Line #50 Music/TheNotoriousBIG


1	[[quoteright:258:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/biggie-crown.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:258:Mr. Smalls, dressed in his typically modest fashion.]]
3
4	->''"This album is dedicated to all the teachers that told me I'd never amount to nothin', to all the people that lived above the buildings that I was hustlin' in front of that called the police on me when I was just tryin' to make some money to feed my daughters, and all the niggas in the struggle, you know what I'm sayin'? ''It's all good, baby, baby...''"''
5	-->-- "Juicy"
6
7	Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 - March 9, 1997), known professionally as The Notorious B.I.G. (alongside other stage names such as Biggie Smalls[[note]]after a fictional gangster in the 1975 film ''Let's Do It Again''[[/note]], The Black Frank White[[note]]after Creator/ChristopherWalken's character in ''Film/KingOfNewYork''[[/note]], and Big Poppa), was an American rapper. "B.I.G." and "Biggie" were rather apt names, as he stood at 6'3'' and weighed between 300 and 380 pounds.
8
9	Wallace began rapping as a teenager, which he decided to focus on after a childhood of crime caught up with him. (His earliest stage name was MC [=CWest=], but he later changed it to Biggie Smalls.) This led to a chain of events that resulted in him teaming up with Creator/UptownRecords A&R and record producer [[Music/SeanCombs Sean "Puffy" Combs]]. However, soon after signing the contract, Combs found himself fired from Uptown and started up a new label, Creator/BadBoyRecords, which Wallace quickly became a part of. Later that year, Wallace gained exposure on a remix to Music/MaryJBlige's "Real Love," but later found out that his original pseudonym Biggie Smalls was already in use, so he adapted a new moniker: The Notorious B.I.G. (the letters stood for "'''B'''usiness '''I'''nstead of '''G'''ame").
10
11	After more successful appearances on hit songs (and his solo track "Party and Bullshit" appearing on the ''Who's the Man?'' soundtrack), and a marriage to singer Faith Evans just nine days after meeting her at a Bad Boy photoshoot, Wallace released his first album, ''Music/ReadyToDie'', in 1994. The album was a success, reaching #13 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart and being very well-received by critics and listeners alike; it's considered one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time to this day.
12
13	Unfortunately, Wallace became involved in the infamous West Coast/East Coast hip-hop quarrel. The same year of ''Ready to Die''[='=]s release, Music/TupacShakur, his former friend and associate, believed that Wallace, Combs and Uptown Records founder Andre Harrell, had prior knowledge of a robbery in the same recording studio that Wallace and his entourage were in at the time of the incident that resulted in Shakur being shot repeatedly and losing thousands in jewelry. While they denied the accusations, Shakur signed onto Creator/DeathRowRecords in 1995, and Bad Boy Records and Death Row, now business rivals, became involved in an intense feud. Recording of Wallace's second album began in September 1995, although the 18-month process was frequently interrupted by not only the highly publicized dispute he was tangled up in, but injury and legal trouble, stemming from charges of second-degree harassment and possession of weapons and drugs.
14
15	On September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot multiple times in Las Vegas in a drive-by shooting. Six days later, he perished due to complications from the gunshot wounds. Almost immediately, fingers were pointed in Wallace's direction, which he denied, claiming that he was in New York at the time. An anti-violence hip-hop summit was held in the wake of Shakur's death.
16
17	Other than the birth of his first son, things didn't get much better from there. Wallace was involved in a car accident during the recording sessions for his second album that shattered his left leg and forced him to use a cane. On top of that, he faced criminal assault charges and was forced to pay $41,000 after a friend of a concert promoter claimed to have been robbed and beaten up by Wallace and his entourage in May of 1995. The incident remains unsolved to this day, but all robbery charges were dropped. After this chain of events, Wallace declared that he wished to focus on "peace of mind" and his friends and family.
18
19	In 1997, Wallace traveled to California to promote his upcoming album ''Music/LifeAfterDeath''. Unfortunately, on March 9, just fifteen days before said album was to be released, he was murdered in a drive-by shooting. The shooter remains unknown -- as with the murder of Tupac, fingers have been pointed in all directions, but to this day no one really knows who did it. He was 24.
20
21	A movie about his life, ''Film/{{Notorious\|2009}}'', was released in 2009, starring rapper Jamal "Gravy" Woolard as the Notorious One himself. Woolard reprised his role as Biggie eight years later in the Tupac Shakur biopic ''Film/AllEyezOnMe''.
22
23	Not to be confused with [[Film/{{Notorious\|1946}} the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name]] -- not even for a minute.
24	----
25	!!Discography:
26	!!!Studio Albums
27	* ''Music/ReadyToDie'' (1994)
28	* ''Music/LifeAfterDeath'' (1997)
29	!!!Posthumous Albums
30	* ''Born Again'' (1999)
31	* ''Duets: The Final Chapter'' (2005)
32	* ''The King & I'' (2017, a PosthumousCollaboration with his widow, Faith Evans)
33	----
34	!!"Biggie, Biggie, Biggie, can't you see? Sometimes your tropes just hypnotize me."
35
36	* AntiLoveSong: "Me & My Bitch" is a rap version of this.
37	* BatmanGambit: How Biggie escapes the predicament he gets into in "I Got A Story to Tell." He changes what the situation looks like and counts on everyone else acting the way he thinks they will.
38	* BettyAndVeronica: His well-publicized LoveTriangle between widow Faith Evans and Music/LilKim, whom he had known for years before marrying Evans.
39	* {{Biopic}}: ''Film/{{Notorious\|2009}}'', released in 2009. The film as a whole received mixed to positive reviews, but Jamal Woolward's performance was praised by nearly all who saw it.
40	* BolivianArmyEnding: "Gimme The Loot" ends with the two robber protagonists engaging the police in a shootout. It's left ambiguous who won; we hear a voice (actually an Music/IceCube sample) shouting "Take that, motherfuckers!", but that could be from either side.
41	%% * BrooklynRage
42	* TheCommandments: "Ten Crack Commandments".
43	* CoolShades: He wore them from time to time, such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drxQ4FVItS0 his acceptance speech]] and several music videos.
44	* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: "Hypnotize"
45	* TheDissTrack: While he rarely brought up names, several of his tracks had listeners wondering "Did he just diss Music/{{Nas}}? Was that aimed at [[Music/TupacShakur 2Pac]]?"
46	** According to Nas himself on the song "We Will Survive", their relationship was more of FriendlyRivalry than out-and-out conflict. NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead may be in effect in the song, however.
47	** Biggie and [[Music/WuTangClan Raekwon and Ghostface Killah]] were not on the best of terms while Biggie was alive, partly because Raekwon accused ''Ready to Die'' of plagiarising the cover of Nas' ''Illmatic''. Subliminal disses were traded back and forth on songs and album interludes as a result. For example, where Raekwon rhymes "That's life, to top it all off, beef for white[[note]]While "white" here may simply refer to cocaine, Raekwon's delivery is such that "beef for white" may easily be heard as "beef with White", which, when one considers that Frank White was one of Biggie's many aliases, implies that they were in conflict[[/note]]/ Pulling bleach out, trying to throw it in my eyesight... Yo, what the fuck is on your mind?" in "Ice Water", Biggie replies with "Fuck that, why try? Throw bleach in your eye" in "Kick in the Door".
48	** Of course there's the famous beef between B.I.G. and his former friend turned enemy [[Music/TupacShakur 2Pac]]. While B.I.G. said he always loved 'Pac, few can blame him for eventually dissing him in response to Shakur's numerous disses. And he did it twice. Once in Music/BustaRhymes' [[Music/JDilla Jay Dee-Produced]] song ''The Ugliest'', and [[https://genius.com/11142020 this one was definitely a diss]], to the point the song was originally unreleased; and when it was remixed into the posthumous single "Dangerous [=MCs=]", [[https://genius.com/4087082 Busta went out of his way to remove an overt Pac diss]]. The second time is, however, more up to debate. It was in the Music/LifeAfterDeath song ''Long Kiss Goodnight'' (likely recorded before 'Pac died, as Life After Death was originally supposed to be released in Halloween 1996). You had Lil' Cease saying he was totally dissing Shakur, then Puff Daddy saying it wasn't a diss song. [[https://genius.com/The-notorious-big-long-kiss-goodnight-lyrics You make your conclusions]].
49	** Biggie and former labelmate Music/CraigMack had issues with each other from the get-go when they signed to Bad Boy, with Biggie going as far as to make many negative remarks about him during interviews. This led to both artists throwing subliminal disses at each other on Mack's "Flava In Ya Ear" remix:
50	----> '''Biggie:'''\
51	I see the gimmicks, the wack lyrics,\
52	the shit is depressing, pathetic, please forget it.\
53	You're mad cause my style you're admiring,\
54	Don't be mad, UPS is hiring.
55	----> '''Craig Mack:'''\
56	Word up, no rap no crap you bore me,\
57	Wanna grab my dick, too lazy, hold it for me.\
58	...A Tec-9 when I rhyme,\
59	Plus I climb, word is bond\
60	[[Music/ReadyToDie Your album]] couldn't fuck with one line.
61	* DonutMessWithACop: "Gimme the Loot" has this gem of a lyric.
62	-->'''Biggie's Partner:''' Oh shit, the cops!\
63	'''Biggie:''' Be cool, fool; they ain't gonna roll up! All they want is fucking donuts!
64	* DownerEnding: "Me and My Bitch" and "Suicidal Thoughts".
65	* DrivenToSuicide: "Suicidal Thoughts", a song about Biggie contemplating and finally committing suicide.
66	* GangstaRap: Specifically, types 2 and 4, though he sometimes ventured into type 3. ("[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzvL4O3uomg Gimme The Loot]]", anyone? No? Well, how about "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVLdM_QO3OQ Dead Wrong]]"?)
67	* GrandFinale: Subverted. True, [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KJAgGB7jKZU Puff Daddy's "Victory"]] is the last song he ever recorded before he died, but he certainly didn't intended for it to be his last song. However, as if he knew he was going to kick the bucket, he went ''hard'' on this song, to the point his first verse is considered one of the best verses in the history of hip-hop.
68	-->''Real sick, brawl nights, I perform like Mike/Anyone, Tyson, Jordan, Jackson ''
69	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Biggie and Puffy were best buds from day one.
70	* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Biggie was 6'4" and 300 Pounds. Lil' Kim was 4'11" and about 100 pounds.
71	* InnerMonologue - BIG argues with himself whether or not to rip off his own in men in the first verse of "Niggas Bleed".
72	-->Think about it now, that's damn near one-point-five\
73	I kill 'em all I'll be set for life, Frank pay attention.\
74	These motherfuckers is henchmen, renegades.\
75	If you die they still get paid, extra probably.\
76	Fuck a robbery, I'm the boss.\
77	Promise you won't rob 'em. I promise,\
78	But of course [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder you know I had my fingers crossed]]
79	* ListSong: "The Ten Crack Commandments". It originally included a sample of Chuck D counting to ten from the Music/PublicEnemy song "Shut 'Em Down", but Chuck, who is both UsefulNotes/StraightEdge and heavily critical of drug dealing, was so incensed at being sampled in a song about drug dealing that he sued to have it removed.
80	* {{Mentor\|s}}: To Junior M.A.F.I.A., including Lil' Kim. Sadly, this ended with MentorOccupationalHazard.
81	* MightyGlacier: Describes himself as this in "Runnin' (Dying To Live)":
82	-->Run from the police picture that, nigga I'm too fat.\
83	I fuck around and catch a asthma attack.\
84	That's why I bust back, it don't phase me.\
85	When he drop, take his Glock, and I'm Swayze.
86	%% * MobWar
87	* NonAppearingTitle: "Juicy". The title makes sense when you know that the song samples "Juicy Fruit" by Mtume, but it doesn't appear anywhere in the song.
88	* RagsToRiches: A popular subject of his songs; "Juicy" and "Sky's The Limit" come to mind.
89	* RapMetal: "Wake Up" from ''Duets: The Final Chapter'', which features Music/{{Korn}}.
90	* [[EvilPowerVacuum Rap Power Vacuum]]: Many cynical fans feel this is how Music/JayZ rose to prominence after Biggie was killed.
91	* RemixAlbum: ''Duets: The Final Chapter''. The tracks are made from previous and/or unreleased recordings combined with verses from other rappers to form duets.
92	* {{Sampling}}: In addition to the "Ten Crack Commandments" debacle mentioned above, ''Ready to Die'' was pulled from shelves for a short while in 2004 due to a lawsuit about it sampling "Singing in the Morning" by Music/TheOhioPlayers without permission, but the matter was resolved quickly.
93	* TemptingFate: ''The names of Biggie's albums.''
94	* VillainProtagonist: "Gimme the Loot", "Dead Wrong," and "Who Shot Ya?"
95	* VocalEvolution: Notable in that you could hear it as early as ''Ready to Die''. Initially, Biggie rapped with a slightly higher, nasally tone; especially in his demo tapes. Once he recorded "Big Poppa", he began using the smoky baritone he became known for, and never looked back since.
96	----

Context Music / TheNotoriousBIG