Career and Legacy

Posthumous career: Life After Death, Biggie's second album, debuted at #1 on the charts. The album was released only two weeks after Biggie's murder. Its lead single was "Hypnotize", which was also the last video Biggie 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 18 million copies (worldwide), and, as of 2005, is the best selling hip-hop album of all time. Biggie's biggest chart hit was with the song "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems," an upbeat number featuring rappers Mase and Puff Daddy, and sampling 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 a day in the life of Biggie.

During the summer of 1997, Puff Daddy released his debut album "No Way Out," which featured Biggie on a number of songs, notably in the chorus of the single "Been Around the World" over David Bowie's sample ("Let's Dance"). However, the single that carried this album to the top was "I'll Be Missing You", a tribute and a massively successful single dedicated to Biggie. 

The song featured Puff Daddy, Wallace's widow Faith Evans and R&B group 112. The song sampled the melody of 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.

The year 1999 saw another release of a posthumous Notorious B.I.G. album. Puff Daddy released Biggie's third album, Born Again. It had two hit singles called "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, and is also the last Notorious B.I.G. solo video to date (as of 2005).

In 2002, Puff Daddy gave 50 Cent rights to sample Biggie's verses from "Niggas" (a song from the Born Again album) into a song called "The Realest Niggas". It got out as a single and hit New York radio stations as a big hit. Many have attributed that song as a major key to the rise of 50 Cent, who is now one of hip-hop's biggest superstars. 

The song (which also featured and was produced by 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, Biggie appeared on "Runnin' (Dying To Live)" along with 2Pac. The song was produced by Eminem.

On August 28, 2005, at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, Biggie was paid tribute to by host P Diddy, and Snoop Dogg. The setup had an orchestra playing while the lyrics from "Juicy" and "Warning" played on the arena speakers. It was a well-received tribute for that evening. In September 2005, VH1 had its second annual hip hop honors, with a tribute to Biggie headlining the show. The long awaited The Notorious B.I.G. Duets: The Final Chapter album was released December 20, 2005.

Fans will still have one last chance to hear unreleased Biggie material, as he will be featured on Busta Rhymes' highly anticipated Aftermath debut, The Big Bang.

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.

His tales of street exploits (selling crack, robbing, shootouts, etc.) coupled with witty expressions permeated his first album and the freestyle appearances he made on radio stations, but his reputation for rawness didn't detract from his diversity. On Juicy he opens up and reminisces about his early life, and Me & My Bitch sees him expressing his deep feelings for his female companion, while songs like Big Poppa and One More Chance are a flawless switch to odes to the opposite sex. To top it all off, his flow (or ability to place words squarely and melodically on the tapping and thumping of the beat) was always immaculate.

He was also respected for his storytelling ability, which was not fully realized until his second album. During his hiatus he had developed his wordplay and structure, honing the technical side to his verses. Kick in the Door saw him moving flawlessly from an "A-A-B-B" rhyme structure to "C-C-D-D", all while sprinkling his bars with clever turns of phrase, metaphors and punchlines, on top of a perfect flow. It is because of this versatility that Notorious B.I.G. is considered by many the greatest rapper of all time.

Biggie's lyrics have been sampled by many of today's rappers, such as Jay-Z, Fat Joe, 50 Cent, Fabolous, Foxy Brown and Busta Rhymes. In 2001, hip hop magazine The Source crowned Biggie as the greatest MC (Master of Ceremony) of all time. 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. Biggie's lyrics have been sampled in many songs, including Akon's "Ghetto", Jay-Z's "A Dream" and Ashanti's "Foolish".

Movie: There is a movie in the works about the life of The Notorious B.I.G. Antoine Fuqua, the director of Training Day, will direct the film. The film is being produced by Wallace's mother, Voletta Wallace, and by his former managers, Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts. Mrs. Wallace has stated that the movie will be based around the personal life of Christopher Wallace.

What If Biggie Was Still Alive?: Many people in associated with rap music contionusly speculate about how different rap would be today had Biggie Smalls never been killed. Many say that rappers such as Jay-Z and 50 Cent may not have been as successful if Biggie were around (although Jay-Z had made a significant splash in hip hop with Reasonable Doubt while Biggie was alive). However, close, personal friends of Biggie, most notably Lil' Cease, Lil Kim, and Puff Daddy, all insist that Biggie 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, Biggie himself said he was not going to rap past the year 2000, instead opting to manage the careers of Junior MAFIA.

Also, at the time of his death, Biggie created a hip-hop supergroup called the Commission, which consisted of himself, Jay-Z, Mase, Cam'ron, The L.O.X., Capone-N-Noreaga, Black Rob, and Charli Baltimore.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors, This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "The Notorious B.I.G.".

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