Biggie+Smalls

Notorious B.I.G.

= Early childhood = = =

Christopher George Latore Wallace, better acknowledged on the street as “Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, The King of New York, The Black Frank White, Big Poppa, Frankie Baby and B.I.” was born May 21, 1972 and grew up in a poor community in Brooklyn, New York in Bedford-Stuyvesant. He was the son of a preschool teacher named [|Voletta Wallace]. Mostly known as Big Chris, before he became famous when everybody knew him for his weight, extremely black skin, cocked eye and amateur rapping, however despite his looks, he was a charmer. Biggie had a early few run in’s with the law. The police usually picked him up and brought him into the station for minor assaults. In the precinct Biggie would start crying and say //“I ain’t doin nothing, I swear it.”// Another time when a police picked him up he said to the police officer //“I’m goin to be famous one day. You wait’n see. I’m gonna be big.”//

toc = Spouses = = = Next in Biggies teens he had a baby girl at the age of seventeen, with his childhood girlfriend named Jan. His daughter was named [|T’ Yanna]. Quickly that relationship ended when Biggie took to the streets as his second home, coming home late hours of the night. He then met a teen her self named Kimberly who worked as a sales person at Bloomingdale shopping mall. They started their relationship as a friendship and Kim soon noticed that Biggie could rap, and then spit of few lines of her own for him. Now that they had something in common, Kim soon became Biggie’s girlfriend. Dreams of his own, Biggie promised to put her on as soon as he got rich and became famous. His dream came true, Biggie became famous, and then he put Kim on to her piece of fame and which then she changed her stage name to [|Lil’ Kim]. Unfortunately soon after Biggie’s fame, he met the first lady of Bad Boys Records when first signed with Bad Boys record, Faith Evans. After nine days of knowing [|Faith Evans], Biggie married her and had a son named [|Christopher Junior Wallace]. Now with two kids, the break up and drama Lil' Kim wasn’t happy and once she became the famous rapper she wanted to be she rapped about affairs her and Biggie had. Faith, unhappy with this drama left, Biggie, luckily for him that he was still able to see his son.

= Career =

Biggie’s first source of income was selling crack. Hustling was a frequent way of life for a young black man making a living in the poverty stricken neighborhood. For Biggie, drug exchanges involved risking his life to take trips to North Carolina. Biggies routine drug runs to North Carolina ended when he got caught and was incarcerated for nine months. Shortly after he was released, Biggie burrowed a friend’s four-track tape recorder and made some songs in a basement that were later introduced on a local radio station. He was first witnessed on a remix to //Who’s Man Is Tha//t? With [|Mary J.Blige]in 1991. A producer named [|Sean P. Diddy Combs]sought him out and added him to his record label the [|Bad Boys Record]. Biggie named himself Biggie Smalls for his weight; however he had to change his name to Notorious B.I.G. because somebody already had the stage name Biggie before him. Biggie picked the name B. I.G. because he was all about business and trying to come up from poverty with his mother. B.I.G. stands for Business Instead of Game.

Voletta Wallace did not like rap music when it started becoming popular in the 1970’s. She also didn’t understand hip hop, the beat, the rhymes and the most important element of the music, was what the rapper had to say. In the 1970’s hip hop was a cultural movement that begun in the Bronx, New York city and was becoming popular very quickly.

Biggie became big in 1994 when his first album // [|Ready to Die] // became platinum quickly. He was named MC of the year in 1995 at the Billboard music awards. He was also awarded Billboard award magazine for the best hip-hop award artist of the year. Then In 1996 Biggie owned his own clothing brand called [|Brooklyn Mint].

= Friendship with @Tupac Shakur = = = Biggie opened shows for a known West coast rapper named [|Tupac Shakur]. Shakur was always trying to get Biggie noticed so Biggie’s fame could be as big as himself. Biggie impressed Tupac with his ability to flow and rhyme on beat. Tupac even brought Biggie his first Rolex watch and came many times to record songs with the Bad Boy group. unfortunately nothing last forever, even [|friendships]. = Juicy = = = Biggie made a song called //[|Juicy]// out of his first album //Ready to Die//. The song is about the famous phrase //“// // rags to riches // //”// or in simpler words poor to rich. The song is detailing Biggies early life of poverty, his childhood dream, of growing up to be a rap artist, and early pressures of drugs, crimes and eventually success, he says in the song, //“Now we sip champagne when we thirst-ay”.// He made it big because champagne is an expensive drink, usually only drunken on special occasions. He also talks about growing up that him, and his mother living in a one room shack. Now he is living in a million dollar home and owning two game systems, the [|Sega Genesis] and the [|Super Nintendo]. Something he would never picture himself living in or owning. This song was critiqued by fans as one of the greatest hip hop recordings of all time. On the charts the song made #15 out of 100 rap songs, and in addition, he made many different versions to this song.

= = =Influences=

Biggie's impact on hip hop was big. He is one of the first rappers to start the "bring the posse syndrome". This means when he got famous he went back to his hood grabbed his friends started a new label called Junior Mafia and release albums under it. Unfortunately Biggie only had one chance to try this idea but luckily he had one of Junior Mafia (his group) album go gold, meaning selling very succesfully. Also he helped Lil Cease and Lil' Kim's career boost, they are members of Junior Mafia. This idea of the "bring the posse syndrome" is similar to the pimp trade. The higher and more popular you are, the more Biggie can make off somebody else, lower than himself. In addition the music game is similar, if he singed Junior Mafia to his label, he got a little piece of money and recording deals from it.

= Junior M.A.F.I.A. = = = After Biggie got his fame, he went back to his old neighborhood, Bedford-Stuyvesant and grabbed his childhood friends. With his friends he started a little rapping group called [|Junior Mafia], even though some of his friends couldn’t rap to save their lives. The little rapping group stood for Masters At Finding Intelligent Attitudes. Junior Mafia was one of the next hits other than Biggie, because it gave Biggie fans a little more of him in a different way and he helped his friends out majorly financially and just being a better friend and putting them onto a little piece of fame he got.

The rising star of the little group was soon to be known as Lil’ Kim. Biggie was her mentor and taught her what to rap about, and what the crowd or fans liked. Junior Mafia had a few successes. They had an album come out called //[|Conspiracy]// in 1995. Two singles in the album were [|//Get Money//]and //[|Player’s Anthem]//. //Players Anthem// made it #17 on the charts and //Get Money// made it #13 on the charts. this fame help popularize the group and encouraged Lil’ Kim to live her dream as a solo artist. Unluckily after Biggies death the group became dysfunctional and split up.

= East coast verses West coast rivalry = = = The biggest hip hop feud ever erupted in the mid 1990’s between Biggie and Tupac. The rivalry was between fans and artist of the west and east coast. On a November 30th, 1994, Tupac went to record a song with the Bad Boys group. In the lobby Tupac was robbed of his money and jewels and shot five times. When the Bad Boys heard the gun shots they came downstairs to see what was happening. But Tupac told them don’t touch him. Tupac not knowing who to trust soon started disliking Biggie. Soon after the incident, the Bad Boys released a song called //[|Who Shot Ya]//. They claimed they made this song before Tupac got shot. Unluckily Tupac thinking the song was taunting him released one of the largest crucial hate songs ever made called //[|Hit ‘Em Up]//. In the song he came at Sean Combs say //“Who shot me? But ya punks didn’t finish, now you bout to feel the wrath of a menace… Nigga, I hit ‘em up”//. Tupac also claimed he help Biggie become big and Biggie didn’t even come see him in the hospital recovering from the gun shot wounds nor came to see him in jail, while incarcerated for another previous incident. In addition while incarcerated Tupac said Biggie stole some of his rhymes and when he was released he had to remake some of his songs. He made the rivalry with Biggie public.

The founder of [|Death Row Records],[|Suge Knight] bailed Tupac out to an agreement that Tupac signed to Death Row Records. In the 1995 at the Source Awards, Suge Knight said about Sean Puffy Combs the founder of Bad Boys Records, at the crowd and fans //“Any artists out there who wants to be an artist and stay a star, and don’t wanna have to worry about the executive producer trying to be…all in the videos, all on the records, dancing…Come to Death Row!”//. Due to Sean Puffy Combs was always in Biggie’s videos or dancing on stage with him, while Biggie performed. Puffy responded //"I'm the executive producer that a comment was made about a little bit earlier...but check this out....contrary to what anyone else may feel...I would like to say that I am very proud of Dr. Dre, of Death Row and Suge Knight for all their accomplishments - and all this east and west needs to stop!".//

Still tempers between the groups remained hot. A man named [|Quincy Jones]tried to diffuse the situation between both the east and the west. The meeting consisted of [|Snoop Dogg], [|Dr. Dre], Biggie, Knight and Combs. Jones specifically told them stop threatening each other. Unfortunately all these rappers grew up in this hateful lifestyle and couldn’t leave it behind.

= Death of Biggie and Tupac = = = Fewer than 6 months later, in 1996 September 7th Tupac and Knight attended a heavy-weight match at a casino-hotel in Las Vegas. When leaving the match, Tupac got into an altercation with another member of a Crip group from a different Compton street gang. After beating the Crip member, Tupac and his posse went about their business and went to a party at the Las Vegas nightclub. On the way to the party, Tupac’s car was stopped in traffic, another car pulled along side of theirs and starting firing shots into the car. Knight was slightly injured, however Tupac wasn’t so lucky. Tupac was murdered September 7th, 1996 and the murderer wasn’t found, but fingers were immediately pointed at Biggie. However Biggie claimed to be at his home in New Jersey, when the fatal incident occurred. Biggie was shocked that Tupac was dead and said he didn’t have anything to do with it. Biggie put to the back of his mind about the death of Tupac and was busily working on his new record, soon to come out called Life After Death.

The feud between Biggie and Tupac was thought to be broken. But when Biggie returned to Los Angeles, to receive his award at the Soul Train awards on March 9th, 1997, he was greeted with boo’s, thankfully he found a way to ignore it. The biggest award that night went out to Tupac though for his album //All Eyez On Me//, for the best rapper album.

Leaving the award show Biggie went to celebrate among other rappers in a museum where over two thousand people were crowded; fans getting their autographs singed and celebrities just enjoying themselves. Unfortunately the museum where the celebration took place was too packed, and the police quietly ushered everybody out. Biggie and his posse left and Biggie climbed into the passenger seat of his car. On their way to a party Biggies driver stopped at a red light, where a black car pulled alongside of the car and shot seven time into the car. Biggie was hit all seven times and ironically he was the only one shot in the car. One hour after Biggie a 24 year old rapper was marked dead, march 9th, 1997 at the Los Angeles hospital. His murderer was never found.

Voletta Wallace says //“all I want, all I ever wanted is justice for my son’s death, all I want is the truth and that’s not asking for to much”//.

March 18th, [|1997 tens of thousands of Biggies fans mourned the streets and watched his funeral proceed]. Reporters asked fans how in little time Biggie reached fame, that he can he have so many fans. One mourner said //“he touched our heart with his raps and he related to our day to day lifestyle. He made us feel like we’re not alone and that we can be anything we wanted to be”.// He received a lot of critical praise//.//

= Trivia = = =
 * Mother and father of Biggie were Jamaican
 * He only seen one of his albums while alive (//Ready To Die//).
 * He never got a chance to be a star or appear in any movies.
 * He was writing a screen play at the time of death.
 * He had plans to open 24 hour fast food joint called //Big Poppa//.
 * He attended [|George Westinghouse School]in Brooklyn, New York with rappers [|Jay-Z] and [|Busta Rhymes].

= = =Works Cited=

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Evans, Faith. "The Notorious B.I.G. - Biography." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 28 May 2011. <[]>.

Marcovitz, Hal. Notorious B.I.G. Broomall, PA: Mason Crest, 2007. Print.

"Mega Drive." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 28 May 2011. <[]>.

Scott, Andy. "NotoriousBIG.co.uk - Info On Biggie Smalls Closest Friends." NotoriousBIG.co.uk - The Biggest Source For Biggie Smalls. Web. 28 May 2011. <[]>.

Scott, Andy. "NotoriousBIG.co.uk - Info On Biggie Smalls Closest Friends." NotoriousBIG.co.uk - The Biggest Source For Biggie Smalls. Web. 28 May 2011. <[]>.

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