Christopher George Latore Wallace was born on may 21 1972 in Brooklyn, New York. He was raised by his mother Voletta Wallace in Bedford-Stuyvesant(aka Bed Stuy). He would drop out of High School at 17 and sold crack in the hood until he was discovered for his ryhming skill by DJ Mister Cee. Biggie was 6'3 300lbs so he took on the name Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie for his stature.
Sean Puffy Combs got his hands on Notorious BIG in 1992 as an employee of Uptown Records and put him on a reggae song "Dolly My Baby" by Supercat. Biggie made more guest appearences in the next few years with Mary J. Blige's hit "Real Love". And made a few songs with 2pac before his debut solo album.
In 1994 Notorious BIG and Puffy dropped his debut album under bad boy records Ready To Die, which is regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time. The album went 5x platinum. Thus making him one of the greatest if not the greatest Lyricist of all time and was dubbed by the media as the "King Of New York".
By the end of 1994 the controversary began with the shooting and robbery of Tupac Shakur in New York's Quad Studios, while Notorious BIG and Puffy were present in the building. Their friendship ended when 2pac had alleged that Biggie had set up the robbery. The media began to fuel the rivalry when 2pac signed with the west coast label Death Row Records. The infamous beef know as East Coast-West Coast rivalry became violent On September 7, 1996 Tupac Shakur was murdered in Las Vegas after a Mike Tyson fight. The L.A. times printed out an article with rumors of Biggie's possible involvement in the murder. Biggie denied the allegations.
In 1995 he released the album Conspiracy with his group Junior M.A.F.I.A. and introduced Lil Kim whom he was having an affair with and Lil Cease. At the time Biggie was married to Faith Evans.
Biggie began wroking on his second album Life After Death which later went (Diamond). The album sold 10 million copies. One of the best selling hip-hop albums of all time was only released two weeks after his death on March 9, 1997. Biggie was shot and killed in Los Angeles after attending a Vibe Magazine party. Many allegations and conspiracy theories point to Suge Knight and his corrupt LAPD officer friends to be involved in his murder. One documentary made by Nick Broomfield called Biggie and Tupac, implicates a man called Amir Muhammed an alleged member of the Nation of Islam. Despite the fact that Biggie and his entourage were being followed by an assortment of undercover officers from the New York Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the murder is still unsolved.
Puff Daddy released Notorious BIG 's third album, Born Again in 1999. The album went 3x platinum and in 2005 he released The Biggie Duets which has gone Platinum so far. Since Biggie's death his lyrics have been sampled by many of today's rappers. He will be respected for his storytelling ability and charisma which was captured briefly in his short career. Biggie also discovered, and helped further the rap careers of Jay-Z, Cam'ron, Jadakiss, Styles P, Sheek Louch, Lil Kim, Mase, N.O.R.E. and Charli Baltimore.
|
Blink
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Google
Simpy
Spurl
Technorati
Y! MyWeb
