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The Notorious B.I.G.

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The Notorious B.I.G.
File:Big2.JPG
B.I.G.'s 1999 album, Born Again
Background information
OriginBrooklyn, New York, USA
Years active1992–1997, 2005

Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), also known as Biggie Smalls (after a stylish gangster in 1975's Let's Do it Again) and Frank White (from the film King of New York), but best known as The Notorious B.I.G. (Business Instead of Game and, since his death, Books Instead of Guns), was a popular rapper of the mid-1990s.

His career was overshadowed by the Bad Boy/Death Row Records feud during his life, but following his death in 1997, The Notorious B.I.G. has been celebrated as a hip hop legend. He is remembered for his talents in storytelling and freestyling, and his easy to understand yet complex flow. He is widely considered to be one of the best rappers of all time by his peers and fans.

Early Life

Christopher Wallace was born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. His father, George Latore, left the family shortly after his birth, and his mother, Voletta, worked as a schoolteacher. Despite claims he would later make in songs, his mother provided him with a comfortable life, and he was a straight-A student. However, he eventually dropped out of school to sell drugs.

Wallace, who originally didn't stray much farther than his Brooklyn neighborhood to sell drugs, began to traffic drugs to Virginia and Maryland where it was sold at a higher price. He was eventually busted, and served 10 months in jail. Shortly after he was released, he had his first child, T'Yanna.

With a baby on the way, Wallace decided to start rapping. He developed into a talented lyricist, recording a demo tape with local performer Mr. Cee, who was the DJ for Brooklyn MC Big Daddy Kane. This tape reached The Source magazine and they co-signed Biggie in their "Unsigned Hype" column, which is dedicated to aspiring rappers.


Rap career

The demo tape found its way into the hands of then Uptown Records employee Sean "Puffy" Combs, who subsequently arranged for a meeting with Wallace. Combs and Wallace became instant friends, performing together on the 1992 reggae song "Dolly My Babii" by Super Cat.

Wallace first gained notice with "Party and Bullshit," his first single. He made his second mainstream appearance on the remix of Mary J. Blige's smash hits "Real Love" and "What's the 411". He also appeared on the "Flava in ya Ear" remix. He appeared on the album One Million Strong on a song called "RUNNIN'" with 2Pac & Dramacydal. He also made an appearance on the Trapp album Stop The Gunfight on a track called "Be The Realist" with 2Pac & Trapp. This album also contained a remix of "RUNNIN'" called "Stop The Gunfight." All of these guest appearances built a sizeable buzz around Wallace's name leading up to his solo debut.

In 1994, he released "Juicy", his first mainstream single. He also released Ready to Die, his debut album, which is regarded as one of hip-hop's all-time classics and credited with revitalizing East Coast hip hop. The album features one of rap's most famous "playa anthems," "Big Poppa," which samples the Isley Brothers. Wallace's album drew critical acclaim for its vivid story-telling and razor-sharp lyricism, an example being the line "They don't know about the stress filled day/Baby on the way, mad bills to pay/That's why you drink Tanqueray/So you can reminisce and wish/You wasn't living so devilish" from "Everyday Struggle."

In 1995, Wallace's protegés, Junior M.A.F.I.A. (Junior Masters At Finding Intelligent Attitudes), released the album Conspiracy. That same year, Wallace introduced to the mainstream his crewmates Lil' Kim and Lil' Cease. His single "One More Chance" debuted at #5 on the pop charts, tying "Scream/Childhood" by Michael Jackson as the highest debut single in music history at the time, although this record has since been surpassed by Jackson's "You Are Not Alone," which debuted at number one. "One More Chance," which sampled the R&B song "Stay With Me," was a remix of the song by the same name that originally appeared on Ready to Die. "One More Chance" was also his highest selling single, going Platinum in a matter of weeks.

By the end of 1995, Wallace had become one of the most famous and popular rappers in the world. He was named "Lyricist Of The Year" by The Source, and many dubbed him the "King Of New York" (a play on his "Frank White" persona.)

Legacy

Big was notorized early in his career mostly for his lyrical content, which included hardcore gangsta-rap lyrics at a time when that style dominated the West Coast, and most of his native New York was dominated by the jazziness of A Tribe Called Quest and Gang Starr and the blend of Five Percenter/far East-influenced stylings of MCs like Afu Ra, Jeru the Damaja and the Wu-Tang Clan.

Over the course of his career, fans who called him the greatest would cite his flow, topical diveristy, and detailed storytelling; he also moved from simple thug lyrics to mafioso-like tales of gangsterism, a posturing which some speculate probably contributed to his death.

East Coast West Coast Feud

Death Row Records and Bad Boy Entertainment were the two most successful labels of the 1990s, and with the two biggest stars in rap now associated with different labels, the feud escalated. When Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, rumors of Wallace's possible involvement in the murder cropped up almost immediately. He denied the allegations. Also around this time, he was involved in a car accident that shattered his leg and would force him to use a cane for the rest of his life.

Death

On March 9, 1997, Wallace was shot and killed in Los Angeles, where he had been attending a party by VIBE magazine near the Petersen Automotive Museum. As his car pulled up to a red light, another car opened fire, hitting him six times and killing him almost instantly.

His murder has never been conclusively solved, though theories abound as to the motives and identities of the murderers. Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight and the Mob Piru Bloods gang with whom he associated are among the prime suspects for involvement. In his book, LAbyrinth, LAPD officer Randall Sullivan probes the circumstances and figures involved in the shootings.

Theories about his death

Director Nick Broomfield and co-producer Dmitri Leybman have released an investigative documentary called Biggie & Tupac which implicates the LAPD and Suge Knight. Proponents of this theory defend it because the LAPD's elite robbery and homicide unit didn't begin to investigate Wallace's murder until a month after it happened, and the job was given to a poorly funded division of LAPD investigators; and several prison inmates who were once members of the Mob Piru Bloods have come forward and said that they know for a fact that Suge Knight ordered Wallace's murder due to their own personal connections.

Conspiracy theories abound about Wallace's murder: Some believe that Combs may have ordered Wallace's murder because he wanted to make money off of his music without continuing to pay him; Others believe that the Crips gang may have shot Wallace in retalliation for his not paying for the security services they provided at a previous party. There are many other theories ranging in credibility as well.

The Los Angeles Times ran an almost universally discredited article entitled "Who Shot Tupac Shakur?" by reporter Chuck Phillips, which concludes that Wallace was ultimately behind Shakur's murder. Evidence to the contrary has since surfaced, most notably a dated and timed excerpt from a recording that Wallace made in a studio in New York when he was supposedly providing the murder weapon to hitmen in Las Vegas. The article also claims that he checked in and out of a hotel without being noticed by a single individual, despite being a 6'3", 300-pound national celebrity.[citation needed]

Posthumous career

Life After Death, Wallace's second album, debuted at #1 on the charts. The album was released only two weeks after his murder. Its lead single was "Hypnotize", which was also the last music video he would take part in. Life After Death hit number one on the Billboard charts and spawned several hit singles in the United States. The album sold over 18 million copies worldwide and is one of the best selling hip-hop albums of all time. His biggest chart hit was "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems," which featured Combs and rapper Mase, and sampled the disco song "I'm Coming Out" by Diana Ross for the beat. The video is noted for having started the "Shiny Suit" era in hip hop. The last video single from Life After Death was "Sky's The Limit," featuring 112. The video for this song, directed by Spike Jonze, was noted for the use of children portraying Wallace and his contemporaries, such as Combs, Lil' Kim, and Busta Rhymes.

During the summer of 1997, Combs released his debut album, No Way Out, which featured Wallace on a number of songs, notably in the chorus of the single "Been Around the World" over a David Bowie sample ("Let's Dance"). However, the single that carried this album to the top was "I'll Be Missing You," which was dedicated to Wallace's memory. The song featured Puff Daddy, Wallace's widow Faith Evans and 112. The song sampled The Police's hit song "Every Breath You Take." All these artists performed the song with former Police vocalist Sting during the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards.

In 1999, Combs released Wallace's third album, Born Again. It had two hit singles: "N.O.T.O.R.I.O.U.S.," featuring Puff Daddy and Lil' Kim (interpolation to the Duran Duran's song of the same name), and "Dead Wrong" a single that later was remixed with a verse from Eminem. The video for "N.O.T.O.R.I.O.U.S." also featured appearances by 98 Degrees and Fat Joe.

In 2001, one of Wallace's raps was featured in Michael Jackson's song "Unbreakable," which was included on his multi-platinum album Invincible. Wallace previously collaborated with Jackson in his 1995 song "This Time Around" from the autobiographical album HIStory.

In 2002, Combs gave 50 Cent rights to sample Wallace's verses from "Niggaz" (a song from the Born Again album) into a song called "The Realest Niggaz." It got out as a single and was a big hit on New York radio stations. Many have attributed that song as the first big break for 50 Cent, who is now one of hip-hop's biggest superstars. The song (which also featured Eminem) was later put on the soundtrack for the 2003 hit movie Bad Boys 2 with Martin Lawrence and Will Smith. Later on in 2003, Eminem remixed the 1994 Wallace/Shakur collaboration "RUNNIN'" and added a sample of Edgar Winter's "Dying to Live." Titled "Runnin' (Dying To Live)", the song was released as a single from the soundtrack of Tupac:Resurrection.

On August 28, 2005, at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, Combs (who was hosting the event) and Snoop Dogg payed a well-received tribute to Wallace: an orchestra played while the lyrics from "Juicy" and "Warning" played on the arena speakers. In September 2005, VH1 had its second annual "Hip Hop Honors," with a tribute to Wallace headlining the show. The long awaited The Notorious B.I.G. Duets: The Final Chapter album was released December 20, 2005. The album spawned the singles "Nasty Girl", which became his first UK #1, as well as "Spit Your Game" "Whatchu Want" and "Hold Ya Head".

Wallace will be featured on Busta Rhymes' highly anticipated Aftermath debut, The Big Bang.

On March 19, 2006, a judge ordered that sales of Ready to Die be halted because the title track apparently sampled "Singing in the Morning" by the Ohio Players without permission. [1]

After Death - If He Were Alive

Many people in associated with rap music continuously speculate about how different rap would be today if rappers like Wallace had never died. The rapper Jadakiss, who was a close associate of Biggie's, stated in an appearance on MTV's The Shop that most rappers popular today would "be taking fast food orders" if Wallace were still producing music. However, Wallace's friends Lil Cease, Lil' Kim, and Puff Daddy, all insist that he was not going to be in hip-hop for a very long time. In an interview with XXL Magazine (made in 1995 but released in 2003), Wallace himself said he was planning to retire from rap music in 2000 to manage the careers of Junior M.A.F.I.A.

Movie

There is a movie in the works about Wallace's life. Antoine Fuqua, the director of Training Day, will direct the film. The film is being produced by Wallace's mother and by his former managers, Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts.

Legacy

Biggie is widely celebrated as one of the all time greatest hip-hop artists. His lyrics have been sampled by many of today's more famous names in hip hop, such as Jay-Z, Fat Joe, 50 Cent, Nelly, Pharell Williams, Snoop Dogg, Juelz Santana, Busta Rhymes, and even R & B stars such as Usher, Alicia Keys, and Ashanti. He is also sampled in Michael Jackson's 2001 album INVINCIBLE in the song UNBREAKEBLE. In 2001, elite hip-hop magazine The Source crowned him as the greatest MC of all time. Likewise in 2003, when XXL Magazine asked many elite names in hip hop who they felt was the top 5 rappers of all time, Biggie's named appeared on more rappers' lists than any other MC. During Canibus's 1998 feud with LL Cool J, Canibus responded to LL Cool J's claim to be the greatest rapper of all time on the song Second Round K.O. by saying "the greatest rapper of all time died on March 9th.", which was the day Biggie died

At the time of his death, Wallace created a hip-hop supergroup called The Commission, which consisted of himself, Jay-Z, Lil' Cease, P. Diddy and Charli Baltimore. A song on the duets album called Whatchu Want (The Commission) featuring Wallace and Jay-Z is based on the group.

Trivia

  • Wallace often wrote songs in his head and then freestyled them to make tracks right on the spot. He did this often on Ready to Die
  • According to people close to him, Wallace had five albums worth of lyrics in his head around the time he was killed.
  • Among the performers Wallace discovered, or in some way helped further their rap careers, were Jay-Z, Cam'ron, Jadakiss, Styles P, Sheek Louch, Lil' Kim, Mase, N.O.R.E. and Charli Baltimore
  • He attended the same high school in downtown Brooklyn as Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes.
  • He was one of the first MCs ever to successfully bridge the gap between commercial and underground success.
  • He first signed with Uptown Records in 1993, his first recording deal.
  • Method Man is the only artist to feature on Ready To Die, on the track "The What"
  • A line from his song "Me and My Bitch" is sampled on Mary J. Blige & Method Man's Grammy winning single "I'll Be There For You/You're All I Need."
  • He collaborated with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, the only group who have had the opportunity to collaborate with 2Pac, Eazy-E, and Big Pun at one time. On the track "Notorious Thugz" (which they are featured on) from Life After Death, he flips his style to match their trademark fast-paced flow. The song was remixed into Spit Your Game.
  • His song Big Poppa was featured throughout the 2001 movie Hardball.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Year Title Chart Positions Album
US Hot 100 UK Singles Chart
1993 "Party And Bullshit" - - Who's The Man? (OST)
1994 "Juicy" #27 #72 Ready To Die
1995 "Big Poppa" #6 #63 Ready To Die
1995 "One More Chance" [Remix]
(Featuring Faith Evans) 		#2
[3 Weeks] 		#34 Ready To Die
1997 "Going Back To Cali" #26 - Life After Death
1997 "Hypnotize" #1
[3 Weeks] 		#10 Life After Death
1997 "Mo Money Mo Problems"
(Featuring Puff Daddy & Mase) 		#1
[2 Weeks] 		#6 Life After Death
1998 "Sky's The Limit"
(Featuring 112) 		#60 #35 Life After Death
1998 "Runnin'"
(Duet With 2Pac) 		#81 #15 -
1999 "Dead Wrong" [Remix]
(Featuring Eminem) 		#36 - Born Again
1999 "Notorious B.I.G."
(Featuring Puff Daddy & Lil' Kim) 		#11 #16 Born Again
2003 "The Realist Niggas"
(Featuring 50 Cent) 		#18
[Radio] 		- Bad Boys 2 (OST)
2004 "Runnin' (Dying To Live)"
(Duet With 2Pac) 		#19 #17 Tupac: Resurrection (OST)
2005 "Nasty Girl"
(Featuring Diddy, Nelly, Jagged Edge & Avery Storm) 		#46 #1
[2 Weeks] 		Duets: The Final Chapter
2006 "Spit Your Game" [Remix]
(Featuring Twista, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony & Eightball & MJG) /
"Hold Ya Head" (Featuring Bob Marley) [double 'a' side] [2] 		- #64 Duets: The Final Chapter
2006 "Whatchu Want"
(Featuring Jay-Z) 		- - Duets: The Final Chapter
2006 "1970 Somethin'"
(Featuring The Game & Faith Evans) 		- - Duets: The Final Chapter
Year Title Chart Positions Album
US Hot 100 UK Singles Chart
1995 "Can't You See"
(Total Featuring The Notorious B.I.G.) 		#13 #43 Total
1996 "Only You"
(112 Featuring The Notorious B.I.G.) 		#13 - 112
1997 "Stop The Gunfight"
(Trapp Featuring 2Pac & The Notorious B.I.G.) 		#77 - Stop The Gunfight: Untold Stories
1997 "Be The Realist"
(Trapp Featuring 2Pac & The Notorious B.I.G.) 		- - Stop The Gunfight: Untold Stories

B-Sides

  • "Unbelievable" - ["Juicy"]
  • "Warning" - ["Big Poppa"]
  • "The What" (Featuring Method Man) - ["One More Chance" [Remix]]

See also

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