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Apr 21, 2024 · The Notorious B.I.G. (born May 21, 1972, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died March 9, 1997, Los Angeles, California) was an American rapper who was among the most influential artists of 1990s gangsta rap. Wallace grew up near the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Who Was Biggie Smalls?
- Early Life
- Bad Boy Records
- Friendship with Tupac
- 'Ready to Die'
- Feud with Tupac
- Biggie and Michael Jackson, More Legal Problems
- Death of Tupac
- Death
- Legacy
Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls and the Notorious B.I.G., lived a short life. He was 24 years old when he was gunned down in 1997 in Los Angeles, a murder that has never been solved. Smalls was from New York and had almost single-handedly reinvented East Coast hip hop — overtaken in the early 1990s by the West Coast "g-funk" sound of Dr. Dre...
Christopher George Latore Wallace was born on May 21, 1972, in Brooklyn, New York. His parents both hailed from the Caribbean island of Jamaica — his mom, Voletta taught preschool; his pop, Selwyn, was a welder and local Jamaican politician. Selwyn left the family when Biggie was two, but Voletta worked two jobs in order to send her son to a privat...
Biggie began rapping as a teenager to entertain people in his neighborhood. After he got out of jail, he made a demo tape as Biggie Smalls — named after a gang leader from the 1975 movie Let's Do It Again; also a nod to his childhood nickname. He had no serious plans to pursue a career in music — "It was fun just hearing myself on tape over beats,"...
That same year, as he worked on music for his debut album, Biggie Smalls met Tupac for the first time. Their encounter, detailed in Ben Westhoff's book, Original Gangstas, took place at a party held by an L.A. drug dealer. They ate, drank and smoked together, and Tupac, already a successful recording artist, gifted Biggie, then unknown outside New ...
The Notorious B.I.G.'s debut album came out on Bad Boy in September 1994, a month after "Juicy," his first single for the label. The album, Ready to Die, was certified gold within two months, double-platinum the following year, and eventually quadruple-platinum. "Big Poppa," the second of the album's four singles, was nominated for a Grammy for bes...
But perhaps the most significant date in Biggie's rollercoaster year was November 30, 1994. This was the day Tupac was shot five times during a robbery in a recording-studio lobby in New York. Tupac urvived, but believed Biggie and his label boss Combs had orchestrated the attack. It didn't help that the B-side to Biggie's single "Big Poppa," relea...
Biggie's next album release came on August 29, 1995, as part of the group Junior MAFIA (an acronym for Masters at Finding Intelligent Attitudes). He had formed the group to mentor young rappers including Lil' Kim, with whom he would have an affair. That year he also became one of the only hip hop artists to collaborate with Michael Jackson on the s...
On September 7, 1996, his former friend Tupac was shot dead in Las Vegas. Nobody has ever been charged for the murder, but as a consequence of the ongoing East Coast/West Coast rap beef that Biggie and Tupac's rivalry had come to embody, and also of Tupac publicly blaming Biggie and Puffy for his non-fatal shooting in 1994, there were plenty who be...
Sadly, Biggie did not live long enough to see the peace he wished for. He himself was murdered the early hours of March 9, 1997. It happened shortly after he left a Vibemagazine party at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. As Biggie's SUV — in which he was riding with a bodyguard and Lil' Cease — waited at a red light, a vehicle pulled u...
But this wasn't the last that the world had heard from Biggie Smalls. He was featured on no fewer than five songs on Puff Daddy's 1997 album, No Way Out. A single from that album, "I'll Be Missing You," dedicated to Biggie's memory, won the Grammy for best rap performance by a duo or group in 1998 — ironically beating Biggie himself, whose "Mo Mone...
Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), better known by his stage names The Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or simply Biggie, was an American rapper. Rooted in East Coast hip hop and particularly gangsta rap, he is widely considered one of the greatest rappers of all time.
Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), better known by his stage names The Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or simply Biggie, was an American rapper. Rooted in East Coast hip hop and particularly gangsta rap, he is widely considered one of the greatest rappers of all time. Wallace became known for his distinctive ...
Aug 9, 2021 · Phil Smith. 09 August 2021. The story of Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G., and his massive hip-hop joint Juicy begins in 1983, with Mtume’s saucy boogie classic Juicy Fruit, whose sparse percussion, thick bass and evocative riff were sampled to provide the backbone to the Brooklyn-born rapper’s career-making hit.
The Notorious B.I.G. ... An Introduction to Milwaukee’s Fast-Emerging Rap Scene. By Alphonse Pierre. March 5, 2021. The Pitch. The Meaning of Lil’ Kim. By Clover Hope. January 25, 2021.
As lead artist. As featured artist. Other charted songs. Appearances. See also. Notes. References. The Notorious B.I.G. discography. The discography of the Notorious B.I.G., an American rapper, consists of two studio albums, three posthumous albums, two compilation albums, one soundtrack and 27 singles (including 17 as a featured artist). Albums.
