Remembering B.I.G.

Today marks thirteen years since Christopher 'Notorious B.I.G./Biggie Smalls' Wallace passed away after being shot in a drive-by shooting in whilst in Los Angeles.

Many considered Biggie to be one of the greatest lyricists and storytellers the rap game will ever see. In his short career Biggie released two multi-platinum albums that spawned hits and party favourites such as- 'Juicy', 'Big Poppa', 'Mo Money Mo Problems' and countless others.

Biggie's career started with a mixtape he made after his release from prison for drug related offences. This tape made it in to the hands of DJ Mister Cee and the editor of The original Source magazine who decided to feature Big in the Unsigned Hype column of the mag. The tape was then heard by a young Sean Combs who at the time was an A&R at Uptown records. He then signed Big and put him on the record 'A Buncha N*ggas' on Heavy D's album.

In 1992, Combs was fired from Uptown records and began his own imprint Bad Boy Records and took B.I.G. with him and the rest as they say is history! He then appeared on tracks with Mary J Blige and Supercat as he began his rise to stardom.

Ready To Die was released on September 13, 1994, and reached #13 on the Billboard 200 chart, eventually being certified four times Platinum.

During his career Biggie had many accomplishments-

• Rap artist of the year, 1995 (Billboard)
• Rap single of the year 'One More Chance', 1995 (Billboard)
• New artist of the year, best lyricist, best album, live performer of the year, 1995 (Source awards)
• Best video- Hypnotize, 1997 (MTV)
• Best soul/rnb male album- Life After Death, 1998 (Soul Train)

On March 9th, 1997 Biggie and his entourage had just left an afterparty thrown by Vibe magazine & Qwest records when a car pulled alongside him and fired numerous shots hitting the MC in the chest. Biggie was then driven to Cedars Senai hospital, but was pronounced dead at 1.15am.

Fifteen days after his death, Biggie's double cd album, 'Life After Death' was released and would eventually hit the number one after an initial #176 position due to leaking. In 2000 the album would be certified Diamond, the highest certification ever given to a rap album.

The Notoripus B.I.G. will forever live on through his music and those were and still are influenced by him.

He is survived by daughter T'yanna and son Christopher.


Rest In Peace Christopher Wallace.