The Notorious B.I.G. is a hip-hop legend. Today the rapper would have been 50 years old. A man’s story that began with drugs and ended with an assassination.
He had a dream. The dream of making a career as a rapper. “It was all a dream, I used to read ‘Word Up!’ magazine” rapped The Notorious B.I.G. 1994 still in his song “Juicy”. The then 22-year-old probably didn’t expect that this dream would come true, above all through this song. Because his childhood and youth were shaped by financial problems and criminal activities.
“Juicy” and the debut album “Ready to Die” are undoubtedly legendary today, and Biggie Smalls, as the rap icon was also known, laid the foundation for hip-hop, which is still influenced by his music.
From a model student to a drug dealer
Childhood in Brooklyn, New York, was not easy for Christopher George Latore Wallace. Before he became The Notorious B.I.G, his mother tried to support herself and him with two jobs. His father left the family when Wallace was two years old. He himself was an absolute model student, was often the best in his class and won school prizes. However, he struggled early on with being overweight and was therefore given the nickname “Big”.
At the age of twelve he got into the drug business through a friend. This later had an impact on his school career, since he rarely appeared due to his drug deals and was expelled from school at the age of 17. Wallace became increasingly involved in criminal activities and got into trouble with the law. At the age of 18 he was jailed for nine months for dealing in cocaine. Two months earlier, his then-girlfriend, Jane Jackson, became pregnant with their daughter, Tyanna.
These difficult living conditions became part of his rap songs as a teenager.
Bumpy beginnings in hip-hop
Wallace was already making a name for himself as an underdog in the New York rap scene in the late 1980s. His talent as a freestyle artist was particularly evident in battle rap. Wallace was ambitious and by the age of 19 he was distributing his own demo tape in Brooklyn. However, he was not known outside of New York City – until 1993 rapper Big Daddy Kane listened to the demo tape and forwarded it to hip-hop magazine “The Source”.
After a portrait of Biggie Smalls in said magazine, Sean Combs, known as Puff Daddy, became aware of him. Combs took him under his wing and allegedly forced the up-and-coming rapper to stop selling drugs. Wallace eventually signed to Combs’ label Uptown Records. In 1992 both then founded the label Bad Boy Records.
From then on, Wallace called himself The Notorious B.I.G. and first rapped on a single by his label mate Craig Mack (1970-2018) and was a guest rapper on two Mary J. Blige songs. His first single “Party
The fame of the rap star
Only a year later, however, that would change. “Juicy” stormed the charts and Wallace became a celebrated rap star overnight. The single alone sold over 600,000 copies. To this day, it’s arguably his most well-known song, which any hip-hop fan can rap by heart from cover to cover. More top ten hits and platinum records followed. The debut album “Ready To Die” sold over six million copies and was voted one of the 500 greatest albums of all time by “Rolling Stone” magazine. The record also ensured that Wallace became known across the pond.
With the second album, the then 24-year-old was able to build on the success. After collaborations with Michael Jackson (1958-2009), “Life After Death” was a huge success in 1997. The record peaked at number one on the Billboard Top 200 and sold over five million copies in the US alone. It has sold more than ten million copies worldwide. Wallace got the diamond record for it.
In his private life, Wallace was not taking it easy either. In 1994 he married R
The East and West Coast Conflict
While Wallace’s career was at its peak, a conflict flared up between rappers on the East and West Coasts of the United States. After his buddy Tupac Shakur was broken out of prison by producer Suge Knight, Shakur was signed to Knight’s Death Row Records label. But because hip-hop music got its start on New York’s East Coast, many rappers in the scene saw a problem with 2Pac affiliating with a West Coast label. The friendship with Wallace crumbled.
The dispute escalated when a shooting broke out in the lobby of Bad Boy Records’ Time Square’s Quad Recording Studios in 1994, in which Shakur was hit five times. He later suspected that Wallace was behind the attack on him. Shakur then produced diss tracks against his fellow East Coast ex-rappers, fueling the conflict as his tracks increasingly targeted Wallace. The song “Hit ’em up” is now considered the climax of the argument, as it contains direct insults directed at his one-time boyfriend.
The dispute eventually culminated in Tupac’s assassination on September 7, 1996. Wallace and his label boss Puff Daddy were immediately the main suspects in the scene. Also those close to Notorious B.I.G. were suspected as perpetrators of the drive-by shooting. Only six months later, Wallace himself was the victim of such an assassination. Because he wanted to advertise his new album on the west coast of all places, he attracted the hatred of the hostile rap scene.
On March 9, 1997, after an award ceremony, he was shot at seven times from a moving car. The rapper died in hospital that same night. The circumstances of his death are still unclear to this day. The death shocked the hip-hop scene. The murder of Notorious B.I.G. also affected its discoverer, Puff Daddy. difficult. Diddy, along with Wallace’s widow, Faith Evans, dedicated the song “I’ll be Missing You” to him, which sold over 10 million copies and won a Grammy.
The Godfather of Rap
Even after his death 25 years ago, The Notorious B.I.G. celebrated for his achievements. He was the first hip-hop artist in the USA to become a world star with rap songs. For this he is still referred to in the scene as the “Godfather of Rap”. While the hip-hop genre was previously populated with the likes of MC Hammer in the 1980s and the Sugarhill Gang in the 1970s, Wallace’s direction hasn’t been quite as successful before him. With songs in which he processed difficult living conditions, a dangerous lifestyle and growing up in poverty, he paved the way for gangsta rap.
DJ Tomekk was one of the first musicians in this country to make US rap palatable in Germany as well. With Wallace’s companion Lil’ Kim, he had a hit in 2002 with “Kimnotyze,” a tribute to Notorious B.I.G.’s song “Hypnotize.” German rappers sprouted like mushrooms and gangsta rap was popular with many. The label Aggro Berlin in particular produced one rapper after the other. Hip-hop greats like Sido, Fler and Bushido took advantage of Wallace’s hardcore rap, stormed the German charts and are still successful today.
The rapper Haftsperre also repeatedly said that he sees a role model in Biggie Smalls. This is particularly noticeable in his rhyming style and flow, which is characterized by internal rhymes. Some magazines called it the German B.I.G. designated. In 2012, the Frankfurter released the mixtape “THE NOTORIOUS H.A.F.T.”. The Notorious B.I.G.’s influence on the hip-hop scene in the USA can also be seen today. Stars like Eminem and Lil Wayne have revealed in the past that their music was particularly influenced by Wallace’s debut album “Ready to Die”.
The Notorious B.I.G. not only has hip-hop legend status today, but the respect of the entire music industry. Since 2015, Rolling Stone has included him in the list of the best songwriters of all time. In 2009, his life was portrayed in the film “Notorious B.I.G.” filmed. The documentary “Biggie: This is my story” has also been available on Neflix since 2021, which shows rare footage and an interview with his best friend.
