By Anifowose George
Wow! How time flies, it’s been 13 years since Rapper Christopher Wallace bit the dust. Wallace, the lyricist who made rapping look so easy and effortless- it was simple, give Biggie a mic and he could rap all day without pausing for a minute. He was the kind of rapper fellow rapper Nas would call ‘‘the rapper’s rapper’’ and even critics couldn’t agree less.
Take it or leave it, Biggie was the kind of rapper that had other rappers for breakfast or better still sent them back to school with their diapers on.
Christopher George Letore Wallace Biggie Smalls, was born in Brooklyn, New York, May 21 1972. He was raised in the poor and rough Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant where nothing was given on a platter of gold or even steel as the case maybe. If you wanted anything, you had to get it yourself and so the teenage son of a preschool teacher dropped out of high school at the age of seventeen, Biggie took to the street to hustle and irk a living off selling crack, and it wasn’t long before huge dollar bills started rolling in. ‘‘Hustlin’’ one’s way has always been the common life for a young Black man trying to make a living in the ghetto and Biggie saw the whole ‘shebang’- selling drugs, outsmarting the feds and rival drug gangs.
But like the rapper said himself ‘‘the more money you made, the more problems you’ve got’’. Problems in Biggie’s case was his battle with law enforcement agency which led to the bulky rapper spending time (nine months) in the penitentiary after being apprehended in North Carolina during a drug deal.
After his release, Biggie decided to come straight, he decided to shed the garb of a drug peddler. Biggie found music or put it the other way……….music found Biggie- borrowing a friend’s four-track tape recorder; he laid down some hip-hop tracks in a basement. The tapes were then passed around and played at local radio stations in New York and like a candle that couldn’t be hidden Biggie started enjoying rave reviews, props and encouragement from folks in the hood.
Success was beckoning and she was clothed in music. Biggie embraced her fully when he finally met Sean ‘‘Puffy’’ combs who was then working for Uptown records. Puffy and Biggie worked on the artist’s first album, and the Notorious B.I.G. was born. Biggie was first heard on a remix of a Mary J. Blige song and a track on the Who’s the Man? (1991) soundtrack. After tasting success, there was a hunger for more, and more; thus the album ‘‘ready to die’’ was released in 1994.
The record was certified platinum quickly, and the Notorious B.I.G. was named MC of the Year at the 1995 Billboard Music Awards. A new order had ascended the rap game throne and it was no other person than Big Poppa. The world started paying attention to this word smith- his style, his carriage and his overall finesse of delivering his rhyme won hip-hop hearts in America and beyond.
Although his highly- publicized feud with former friend and west coast rapper Tupac took the gloss of an otherwise glittering rap career, it didn’t change people’s perception about the rapper- as far as his fans are concerned, Biggie was arguably the best rapper dead or alive.
The superiority battle with Tupac later claimed both rappers lives.
On March 9, 1997, after attending the Soul Train Music awards and the after party hosted by Vibe magazine and Qwest Records, Biggie, seated in an SUV was shot several times by an unknown assailant. He died almost instantly. He was only 24 years old.
If it s true that they sing in heaven, I believe they could spice up the song with some of Biggie Smalls verses
8 comments
biggie has come and gone but traces of him still remain now its left to us here to leave our prints on the path of life so we will 4ever be remembered
Although he is a good rapper Tupac is still the best and the King Of Rap
fi le. i love 2pac die but B.I.P dey rap anytin
hop me pls
i am amusci
hop me i am a mucsi
PLS HOLP ME AM MUCIS
iggie has come and gone but traces of him still remain now its left to us here to leave our prints on the path of life so we will 4ever be remembered
Biggie . . . . . .was the best rapper . . . .TUPAC b’cam jealous . . . . . . . . . .notorious . . .u made evriting easy . . .u 2much . . . . . .B.I.G TOH BAD