Known for being the most influential rapper on the United States East Coast, Notorious B.I.G died at a young age of only 24 due to a gunshot.
Notorious B.I.G was born Christopher Wallace in Brooklyn, New York. He became involved with drug dealers early in life and as a young man started to experiment with music.
From zero to hero
The hard neighborhood he was raised in made him join with the rest of the crime scene selling crack. This went on until he was arrested and spent 9 months in jail. When he got out, he started producing music and he joined the local rapping groups “Old Gold Brothers” and “Techniques” with which he performed.
In and around where Biggie Smalls (as he was known back then) performed, he gained masses of popularity and his music career started to take off on its own. It wasn’t long after this that he became friends with Puff Daddy (Sean Combs) who was the record producer at Uptown Records A&R.
He came through as a solo artists with the song “Party and Bullshit” that was part of the OST of the movie “Whos the Man” in 1993.
Helping hand to those in need
Notorious B.I.G released his first solo album named “Ready to Die” telling the story of how he grew up and became a rapper. The record was so successful that it gained platinum status. Tracks like “Juicy” became an instant hit opening the doors to world-fame for the young artist.
This wasnt the end of the story as The Source named Notorious B.I.G as “Best Live Performer”, “Best New Artist”, and “Lyricist of the Year”.
As Notorious B.I.G gained fame he shared it with the rest of the world, promoting many new artists financially and taking them under his wing under Puffy’s record label. He also worked together with Michael Jackson and Robert Sylvester Kelly.
The legendary rapper died just before his second album was released called “Life After Death”. This led to an insane amount of sales of almost 700.000 albums in the first week. Two years later an unreleased composition of songs was put out in an album from Notorious B.I.G and in 2005 “The Final Chapter”, another album with extra content.