Everything about The Notorious B I G totally explained
Christopher George Latore Wallace (
May 21 1972 –
March 9 1997), popularly known as
Biggie Smalls (after a
gangster in the 1975 film
Let's Do It Again),
Big Poppa,
Frank White (from the film
King of New York), and his primary
stage name,
The Notorious B.I.G., was an
American rapper.
Born in
Brooklyn,
New York, Biggie grew up during the peak years of the 1980s'
crack epidemic and started
dealing drugs at an early age. When Biggie debuted with the 1994 record
Ready to Die, he was a central figure in the
East Coast and increased New York's viability at a time when
hip hop was mostly dominated by
West Coast artists. Biggie was noted for his "loose, easy flow", Because of his popularity and his influence on music in general, he's become a cultural icon.
Biography
Early life
Born in the
Bedford-Stuyvesant section of
Brooklyn,
New York City,
New York, Biggie was the only child to
Voletta Wallace, a pre-school teacher of
Jamaican origin, and George Letore, a welder and small-time Jamaican politician. From the age of twelve, he
sold drugs, unbeknownst to his mother.
Biggie transferred out of the private
Roman Catholic school that he attended, at his request, to attend the state-funded George Westinghouse Information Technology High School, where
Jay-Z and
Busta Rhymes were also students. According to his mother, he was still a good student, but developed a "smart-ass" attitude. At seventeen, Biggie dropped out of
high school and became further involved in
crime. In 1989, he was arrested on weapons charges in Brooklyn and sentenced to five years' probation. In 1990, he was arrested on a violation of his probation.
In
March 1992, Biggie featured in
The Source's
Unsigned Hype column, dedicated to aspiring rappers and was invited to produce a recording with other unsigned artists, in a move that was reportedly uncommon at the time. The demo tape was heard by
Uptown Records A&R and
record producer,
Sean "Puffy" Combs, who arranged for a meeting with Biggie. He was signed to Uptown immediately and made an appearance on label mates,
Heavy D & the Boyz' "A Buncha Niggas" (from
Blue Funk).
Soon after signing his recording contract, Combs was fired from Uptown and started a new label. Biggie followed and in mid-1992, signed to Combs' new imprint label,
Bad Boy Records. On
August 10 1992, Biggie's long-term partner gave birth to his first child, T'yanna. Biggie continued selling drugs after the birth to support his daughter financially. Once this was discovered by Combs, he was made to quit. "Real Love" peaked at #7 on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart and was followed by a remix of Blige's "What's the 411".
He continued this success, to a lesser extent, on remixes with
Neneh Cherry ("Buddy X") and reggae artist
Super Cat ("Dolly My Baby", also featuring Combs) in 1993. In
April 1993, his solo track, "
Party and Bullshit", appeared on the
Who's the Man? soundtrack. eventually being certified four times
Platinum. The album, released at a time when
West Coast hip hop was prominent in the U.S. charts, according to
Rolling Stone "almost single-handedly... shifted the focus back to East Coast rap". In addition to "Juicy", the record produced two hit singles; the Platinum-selling "
Big Poppa", which reached #1 on the U.S. rap chart, and "
One More Chance" featuring Faith Evans, a loosely related remix of an album track and its best selling single.
Junior M.A.F.I.A. and coastal feud
In August 1995, Biggie's protegé group,
Junior M.A.F.I.A. ("Junior Masters At Finding Intelligent Attitudes"), consisting of his friends from childhood released their debut album entitled
Conspiracy. The group included rappers such as
Lil' Kim and
Lil' Cease, who went on to have solo careers. The record went
Gold and its singles, "Player's Anthem" and "Get Money" both featuring Biggie, went Gold and Platinum. Biggie continued to work with
R&B artists, collaborating with
Bad Boy groups
112 (on "Only You") and
Total (on "Can't You See"), with both reaching the top 20 of the Hot 100.
By the end of the year, Biggie was the top-selling male solo artist and rapper on the U.S. pop and R&B charts. At the
Billboard Awards, he was Rap Artist of the Year.}}
Following release from
prison, Shakur signed to
L.A.'s
Death Row Records on
October 15 1995. Bad Boy Records and Death Row, now business rivals, became involved in an intense quarrel.
Arrests, a death and a birth
Biggie started recording his second record album in September 1995. The album, recorded in
New York,
Trinidad and
Los Angeles, was interrupted during its 18 months of creation by injury, legal wranglings and the
highly publicized hip hop dispute in which he was involved.
On
March 23 1996, Biggie was arrested outside a
Manhattan nightclub for chasing and threatening to kill two autograph seekers, smashing the windows of their taxicab and then pulling one of the fans out and punching them. Biggie denied the allegation claiming he was in a New York recording studio at the time. Following his death, an anti-violence
hip hop summit was held; Biggie didn't attend and received criticism. He faced criminal assault charges for the incident which remain unresolved, but all robbery charges were dropped.
Death
March 1997 shooting
Biggie traveled to
California in March 1997 to promote his upcoming album and record a
music video for its lead single, "
Hypnotize". On
March 5 1997 Biggie gave a radio interview with
The Dog House on
KYLD. In the interview he stated that he'd hired security since he feared for his safety, but this was because he was a celebrity figure, not specifically a
rapper.
Life After Death was scheduled for release on
March 25 1997. On
March 8 1997, he presented an award to
Toni Braxton at the 11th Annual
Soul Train Music Awards in
Los Angeles and was booed by some of the audience.]]
Murder case
Biggie's
murder remains unsolved and there are a plethora of theories as to the identities and motives of the murderers. In the month of his death,
The Los Angeles Times reported that the Southside Compton
Crips may have killed Biggie in retaliation for Bad Boy not paying them money owed for security services provided in the West Coast. In the same month,
MTV News published that witnesses had told the
Associated Press they were afraid to speak to
law enforcement.
In 2002, Randall Sullivan released
LAbyrinth, a book compiling information regarding the murders of Biggie and
Tupac Shakur based on evidence provided by retired LAPD detective,
Russell Poole. Filmmaker
Nick Broomfield released an investigative documentary,
Biggie & Tupac, based mainly on the evidence used in the book.
An article published in
Rolling Stone by Sullivan in December 2005, accused the LAPD of not fully investigating links with Death Row Records based on evidence from Poole. Sullivan claimed that
Sean Combs "failed to fully cooperate with the investigation" and according to Poole, encouraged Bad Boy staff to do the same.
Lawsuits
In March 2005, the relatives of Biggie filed a
wrongful death claim against the
LAPD based on the evidence championed by
Russell Poole. They claimed the LAPD had sufficient evidence to arrest the assailant, but failed to utilize it.
David Mack and Amir Muhammad (a.k.a. Harry Billups) were originally named as defendants in the
civil suit, but were dropped shortly before the trial began after the LAPD and
FBI dismissed them as suspects. An attempt to expand the wrongful death lawsuit to include new claims failed in August 2006.
On
April 16 2007, relatives of Biggie filed a second wrongful death lawsuit against the city of
Los Angeles,
California. The suit also named two LAPD officers in the center of the
LAPD Rampart Division corruption probe,
Rafael Perez and Nino Durden. According to the claim, Perez, an alleged affiliate of Death Row Records, admitted to LAPD officials that he and Mack (who wasn't named in the lawsuit) "conspired to
murder, and participated in the murder of Christopher Wallace". The Wallace family believe the LAPD "consciously concealed Rafael Perez's involvement in the murder of ... Wallace".
On
January 19 2007, Tyruss Himes (better known as
Big Syke), a former friend of
Tupac Shakur who was implicated in the murder by television channel
KTTV and
XXL magazine in 2005, had his
defamation lawsuit regarding the accusations thrown out of court.
Posthumous career
Fifteen days after his death, Biggie's double-disc second album was released as planned with the shortened title of
Life After Death and hit #1 on the Billboard 200 charts, after making a premature appearance at #176 due to street-date violations. The record album featured a much wider range of guests and producers than its predecessor. It gained strong reviews and in 2000 was certified
Diamond; the highest
RIAA certification awarded to a solo
hip hop album.
Its lead single, "
Hypnotize", was the last
music video recording in which Biggie would partake. His biggest chart success was with its follow-up "
Mo Money Mo Problems", featuring
Sean "Puffy" Combs (under the rap alias "Puff Daddy") and
Mase. The video, directed by
Hype Williams, is noted for having started the
"Shiny Suit" era in
hip hop music. Both singles reached #1 in the Hot 100, making Biggie the first artist to achieve this feat posthumously.
In mid-1997, Combs released his debut album,
No Way Out, which featured Biggie on five songs, notably on the third single "
Victory". The most prominent single from the record album was "
I'll Be Missing You", featuring Puff Daddy,
Faith Evans and
112, which was dedicated to Biggie's memory. At the 1998
Grammy Awards,
Life After Death and its first two singles received nominations in the rap category. The album award was won by Combs'
No Way Out and "I'll Be Missing You" gained the award in the category of "Mo Money Mo Problems".
In December 1999,
Bad Boy Records released
Born Again. The record consisted of previously unreleased material mixed with guest appearances including many artists Biggie had never collaborated with in his lifetime. It gained some positive reviews but received criticism for its unlikely pairings,
The Source describing it as "compiling some of the most awkward collaborations of his career". In 2005, continued the pattern and was criticized for the lack of significant Biggie vocals on some of its songs. Its lead single "
Nasty Girl" became Biggie's first UK #1. Combs and
Voletta Wallace have stated the album will be the last release primarily featuring new material.
Legacy
Biggie is celebrated as one of the greatest rap artists and is described by
All Music Guide as "the savior of
East Coast hip-hop". In 2003, when
XXL magazine asked several hip hop artists to list their five favorite
MCs, Biggie's name appeared on more rappers' lists than anyone else. In 2006, he was ranked at #3 in MTV's The Greatest MC's of All Time. In September 2005,
VH1 had its second annual "Hip Hop Honors", with a tribute to Biggie headlining the show.
Before his death, Biggie founded a hip hop
supergroup called
The Commission, which consisted of Jay-Z,
Lil' Cease, Combs,
Charli Baltimore and himself. The Commission was mentioned by Biggie in the lyrics of "What's Beef" on
Life After Death and "
Victory" from
No Way Out but never completed an album. A song on
Duets: The Final Chapter titled "Whatchu Want (The Commission)" featuring Jay-Z was based on the group.
Biggie had begun to promote a clothing line called Brooklyn Mint, which was to produce plus-sized clothing but fell dormant after he died. In 2004, his managers, Mark Pitts and Wayne Barrow, launched the clothing line, with help from Jay-Z, selling T-shirts with images of Biggie on them. A portion of the proceeds go to the Christopher Wallace Foundation and to Jay-Z's Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation. In 2005,
Voletta Wallace hired branding and licensing agency Wicked Cow Entertainment to guide the Estate's licensing efforts. Biggie-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 supplies and to honor the memory of the late rapper. For this particular event, because it's a children's schools' charity, "B.I.G." is also said to stand for "Books Instead of Guns".
Style
rapped on his songs in a deep tone described by
Rolling Stone as a "thick, jaunty grumble", which went deeper on
Life After Death. Before starting a verse, Biggie sometimes used
onomatopoeic vocables to "warm up" (for example "uhhh" at the beginning of "Hypnotize" and "Big Poppa").
Biggie 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.
Themes and lyrical content
Biggie's lyrical topics and themes included
mafioso tales ("Niggas Bleed"), his drug dealing past ("10 Crack Commandments"), materialistic bragging ("
Hypnotize"), as well as humor ("Just Playing (Dreams)"), and
romance ("Me & My Bitch").
Ready to Die is described by
Rolling Stone as a contrast of "bleak" street visions and being "full of high-spirited fun, bringing the pleasure principle back to hip-hop".
All Music Guide write of "a sense of doom" in some of his songs and the
NY Times note some being "laced with paranoia"; The final song on the album, "
Suicidal Thoughts", featured Biggie contemplating suicide and concluded with him committing the act.
On
Life After Death, Biggie's lyrics went "deeper".
All Music Guide believe Ready to Die's success is "mostly due to Biggie's skill as a storyteller"; On
Life After Death Biggie notably demonstrated this skill on "I Got a Story to Tell" telling a story as a rap for the first half of the song and then as a story "for his boys" in conversation form. but now director
George Tillman, Jr. is set to helm the project.
In early October of 2007 open casting calls for the role of The Notorious B.I.G. began. Actors, rappers and unknowns all tried out. Rapper
Beanie Sigel auditioned for the role but wasn't picked.
Sean Kingston claimed that he'd play the role of Biggie but producers have denied he'd be in the film. The cast has recently been announced with rapper Jamal "Gravy" Woolard cast as Biggie. Other cast members include
Angela Bassett as
Voletta Wallace,
Derek Luke as
Sean Combs,
Anwan Glover as
Snoop Doggy Dogg,
Antonique Smith as
Faith Evans, and
Anthony Mackie as
Tupac Shakur.
Discography
Further Information
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