Christopher Wallace, also known as Biggie Smalls, was born on May 21, 1972, in Brooklyn, New York, to Jamaican parents Voletta Wallace, a pre-school teacher, and Selwyn George Latore, a welder and small-time politician. He was raised in the poor Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, where dropping out of high school at the age of seventeen led him to become a crack dealer. After a nine-month stay in prison, Biggie borrowed a friend's four-track tape recorder and laid down some hip-hop tracks in a basement, which were later passed around and played at local radio stations in New York.
Not extremely attractive, Wallace named himself Biggie due to his weight, and despite being overweight, extremely dark-skinned, and having a crook in his eye, he was a charmer. A young impresario and sometime producer named Sean Combs, also known as Puffy, heard Biggie's early tapes and was impressed, subsequently signing him to his new label, Bad Boy Records.
Puffy and Biggie worked on his first album, and the Notorious B.I.G. was born. Biggie was first heard on a remix of a Mary J. Blige song and a track on the Who's the Man? (1991) soundtrack. After these successes, the album went through its final touches and was released in 1994, titled "Ready to Die." The record was certified platinum quickly, and the Notorious B.I.G. was named MC of the Year at the 1995 Billboard Music Awards.
After the quick success of the album, Biggie went back to get his friends, some of whom didn't even rhyme. He had several run-ins with the law, on charges ranging from beatings to drugs and weapons, with all claiming that Biggie was a gentle person. He soon met a rapper from the west coast named Tupac Shakur, and the two became friends, with Tupac supporting Biggie and offering advice.
However, their friendship turned into the most violent era of hip-hop music on November 30, 1994, when Tupac was held at gunpoint and robbed of $40,000 worth of jewelry while recording at Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan. Biggie rushed down just in time to see Tupac being loaded into an ambulance, and Tupac blamed Biggie for the shooting, sparking the East Coast, West Coast rivalry.
The entire country became divided into two groups, the west side and the east side, which became Death Row Records versus Bad Boy Records, Marion 'Suge' Knight versus Puff Daddy, and Tupac versus Biggie. The two of them finally met again late in 1995, and Tupac secretly told Biggie, "I'm just tryin' to sell some records." Unfortunately, it became very real when on September 7, 1996, Tupac was shot four times in a drive-by shooting off the Las Vegas strip after leaving a fight he was involved in inside the MGM Grand Hotel. He died six days later on September 13, 1996, at the age of 25, and the case remains unsolved.
Biggie was scared for his life, but he wanted to put an end to the rivalry between the two coasts. He went to the west coast for several events to support his next release album, "Life After Death," but also to make a statement that the rivalry was over. On March 7, 1997, he attended the Soul Train Music Awards and went to the after party hosted by Vibe magazine and Qwest Records on March 8. On March 9, Biggie was sitting in an SUV on the street when he was shot multiple times by an unknown assailant. He died almost instantly, at the age of 24.
