Friday, March 9th, 2007
B.I.G Moments:
B.I.G. Moments:
A Special Tribute to Notorious B.I.G.
by Trent Fitzgerald
It's been 10 years since the untimely passing of Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace. On March 9, 1997, the 24-year-old rapper was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. Biggie's death still remains unsolved, and his mother, Voletta Wallace, continues her quest to find answers with her wrongful-death lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department. Much like Tupac Shakur, who tragically met the same fate six months prior, Biggie's music continues to be immortalized by fans worldwide. Bad Boy Records just released a new greatest-hits album featuring 14 of Biggie's best-known songs plus two unreleased tracks to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Notorious B.I.G. In tribute to the late rapper, here's a look back at 10 big events in the life and death of Big Poppa:
1. Biggie Meets Puffy: After Notorious B.I.G. was featured in Source magazine's "Unsigned Hype" column in 1992, Sean "Puffy" Combs, who was an A&R executive at Uptown Records, heard Biggie's demo and went on a mission to find one of the top lyricists in Brooklyn, N.Y. "He had so much melody in his voice," Puff told Rolling Stone magazine. "And he was such a clever poet, the way he put his words together, the way he saw things. He saw things so vivid."
2. Gotta Have Faith: On Aug. 4, 1994, B.I.G. marries Bad Boy Records' R&B songbird Faith Evans after nine days of courtship. The couple met at a photo shoot and instantly fell in love. Some speculated that the marriage was a publicity stunt, but that wasn't the case. "I had my share of all kinds of women [and] I can't explain it," Biggie said. "I just knew Faith was different. I wanted her locked down." Faith adds, "He was funny. He was really smart, very intelligent, which attracted me. People seem to think he was mean, but he wasn't at all. He was really nice."
3. Keeping It Real: On Sept. 14, 1994, Notorious B.I.G. unleashes his debut album, Ready To Die. Producers working on Ready To Die initially felt like Biggie was trying to shock the world with his violent lyrics, grim depictions of urban life and the mackadoshis wordplays. But in the end, it was clear to those in the studio that this rap wunderkind was a lyrical dynamo and that Ready To Die was unlike any rap album ever recorded at the time. "I make music about what I know," the late rapper told MTV. "In Brooklyn, I see hustling, I see killing, I see girls and I see cars -- that's what I rap about, what's in my environment. If it's one thing I heard about Ready To Die, it's that it's a full, rounded album. I try to put a little bit of everything into everything. I'm not a one-sided person."
4. King of New York: On Aug. 3, 1995, at the second annual Source Hip-Hop Music Awards in New York, B.I.G. won four trophies, including the sought-after Lyricist of the Year and Album of the Year (Ready To Die) honors. "I knew I was gonna win something," Biggie told MTV. "Album of the Year, that's what I wanted more than anything. I worked hard on that piece. When I put the album together, I knew it was tight: I knew it was lyrically tight, I knew it had some cool songs, but I wasn't thinking multiplatinum." Among the night's highlights was Biggie's performance of "One More Chance/Stay With Me." However, his wins were bittersweet as tension grew between the Bad Boy and Death Row Records camps at the event. It was there that Suge Knight verbally attacked Puff Daddy with his snide remarks, which ultimately sparked the so-called East Coast-West Coast rivalry.
5. Recording Life After Death: Trying to top the critical success of Ready To Die wasn't going to be easy. But Biggie and the producers were more focused than ever to create another classic album. This time, the rhyme-slinger wanted to document his extraordinary climb to success and the problems that come with being a rap superstar. "It's to another level, it's some of the best work I've ever done, in my opinion," he told MTV about the collection. "It's a beautiful thing. We're just gonna keep trying to feed our families, yo. I found something I was good at and I'm just trying to flip it, keep it going. We gonna do our thing forever and ever."
6. Dead Wrong: On March 9, 1997, B.I.G. was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting outside of Vibe magazine's post-Soul Train Awards party in Los Angeles. Biggie was sitting in the front seat of his SUV when an unidentified car drove alongside the passenger side and fired multiple rounds into the vehicle. He was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as a result of his gunshot wounds. Biggie was 24 years old. Ten years later, the circumstances surrounding the late rapper's shooting death remain a mystery.
7. B.I.G.'s Final Ride: On March 18, 1997, friends and family members bid farewell to the late Notorious B.I.G. at a memorial service in New York. Mary J. Blige, Lil' Kim, Queen Latifah and others were in attendance. Biggie's estranged wife, Faith Evans, sang at the service, while Puffy delivered the eulogy. After the service, Biggie's body (clad in a white suit and wearing a white hat) traveled via a 20-car motorcade through the streets of Brooklyn to let fans give their final goodbyes to the rapper. The caravan became unruly when bystanders got disruptive, and police began spraying mace. Authorities arrested 10 people, including a shaken-up New York Times reporter. Following the procession, the body of Biggie Smalls was cremated.
8. Biggie Still Lives: Released on March 25, 1997, Notorious B.I.G.'s double album, Life After Death, rocketed to the top spot of the Billboard 200 album chart. The collection moved 690,000 copies during its first week of release. Three years after its release, the Recording Industry Association of America awarded Life After Death a diamond honor for shipments of 10 million units (5 million copies of a double disc). Furthermore, Biggie's posthumous 1999 collection, Born Again, reached double-platinum status for shipping 2 million units.
9. Daddy Dearest: After taking some time to mourn the death of his beloved friend, Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs released the single "I'll Be Missing You." The Police-sampled elegiac tribute to B.I.G. featured Faith Evans and 112 on background vocals. The song made its radio debut on May 14, 1997, simultaneously on more than 200 radio stations worldwide. For their efforts, Puffy and Co. won the Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group trophy at the 1998 Grammy Awards.
10. B.I.G. Honors: Notorious B.I.G. was saluted in September 2005 at the second annual VH1 Hip-Hop Honors in New York. In a tribute to the late rhyme-spitter, Biggie's partner-in-rhyme Lil' Cease paid homage to his friend with a rendition of "One More Chance" with Faith Evans. Ludacris followed with a spirited performance of "Juicy." Then, Kanye West hit the stage covering B.I.G.'s "Hypnotize."
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