notorious big

Notorious B.I.G. (aka Biggie Smalls, Biggie, and Big Poppa) was born Christopher Wallace on May 21st, 1972 in Brooklyn, New York to Jamaican parents. He was raised by his mother, Voletta Wallace, a pre-school teacher.

His mother says "Christopher was always special, he could sing and talk before he colud walk". He lived in the poor brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. Biggie (a nickname given to him because of his weight) wanted to be an artist and honor-roll student. He dropped out of high school at 17, and became a crack dealer, he proclaimed was his only source of income. His mother said "He didn't need to sell crack, he was never hungry". Hustlin' his way was common for young lack males trying to make a living in the ghetto. His career choice ended up getting him nine months behind bars for a drug-exchange to North Carolina. When released, Biggie borrowed a four-track tape recorder from a friend and recorded some tracks. They were passed around to they landed in the hands of Sean "Puffy" Combs, a young producer. This erged him to start his own label "Bad Boy Entertainment". Biggie first made his voice known with the remix's of Mary J. Blige's "Real Love" and "What's the 411?", and on the "Who's the Man" soundtrack. On August 4th, 1994 Biggie married a singer named Faith Evans, after dating her for nine days! Biggie's first album was released on September 13th, 1994 and named "Ready to Die". The album went platinum. He was named "rapper of the year" at the 1995 Billboard Music Awards. Also that year he met a West Coast rapper that called himself Tupac Shakur, they became instant friends. Shakur supported Biggie, but on November 30th, 1994 while Biggie and Puff were upstairs in the Quad Recording Studio recording with another rapper for his third solo album "Me aginst the World", downstairs Shakur was held at gunpoint and robbed of $40,000 in jewelry, he was shot five times. Biggie and Puff ran down stairs to see what was wrong, but while Tupac was being loaded in the ambulence he gave them the middle finger, blaming them of setting him up. That's when the whole east coast west coast rivalry started. Also that year Biggie's daughter T'Yonna was born and Tupac mocked Biggie in a video claming he had slept with his wife, Faith. Biggie admitted that during this time he was afraid for his life. It became Death Row vs. Bab Boy, Suge Knight vs. Puffy, and Tupac vs. Biggie. Sometime in '95 Tupac got in touch with Biggie and said "I was just tryin' to sell records." One of the members from Biggie's old group J.U.N.O.I.R. Maffia, Lil' Kim was pregnant, and Biggie was the father, she later got an abortion. On September 7th, 1996, Suge Knight and Tupac were leaving the MGM Grand after a boxing match in Las Vegas, someone pulled up on the passenger side and fired 7 shots, Tupac tried to climb into the back seat but he was shot four times in the chest, once in the hand and once in the hip, Suge was shot right above the temple also. Tupac surcombed to his death six days later on September 13th, 1996 at 11:07 a.m, also that month faith had Biggie's son, Christopher, Jr. (C.J.). Biggie was even more scared for his life after Tupac's death. He wanted all of this East coast West coast rivalry to cease. On March 8th, 1997 Biggie attended the Soul Train Awards and a Vibe Magazine After party. The party was broken up because of overcrowding. At 12:35 a.m. on March 8th, 1997, Biggie and his entourage left the parking lot of the Petersen Automotive Museum and were stopped at the intersection of Wilshire and Fairfax Boulevards, when someone pulled up along side the green Chevy Suburban, in a black chevy impala, the driver was a black male with a suit and a bow tie rolled down his window and fired 7 shots, 4 hit it's target, Puffy rushed from the car in font to biggie's side he found him hunched over. Biggie was rushed to Cedars-Siani Hospital where dozens of friends waited outside wanting to here good news, the doctors did all they could to revive the rapper but he was pronounced dead at 1:00 a.m. on March 9th, 1997, he was 24 years old. When Biggie' mother recieved the news of her son's death she was in shock, she took the next flight out to L.A. hoping to find her son alive and well, but when she got to his hotel room she heard nothing but air conditioning she found a black suit laid across his bed, and identified his body on Friday. The whole world was overwhelmed by the death of Biggie. His mother wanted a private funeral but Faith wanted a public one, they came to an agreement. The casket was open from the waist up, Biggie was dressed in a white mesh suit with matching to hat Many stars attended his funeral like, Queen Latifah, etc. There was a fundraiser days before the funeral and the proceeds went to the two young children he left behind. There was a private ceremony (funeral) and afterwards his hearse rode through his old Brooklyn neighborhood where people were paying their lasts respects and trying to get a glimpse of the man that changed rap forever. Some were crying , some were smiling and when biggie's hearse passed by they played his song "Hypnotize". Puffy asked a group called the police if he could use the melody to one of there song's to create a song in rememberance of Biggie, it was called "I'll be missing you". On March 25th, 1997 his second album "Life After Death" was released, the album sold millions. On December 7th, 1999 his third album was released "Born Again". Tho Biggie has left us, his legacy will live on, forever. Notorious B.I.G. Rest in Peace (1972-1997)

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