One some level, B.I.G., seemed to know that the odds were against him escaping his violent past. ’s second album, titled Life After Death … ’Til Death Do Us Part, was released shortly after his death.Īwards: Billboard Award, Rap Artist of the Year, 1995.ĭay before his death that he wanted “to see my kids get old. Wallace was known by the street name Biggie Smalls and the stage name Notorious B.I.G.Īrrived on the music scene in 1994 with the debut album Ready to Die, which sold more than 1 million copies. Wallace, in Brooklyn, New York shot to death March 9, 1997, in Los Angeles, CA son of Voletta Wallace married Faith Evans (a singer) children: T ’yanna, Christopher. The product of a brutal environment, he commented on the For the Record …īorn Christopher G. Born Christopher Wallace, he used the street name Biggie Smalls and the stage name Notorious B.I.G. A big man, he was variously described as standing between 6-feet and 6-feet-3-inches tall and weighing between 230 and 380 pounds. rapped his way to a better life only to lose that life to the street violence he could not leave behind. And his posthumous second album -ironically and prophetically titled Life After Death … Til Death Do Us Part - confirmed that the heavyweight rapper had the potential to be big, indeed, on the music charts.Īt the same time, he was a hard man to pin down. ’s funeral -he was buried in a white double-breasted suit and an extra-large mahogany casket -attracted rap ’s elite and drew hordes of fans onto Brooklyn streets. His death at age 24 -the second drive-by slaying of a gangsta rapper in a six -month span-intensified a purported deadly feud between rap music ’s East Coast and West Coast factions. Very cool with the words.Even in death, Notorious B.I.G. "That's Brooklyn swag," Bennet says with a laugh. Here was a guy from Bennet's own neighborhood, admitting he wasn't the best looking one at the party (or in Biggie's own words, "heartthrob, never"), and yet, boasting about being charming enough to get what he wanted. He also remembers his (older) brother listening to his music, in particular the song "One More Chance." He was floored by the humor, the perfect lyrical delivery, and most of all, he says, by the confidence. They grew up on the same block, although Bennett was just a kid when Biggie was killed. Jay Bennett, 35, says Biggie's music inspired him to become a musician. He says the rapper's ambitious attitude inspired him to get involved in the fashi0n industry. Biggie's music, and the admiration that "Juicy" struck in his brother, stuck with Neptune. Turns out his brother was trying to memorize the lyrics to impress his friends at school. "He just kept playing it over and over," he remembers.
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Neptune is 28, so he was just a toddler when Biggie was killed.
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"My older brother, he was bumping 'Juicy' one day on his boombox," recalls Mark Neptune, the manager at the clothing store BedStuyFly, which specializes in apparel that celebrates New York's legends of rap. And that on the anniversary of his murder, 25 years ago today, Wallace's art would remain a fixture throughout Brooklyn.īiggie also lives on in younger generations, who heard about him through their older siblings. What he couldn't have imagined at the time is that this energetic kid would go on to become one of the most famous rappers of all time. I would say, 'You gotta stop doing that!' " And he always did it on the sly, and we'd catch him doing it.
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"He used to talk the other kids out of their stuff," he says, slightly laughing.
IS THE NOTORIOUS BIG BIGGIE SMALLS HOW TO
He says Wallace was a brilliant kid, who came in already knowing how to read and write. "He was a pain in the neck." Blackman was Wallace's pre-school teacher at Quincy-Lexington Open Door Daycare Center, in Brooklyn. "Always running his mouth," he remembers with a chuckle. the block Biggie grew up on in his childhood.īefore he was Biggie, B.I.G, Notorious, Big Poppa, he was Christopher Wallace. Melvin Blackman is a retired teacher who taught a young Notorious B.I.G in preschool.