kate.mccarthy

Notorious B.I.G.

This is a picture of crowned Biggie Smalls. The one next to it is a picture of the Notorious B.I.G. dressed up in a suit with his riches.

Biggie Smalls had a very short, but interesting life. His birth name was Christopher George Latore Wallace, a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G. He was born on May 21, 1972, in Brooklyn, NY. He was the one and only child of Voletta Wallace, a preschool teacher who raised him alone in the tough Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

Although Chris was described as a shy, overweight youngster, he soon was pressured to deal drugs under the street name Biggie Smalls. He once said, “I can’t say I’m proud of dealing drugs, but you do what you can to survive in the hood. Live in the real bad part of the hood for a while and you’ll see how desperate it can make you.”

Biggie never finished high school, and at age 17 he was arrested on drug charges for nine months. He secretly wrote raps about his life in jail, and later on, he rapped his way to a better life. Chris gave up drug dealing for rap, and recorded homemade demos in his basement. His buddy, Sean “Puffy” Combs, signed him to Bad Boy Entertainment Label when he heard B.I.G. rapping. Biggie then started his own Undeas Label, and he signed fellow Bedford-Stuyvesant rap troupe Junior M.A.F.I.A. to it.

All the while, he had been having an on-again, off-again affair with Lil’ Kim. Since he was a busy man, with his first and only album that he had the chance to record, //Ready to Die// released in September 1994, they weren’t really in a relationship. When Biggie first arrived on the scene he hung around with Tupac Shakur. They went to parties together, and rapped together too. The rappers once shared a great friendship, but it had evolved into a bitter rivalry. Tupac accused B.I.G. of copying his music style and being involved in a 1994 incident where Pac was robbed, shot, and wounded.

As Wallace’s profile rose, he and Sean “P. Diddy” Combs became entangled in an ongoing East Coast-West Coast rivalry. This happened pretty much because of Biggie and Tupac’s feud. On September 13, 1996, Shakur was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. Again, Biggie was accused, but claimed he didn’t and wouldn’t do anything to Tupac like that. It was thought he had been murdered by a member of the L.A. Crips, which was a gang linked to B.I.G.’s record label.

On August 4, 1996, Chris got married to Faith Evans, and had a son with her, named Christopher. He also had a four year old daughter, T’yanna, from a previous relationship. (She was four at the time of his death)

Even after finding success in the music industry, B.I.G. continued to afoul the law. In 1995, he was arrested in New York and charged with assault after he allegedly chased two people with a baseball bat and smashed the window of their cab. The fun isn’t over yet. He was twice arrested in New Jersey, first for robbing and assaulting a man, then on drug and weapons charges.

B.I.G. was sitting in the passenger side of his GMC Suburban after a Soul Train Awards Party in L.A. A car pulled up and fired several gunshots at Biggie’s upper body. He was rushed to the hospital, but did not survive, and died that night on March 9, 1996, at age 24. He was just two minutes away from Cedars- Sinai Medical Center, but he could not hang on. Some of Biggie’s nicknames were “The King of NY,” “The Black Frank White,” “Big Poppa,” “Notorious B.I.G.,” “Frankie Baby,” and of course, “Biggie Smalls.” These were mostly nicknames given to him for his size and fame.

B.I.G.’s album //Life after Death// was released to the public about three weeks after his death. Ironically, the title of this album happened to go along with what had just recently went on with Biggie.

On the day before he died, he had said he wanted to see his kids get old. That was one of the things that was never going to be fulfilled. At the time of his death, Wallace was separated from his wife, who was a singer known to be Fay-Fay.

His funeral in Brooklyn attracted many, and he was buried in a big, white suit in an extra-large mahogany casket. Family, friends, and millions of fans gathered on this day and had been mourning Biggie’s death for a while.

Biggie was a mammoth-sized rapper that will never be forgotten, along with his old buddy, and new rival Tupac. He was about 300 pounds and African American. To most people he was thought of with a crown on and apple sized lips. He had a lazy eye that anybody could notice.

Two weeks before this rap stars death, he fascinatingly stated, “There’s nothing that protects you from the inevitable. If it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen, no matter what you do. It doesn’t matter if you clean your life up and live it differently. What goes around comes around, man."  I chose to write a biography about Biggie Smalls because I really like his music. Even though he only got to publish one album, he could have way more if he was still alive. In fact, an album was about to come about right before he died. Also, I think it’s amazing how he got from his low life in the hood to be a famous rapper. In closing, I wouldn’t have chosen anyone other than Christopher George Latore Wallace for my biography. 

Bibliography Encyclopedia Author's Name: Holly George-Warren Title of Article: Notorious B.I.G. Title of Encyclopedia: Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll Place of Publication: NY, NY Publishing Company: Fireside; Rev Upd Edition Year of Publication: 2001

Online Encyclopedia Author's Name: not given Title of Information/Article: Back in Time "Gangsta Rap" Title of Encyclopedia: World Book Year of Publication: 1997 Publishing Company: World Book, Inc. Date accessed: 9/21/09 : 

Online Periodical Author's Name: not given Title of Information/Article: Notorious B.I.G. Title of Original Publication: Contemporary Black Biography, Volume 20 Publishing Company: Gale Year of Publication: 1998 Date accessed: 9/30/09 : 

Online Website Author's Name: not given Title of Information/Article: Notorious B.I.G. Killed in L.A. Title of Original Publication: not given Publishing Company: Rolling Stone Year of Publication: 1997 Date accessed: 9/25/09 : [|www.rollingstone.com]