Trivia / The Notorious B.I.G.

• Acting for Two:
  • "Gimme the Loot" on Ready to Die features two criminals plotting and carrying out a robbery — both of whom are played by Biggie.
  • He also raps both halves of a phone conversation in "Warning".
• Breakthrough Hit: "Big Poppa".
• Genre-Killer: The general public took Biggie and 2Pac's consecutive murders as evidence that Gangsta Rap had gotten as dark as they could take it, and its popularity quickly dried up. While rappers would continue to employ gangsta imagery in their music, in the aftermath of the murders they tended to focus more on the money and flashy lifestyles than on how they got them. It's telling that the infamously inoffensive Will Smith enjoyed a major comeback in the wake of these tragedies.
• Magnum Opus Dissonance: Despite being widely hailed as two of his best songs, and regular contenders for the best rap song of all time, Biggie reportedly disliked both "Juicy" and "Big Poppa", and was reluctant to record either song until Puffy convinced him.
• Short-Lived, Big Impact: He died at 24, leaving a profound influence on rap in his wake. This applies to him even moreso than 2Pac, as while 2Pac at least had a decent body of work before his death, Biggie only has two albums in his entire discography (not counting posthumous releases, and even then, only one of those is unheard material). And his second album was released fifteen days after his death.

---