The Notorious B.I.G.
Christopher George Latore Wallace was born at Cumberland Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, on the 21st of May 1972. He grew up in the Clinton Hill neighborhood near the border of Bedford-Stuyvesant. His mother Voletta worked two jobs to support him after his father left when he was three years old. At age five, Wallace attended Quincy-Lexington Open Door Day Care Center where he stood out physically among other children. By age twelve, a friend introduced him to buying and selling marijuana during the height of the crack epidemic. He concealed the money he earned from drug dealing on the roof of his apartment while his mother remained unaware until he turned twenty. Despite excelling academically, Wallace dropped out of Westinghouse High School at sixteen due to his growing involvement in criminal activity. In 1989, he faced arrest on weapons charges and received five years probation. The following year, he violated that probation and spent nine months in jail for dealing crack cocaine in North Carolina.
In March 1992, local disc jockey Mister Cee discovered Wallace's demo tape called Microphone Murderer and sent it to Matteo Capoluongo at The Source magazine. The track appeared in the Unsigned Hype section that same month, catching the attention of Sean Combs. Combs signed Wallace to Uptown Records in March 1993 before launching Bad Boy Records later that year. Wallace became the first artist to sign with Combs' new label after being fired from Uptown by Andre Harrell. His debut album Ready to Die arrived on the 13th of September 1994, after recording sessions at the Hit Factory between 1993 and 1994. The album sold 500,000 copies in its first week and reached number fifteen on the Billboard 200 chart. Singles like Juicy, Big Poppa, and One More Chance helped shift focus back to East Coast hip-hop during a period when West Coast artists dominated the genre. Busta Rhymes recalled seeing Wallace handing out copies of the album from his home as a form of self-marketing. By July 1995, Wallace appeared on the cover of The Source with the caption The King of New York Takes Over.
Wallace's relationship with Tupac Shakur deteriorated after Shakur released Hit Em Up in June 1996, a diss track claiming an affair with Faith Evans and accusing Wallace of copying his style. Shakur died six days after being shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas on the 7th of September 1996. Police reports later suggested the Southside Crips gang carried out the attack for revenge over a beating Shakur had inflicted earlier that day. Journalist Chuck Philips reported in 2002 that Wallace had paid for the gun used in the shooting, though Wallace's family denied this claim. Recording documents indicated Wallace was in New Jersey at the time, but Louis Alfred, the engineer listed on those sheets, could not recall the date of the session. Wallace expressed regret over Shakur's death but declined to attend his funeral because he felt Shakur had turned fans against him. The feud escalated when Bad Boy Records and Death Row Records became business rivals following Shakur's October 1995 signing to Death Row. Many speculated that Who Shot Ya?, released as a B-side to Big Poppa in February 1995, was intended to taunt Shakur.
On the 8th of March 1997, Wallace attended a Soul Train Awards after-party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles with over 2,000 people present. Fire marshals shut down the venue at 12:35 a.m. on March 9 due to overcrowding. Wallace traveled in a Chevrolet Suburban rented from Budget Rent a Car alongside associates Damion Butler and Lil' Cease. A black Chevrolet Impala pulled up to his vehicle at a red light, and an unidentified driver fired four shots using a 9mm blue-steel pistol. Wallace died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at 1:15 a.m., twenty-four years old. An autopsy released fifteen years later revealed only the final shot proved fatal, entering through his right hip before lodging in his left shoulder. His funeral took place at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan on March 18 with more than 350 mourners including Mary J. Blige and Busta Rhymes. The investigation into his murder continued for decades without identifying the shooter or mastermind behind the crime.
Life After Death arrived sixteen days after Wallace's death on the 25th of March 1997, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. The double album became the highest-selling release of that year and achieved four-time platinum certification. Singles Hypnotize and Mo Money Mo Problems both reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making Wallace the first artist to achieve two posthumous number-one singles. Spin magazine named him Artist of the Year in December 1997 with Hypnotize as Single of the Year. Subsequent releases included Born Again in 1999, Duets: The Final Chapter in 2005, and The King & I with Faith Evans in 2017. His certified U.S. sales exceed twenty-eight million copies, including twenty-one million albums. Rolling Stone called him the greatest rapper that ever lived while Billboard named him the greatest rapper of all time in 2015. The Source also declared him the greatest rapper of all time in its 150th issue published in March 2002.
Wallace possessed a baritone vocal range typically delivered in what Rolling Stone described as a thick jaunty grumble. He rapped in a deep tone that became even deeper on Life After Death. The Source Unsigned Hype column characterized his style as cool nasal and filtered blessing his own material. AllMusic noted his talent for layering multiple rhymes in rapid succession while Time magazine highlighted his ability to deliver multi-syllabic rhymes smoothly. Wallace often used onomatopoeic sounds like uhhh at the start of tracks such as Hypnotize and Big Poppa. He composed lyrics in his head rather than writing them down but occasionally deviated from this approach by singing in slow falsetto on Playa Hater or adapting to Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's rapid-fire flow on Notorious Thugs. Big Daddy Kane observed that Wallace did not need an extensive vocabulary to impress because he put words together in slick ways that worked well for him.
Wallace was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in August 2020, twenty-three years after his death. His image inspired elements of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's portrayal of Cornell Cottonmouth Stokes in Luke Cage. A mural depicting Wallace exists on Fulton Street near his childhood neighborhood where the corner of Fulton Street and St. James Place was renamed in his honor in 2019. The Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation hosts an annual black-tie charity event called B.I.G. Night Out raising funds for children's educational resources. The acronym B.I.G. now stands for Books Instead of Guns. Tributes appeared at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards with Combs and Snoop Dogg performing Juicy and Warning orchestral versions. At the 2005 VH1 Hip Hop Honors, a tribute to Wallace headlined the show. Artists including Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Ludacris, and Kanye West have extensively sampled or quoted Wallace's lyrics across genres.
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Common questions
When was Christopher George Latore Wallace born and where?
Christopher George Latore Wallace was born on the 21st of May 1972 at Cumberland Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in the Clinton Hill neighborhood near the border of Bedford-Stuyvesant.
What happened to The Notorious B.I.G. on the 8th of March 1997?
The Notorious B.I.G. died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at 1:15 a.m. after being shot four times by an unidentified driver in Los Angeles. An autopsy released fifteen years later revealed only the final shot proved fatal, entering through his right hip before lodging in his left shoulder.
How did The Notorious B.I.G. influence East Coast hip-hop during the mid-1990s?
Singles like Juicy, Big Poppa, and One More Chance helped shift focus back to East Coast hip-hop during a period when West Coast artists dominated the genre. His debut album Ready to Die arrived on the 13th of September 1994 and sold 500,000 copies in its first week while reaching number fifteen on the Billboard 200 chart.
Why did The Notorious B.I.G. feud with Tupac Shakur?
Wallace's relationship with Tupac Shakur deteriorated after Shakur released Hit Em Up in June 1996 which claimed an affair with Faith Evans and accused Wallace of copying his style. The feud escalated when Bad Boy Records and Death Row Records became business rivals following Shakur's October 1995 signing to Death Row.
What legacy does The Notorious B.I.G. hold regarding sales and rankings?
The Notorious B.I.G. certified U.S. sales exceed twenty-eight million copies including twenty-one million albums. Rolling Stone called him the greatest rapper that ever lived while Billboard named him the greatest rapper of all time in 2015 and The Source declared him the greatest rapper of all time in its 150th issue published in March 2002.