Born Christopher Wallace, the Notorious B.I.G. (also known as Biggie Smalls) released only one album before his tragic death in 1997, a victim of the hip-hop bravado he epitomized. His 1994 multiplatinum debut album, Ready to Die, proved the nearly 400-pound Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, native was a deft storyteller whose gritty tales of life on the street were told with realistic detail. At 17, Wallace dropped out of school and started selling crack, for which he was arrested and jailed for nine months. After his release, he recorded a demo that gained the attention of Sean "Puffy" Combs, who signed him to his Bad Boy imprint. His debut album boasted the hit singles "Juicy" and "Big Poppa." In late 1994, rapper Tupac Shakur was shot and wounded in New York, and rumors quickly spread that Wallace played a part in the shooting. The incident inflamed the ongoing East Coast–West Coast rivalry.

On March 9, 1997, six months after Shakur was murdered in Las Vegas, Wallace was shot and killed in Los Angeles while sitting in the passenger seat of his SUV. Both murders remain unsolved. The double-CD Life After Death, released less than a month after his death, debuted at No. 1 and eventually sold more than 10 million copies. In 1999 a second posthumous album, Born Again, was released and went double platinum.

Notorious B.I.G.: Unreleased Live Video Clip

Reviews

• Ready to Die

Features

• Murder Is the Case: Who's Who in the Biggie Investigation
• Thinking Big
• Little Biggies
• Notorious B.I.G.: The Wonder Years
• Biggie Lives!
• No Biggie
• The Greatest Songs Ever! Hypnotize