Biography

		Memorial
		The Murder
		Music Career
		Career and Legacy
		Facts and Information
		The life and death of Notorious B.I.G.

Childhood and drug career: The 6'3", 300 pound (136 kg) rapper, was raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York City. B.I.G.'s Jamaican-born mother Voletta Wallace, a preschool teacher, claimed that Christopher lived a comfortable life. He would later profess otherwise on songs such as "Juicy". As an honor-roll student, he dropped out of school at 17 to work as a small-time crack cocaine dealer in his hometown. 

He would later traffic the drug into Virginia where it could be sold at a higher price. Even as a drug dealer, young Wallace was known for his charisma. He rapped as a hobby and was soon discovered by DJ Mister Cee (Big Daddy Kane's former DJ), with whom he released his demo tape.

Rap career: The demo tape made by Biggie and Mister Cee found its way into the hands of then Uptown Records employee Sean "Puffy" Combs, who fell in love with the rapper and quickly arranged for a meeting with Biggie and Mister Cee. Combs and Wallace became instant friends, and their first appearance together was on the 1992 reggae song "Dolly My Baby" by Supercat.

Biggie first gained notice with "Party and Bullshit," his first single. His second mainstream appearance was on the remix to Mary J. Blige's smash hit "Real Love". He appeared on "One Million Strong" on a song called "RUNNIN'" with 2Pac & Dramacydal. He also made an appearance on a Trapp album called "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 appearces built a sizeable buzz around Biggie's name leading up to his solo debut.

In 1994 he released "Juicy", his second (yet first mainstream) single. He also released Ready to Die, his debut album. Ready to Die is regarded as one of hip-hop's all-time classic albums, and is credited with revitalizing East Coast hip hop. The album features one of rap's most famous "playa anthems", the song "Big Poppa", which samples R&B singers, the Isley Brothers. On the track "Everyday Struggle", Biggie's album drew critical acclaim for its vivid story-telling and razor-sharp lyricism, such as "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." Another standout track is "Warning," wherein Biggie once again displays his story-telling ability. The album is considered by many to be one of the best and most hardcore hip-hop albums of all time.

In 1995, Biggie's clique Junior M.A.F.I.A. (Junior Masters At Finding Intelligent Attitudes) released the album Conspiracy. That same year saw Biggie introduce to the mainstream his crewmates Lil' Kim and Lil' Caesar. That same year, B.I.G.'s single "One More Chance" debuted at #5 on the Pop Charts, at the time, tying Scream/Childhood by Michael Jackson as the highest debut single in music history, although this record has since been surpased by Michael 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 Biggie's highest selling single, as the single alone was certified Platinum.

By the end of 1995, The Notorious B.I.G. 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" nickname, which stems from the movie with the same name).

East Coast/West Coast feud and death: Although Ready to Die brought massive fame to Biggie, he is most famed for his alleged involvement in rap's most infamous feud between the East and West Coast scenes. Before Ready to Die was released, Biggie began to associate with rap superstar Tupac Shakur, a Brooklyn native who moved to Baltimore and later Los Angeles, California. The two recorded a number of songs together, and Biggie even performed alongside Tupac in a now-famous Madison Square Garden freestyle in 1994. However, their friendship ended when Shakur was shot in November of 1994 and suspected Biggie and Puff Daddy of culpability. 

Shakur subsequently joined Death Row Records after his release from prison in late 1995. Death Row Records and Bad Boy Entertainment were the two most successful labels of the 1990's, and with the two biggest stars in rap now associated with different labels, the feud escalated. When Tupac was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, where he had been watching a Mike Tyson boxing match, rumors of Biggie's possible involvement in the murder cropped up almost immediately. Biggie denied the allegations. Also around this time, Biggie was involved in a car accident that shattered his leg and would force him to use a cane for the rest of his life.

On March 9, 1997, the events came full circle when Biggie was shot and killed in Los Angeles, where he had been attending a party by VIBE Magazine near the Peterson Automotive Museum. Neither murder has 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.

Additionally, Director Nick Broomfield and co-producer Dmitri Leybman have released an investigative documentary called Biggie & Tupac which implicates the LAPD and Suge Knight.

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

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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