after he died.
His clothing line, Brooklyn Mint, was launched in 1996.
In 2004, his managers, Mark Pitts and Wayne Barrow, launched the clothing line, with help from Jay-Z, selling T-shirts with images of Wallace on them. A portion of the proceeds goes to the Christopher Wallace Foundation and to Jay-Z's Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation.
He also had plans to open a fast food chain called "Big Poppa's" which was going to be served in his old neighborhood 24 hours a day.
His posthumous album, Life After Death, is certified Diamond. This means it sold more than 10 million copies.
His first recording deal was with Uptown Records in 1993.
In the years following Christopher Wallace's death, little official progress was made in the LAPD's murder investigation, and it began to look as if the responsible parties would never be brought to justice. The 2Pac retaliation theory still holds sway in many quarters, and it has also been speculated that members of the Crips gang murdered Wallace in a dispute over money owed for security services. In an article for Rolling Stone, and later a full book titled Labyrinth, journalist Randall Sullivan argued that Suge Knight hired onetime LAPD officer David Mack -- a convicted bank robber with ties to the Bloods -- to arrange a hit on Wallace and that the gunman was a hitman and mortgage broker named Amir Muhammad. Sullivan further argued that when it became clear how many corrupt LAPD officers were involved with Death Row Records, the department hushed up as much as it could and all but abandoned detective Russell Poole's investigation recommendations.
Ready to Die shifted attention back to East Coast hip hop at a time when West Coast hip hop dominated US charts. It gained strong reviews and has received much praise in retrospect. In addition to "Juicy", the record produced two hit singles: the Platinum-selling "Big Poppa", which reached No. 1 on the U.S. rap chart, and "One More Chance", which sold 1.1 million copies in 1995. Busta Rhymes claimed to have seen Wallace giving out free copies of Ready to Die from his home, which Rhymes reasoned as "his way of marketing himself."
Quotations:
"(On Tupac Shakur's death) I was more shocked than anything, you know what I'm sayin? I wasn't shocked at him dyin I was more shocked at him...Pac'a a strong dude, ya know I know dude, ya know what I'm sayin. He's real strong. So when they was like he got shot, I was just more like 'Again?' Heh. You know what I'm sayin, he's always gettin shot or shot at, he gon' pull through this one again, make a few of records about it, and its gon' be over, you know what I'm sayin? But when he, when he died, I was just 'whoa!' You know what I'm sayin, kinda took me by...and even though we was goin through our drama, I would never with death on nobody, you know what I'm sayin, cause ain't no coming back from that.
Please, all you MCs out there, all you fans out there, don't think Big gonna make a record dissing 2Pac or the West Coast because it's not going down like that. I can't even see me wasting my time or my talent to disrespect another black man."
"The second time I went to jail, I was like, 'Okay, this is not the move.'"
"I'm basically different things to different people. If it's a guy, I'm-a probably have my guard up because it's a street rule that when men come around that I don't know, I just immediately throw shade on them. But I don't associate with fellas all that much; if it's a girl - a beautiful girl - I be nice."
"I can't never stop nobody, can't knock nobody hustle."
"Growing up in the streets of Bed-Stuy, it was hard, yo."
"You gotta mature, you know."
"With big folks, either people think you look mean or it's more of a jolly Santa Claus, 'Oh, he's just a pudgy little teddy bear pillow.'"
"My real life helped me sell a lot of records."
"'96 is the year of love. We all need to pull together."
"I'm making music for the people. If y'all love the music, y'all gonna buy the music."
Not extremely attractive, Wallace named himself Biggie, for his weight. Biggie was a Black man who was overweight, extremely dark-skinned and had a crook in his eye, yet he was a charmer.
In general, he weighed over 400 Pounds.
Got his nickname Biggie Smalls' from the gangster character played by Calvin Lockhart in the film Let's Do It Again (1975).
Frequently referred to himself as "the black Frank White" in his raps. This name was taken from the drug lord character played by Christopher Walken in the film King of New York (1990).
B.I.G. stands for "Business Instead of Game".
Wallace mostly rapped on his songs in a deep tone described by Rolling Stone as a "thick, jaunty grumble", which went deeper on Life After Death.
He also often used the single-line rhyme scheme to add variety and interest to his flow.
Before starting a verse, Wallace sometimes used onomatopoeic vocables to "warm up" (for example "uhhh" at the beginning of "Hypnotize" and "Big Poppa", and "whaat" after certain rhymes in songs such as "My Downfall").
He was often accompanied on songs with ad libs from Sean "Puffy" Combs. In The Source's Unsigned Hype column, his style was described as "cool, nasal, and filtered, to bless his own material."
Wallace would occasionally vary from his usual style. On "Playa Hater" from his second album, he sang in a slow-falsetto. On his collaboration with Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, "Notorious Thugs", he modified his style to match the rapid rhyme flow of the group.
Wallace was known to compose lyrics in his head, rather than write them down on paper, in a similar way to Jay-Z.
Quotes from others about the person
AllMusic describes Wallace as having "a talent for piling multiple rhymes on top of one another in quick succession". Time magazine wrote Wallace rapped with an ability to "make multi-syllabic rhymes sound... smooth", while Krims describes Wallace's rhythmic style as "effusive."
Lateef of Latyrx notes that Wallace had, "intense and complex flows", Fredro Starr of Onyx says, "Biggie was a master of the flow", and Bishop Lamont states that Wallace mastered "all the hemispheres of the music."
Big Daddy Kane suggests that Wallace didn't need a large vocabulary to impress listeners – "he just put his words together with a slick way and it worked really good for him."
On August 4, 1994, Wallace married R&B singer Faith Evans. They married 9 days after they met at a Bad Boy photoshoot.
(m. 1994)
Was in fact originally good friends with Tupac Shakur. He would call Tupac, 'Duke' and Tupac would call him 'Christopher'.
During his early years, he opened for Tupac Shakur on shows. He impressed Shakur for his ability to flow his rhymes right on the beat.
Unlike Tupac Shakur, Biggie never got a chance to star or appear in a movie, but he was confined to music videos and an early episode of New York Undercover. He was writing a screenplay at the time of his death.
However, when Tupac was shot five times and robbed by gang members linked to Biggie's Bad Boy records, the two had a fatal falling out.
Released a song called "Who Shot Ya?" just after Tupac Shakur was shot. Although Wallace insisted the song was recorded before the shooting and had nothing to do with it, Shakur saw it differently. As such, 2Pac released one of the most bitter, vindictive, and ingenious hip-hop answer records ever, called "Hit em up," which despite its violent background, was very popular.
Ironically on the night he got shot, he was in California for the Soul Train Music Awards, so he could promote peace between east and west. However when on stage, he got booed by the Californian crowd (a response to the Shakur murder, the previous year) and an embarrassed Biggie left the stage. He was killed hours later.
Despite being one of the most popular and well-known artists in the hip-hop industry, he only saw one album released while alive. He recorded and released "Ready to Die" in 1994. He recorded his sophomore album, "Life After Death" while alive. but it was released a mere two weeks after his murder in March of 1997. "Born Again" was released in December 1999, nearly three years after his death. The album featured unreleased songs as well as remixes of old songs, some featuring other rap and R&B artists.
He also made a little known song with Michael Jackson, entitled "This Time Around."
