In just a few short years, the Notorious B.I.G. Went from a Brooklyn street hustler to the savior of East Coast hip-hop to a tragic victim of the culture of violence he depicted so realistically on his records. His all-too-brief odyssey almost immediately took on mythic proportions, especially since his murder followed the shooting of rival Tupac Shakur by only six months. Welcome Home Loan Program.

The song was released under the name “Big”—a Los Angeles rapper named “Biggy Smallz” was already signed to MCA Records, preventing Biggie from using his original name. In mid-1993, Puffy left Uptown and brought Biggie with him as a founding artist of his new label Bad Boy Records. From the album Duets: The Final Chapter R.I.P Biggie. Skip navigation. Hustler's Story. Biggie Smalls - im wit whateva ft.

In death, the man also known as Biggie Smalls became a symbol of the senseless violence that plagued inner-city America in the waning years of the 20th century. Whether or not his death was really the result of a much-publicized feud between the East and West Coast hip-hop scenes, it did mark the point where both sides stepped back from a rivalry that had gone too far. Hip-hop's self-image would never be quite the same, and neither would public perception.

The aura of martyrdom that surrounds the Notorious B.I.G. Sometimes threatens to overshadow his musical legacy, which was actually quite significant. Helped by Sean 'Puffy' Combs' radio-friendly sensibility, Biggie reestablished East Coast rap's viability by leading it into the post-Dr. Dre gangsta age. Where fellow East Coasters the Wu-Tang Clan slowly built an underground following, Biggie crashed onto the charts and became a star right out of the box. In the process, he helped Combs' Bad Boy label supplant Death Row as the biggest hip-hop imprint in America, and also paved the way to popular success for other East Coast talents like Jay-Z and Nas. Biggie was a gifted storyteller with a sense of humor and an eye for detail, and his narratives about the often violent life of the streets were rarely romanticized; instead, they were told with a gritty, objective realism that won him enormous respect and credibility.

The general consensus in the rap community was that when his life was cut short, sadly, Biggie was just getting started. The Notorious B.I.G. Was born Christopher Wallace on May 21, 1972, and grew up in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. He was interested in rap from a young age, performing with local groups like the Old Gold Brothers and the Techniques, the latter of whom brought the teenaged Wallace his first trip to a recording studio. He had already adopted the name Biggie Smalls at this point, a reference to his ample frame, which would grow to be over six feet tall and nearly 400 pounds.