Short answers, pulled from the story.
Christopher George Latore Wallace was born on the 21st of May, 1972, at Cumberland Hospital in Brooklyn, New York City. He grew up in the Clinton Hill neighborhood, near the border of Bedford-Stuyvesant, and spent much of his childhood on Fulton Street.
A demo tape called Microphone Murderer, recorded in 1991 with DJ 50 Grand, was discovered by DJ Mister Cee and sent to The Source magazine, which featured it in the "Unsigned Hype" section in March 1992. Sean Combs read the column, arranged to meet Wallace, and eventually signed him to Bad Boy Records.
Ready to Die was The Notorious B.I.G.'s debut studio album, released on the 13th of September, 1994. It sold 500,000 copies in its first week, reached No. 15 on the Billboard 200, and was certified four times platinum. The album helped restore East Coast hip-hop's dominance at a time when West Coast artists led U.S. charts.
Wallace was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles in the early hours of the 9th of March, 1997, after leaving a Soul Train Awards after-party at the Petersen Automotive Museum. He was pronounced dead at 1:15 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He was twenty-four years old, and his killer has never been identified.
Life After Death was released sixteen days after his death, on the 25th of March, 1997. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and was certified diamond by the RIAA. Its singles "Hypnotize" and "Mo Money Mo Problems" both reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, making Wallace the first artist to achieve two posthumous number-one singles.
Billboard named him the greatest rapper of all time in 2015, and Rolling Stone called him the greatest rapper that ever lived. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. At The Source Awards in 1995, he won Best New Artist, Lyricist of the Year, Live Performer of the Year, and Album of the Year for Ready to Die.