Christopher George Latore Wallace, best known as The Notorious B.I.G., Biggie or Biggie Smalls,
was an American rapper. He was raised in Brooklyn
and became a central figure in the East Coast hip hop scene.
On March 9, 1997, Wallace was killed by an unknown assailant in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles.
-Wikipedia
Birth name:
Christopher George Latore Wallace
Also known as:
Biggie Smalls
Big Poppa
Frank White
King of New York
Born:
May 21, 1972
in New York City, New York, U.S.
Died:
March 9, 1997
(at the age of 24)
in Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Education:
Queen of All Saints Middle School
Parents:
Mother - Voletta Wallace, a Jamaican pre-school teacher
Father - George Latore Wallace, a welder and small-time Jamaican politician
Genres:
Hip hop
Occupations:
Rapper
Years active:
1992-1997
Associated acts:
Sean Combs, Junior M.A.F.I.A., Lil Kim, 112, The Commission, Faith Evans, 2Pac
Did You Know:
• In 1991, Chris was arrested in North Carolina for dealing crack
• He has certified sales of 17 million units in the United States
Notorious B.I.G. Quotes:
"Even when I was wrong I got my point across."
"I don't chase 'em, I replace 'em, and if I'm caressing them, I'm undressing them."
I was in shock of everything. I wasn't shocked about him getting shot. 'Pac is a strong dude, yo. He's real strong, so when he got shot I was just like, 'Again?' You know, he's always getting shot or shot at, he gonna pull through, make a few records and it's going to be over. But when he died it took me by surprise. Even though we were going through our drama I would never wish death on nobody. 'Cause there ain't no coming back from that. - On Tupac Shakur's death.
When you read magazines and you see everybody having fun, you think, 'okay, that's where I want to be.' But once you get in it and you achieve the sucess that you want, it seems like that's where the player hating starts. You know that's where everybody's like, 'Well it's not all that.
I mean, it's not just the rappers, you know what i'm saying? People want to attack anybody that's a large figure, you know what I'm saying? They did it to [Michael] Jordan, they did it to [Mike] Tyson, they did it to Bill Cosby, you know what I'm saying? They're gonna' attack you if you on top.
Hell yeah. My man Cheese, God bless him. He died in my arms in the subway station at Clinton and Washington.
He was downstairs in the station and we were upstairs on the corner hustling. We just heard two loud shots. Sounded like cannons: Boom! Boom! We ran downstairs and saw Cheese just spread out.
I felt @#$%& up. I thought, My man is gonna die. No one wants a nigga to die.
These days? Just waking up like nine o'clock in the morning, going to different record stores, catching planes, going to the studio, you know? Thinking of ideas for songs for myself and for Junior M.A.F.I.A. Just workin'.
Just tryin' to keep it real and all-black. Just bangin', you know?
Basically, it was the same thing: waking up around nine o'clock so you can catch the check-cashing place at nine-fifteen, nine-thirty. I didn't have checks, but the crackheads did.
I just want to let everybody know that, I'm here... I ain't going nowhere. Bad Boy ain't going nowhere... I'm going to continue to keep making those songs though, make you dance, and make you groove and have kids and all kinds of things (laughs). I'm here, me and my man Caesar Leo...Just gonna do our thing forever. Forever and ever.
But it's not the same. Until I get to the point where I want to be, where I'm selling crazy records and I can bring all my niggas with me, I'm doing all this shit by myself. I'm lonely. I'm bored. I've got my one little man with me - Little Caesar - he's part of Junior M.A.F.I.A. I put him under the wing and he'll come up.
My niggas only act that way towards niggas that don't show no love, you know what I'm saying? My niggas know I'm always gonna be there. I gotta help my niggas now, because they were there for me before all this rap shit came. Those are the niggas I was representin'. None of those other crazy motherfuckers would take a bullet for me. I feel like my manager, Mark Pitts, is the only nigga who would probably go all out, 100 percent, for me. And Puff [Combs] too. I can't even front on Puff. He ain't no wimp-ass nigga.
It's just real niggas. You know there ain't no tall tales. I think every comer goes through the same drama our corner goes through. It was just niggas hustling - regular kids with a philosophy of "Let's just get the money.
Fifteen, sixteen. I really didn't get to see no blood squirtin'. All I know is we was runnin' and we was chasin' this nigga. The nigga says, "Stop!" and I heard a shot: Pow! I saw a dude drop. My man put the gat to his head, somebody screamed "Run!" and we all ran. This was just real. It was nothin'. We were seeing niggas gettin' hit all the time.
I'm expecting something to happen, because it's nothing special to me. It happens on every corner I go to in Brooklyn. I'm immune to it. The only time that hearing someone got killed is a surprise to me is when it's somebody I was close to. So then I have a feeling: I have mourning for them.
Notorious BIG Awards
1995
Source Hip Hop Award for New Artist of the Year, Solo
Source Hip Hop Award for Album of the Year: Ready To Die
Source Hip Hop Award for Lyricist of the Year
Source Hip Hop Award for Live Performer of the Year
1996
Nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance ("Big Poppa").
1997
MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video ("Hypnotize").
1998
Nominated for 3 Grammy Awards for Best Rap Solo Performance ("Hypnotize"), Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group ("Mo Money Mo Problems" (with Mase and Puff Daddy)), and Best Rap Album (Life After Death).
Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul Album, Male (Life After Death)
Tour Dates: