by MangaMoon

The Notorious B.I.G.

Remember… Biggie’s deep, unhurried voice and the precision with which he could tell an entire story in just a few lines? Christopher Wallace, known worldwide as The Notorious B.I.G., showed a talent for words at school, particularly excelling in English. He attended Brooklyn’s George Westinghouse High School, which Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes also attended. One school became connected to several future defining voices in hip-hop. A modest demo recording helped change Biggie’s future. Recorded on a friend’s four-track machine, the tape reached DJ Mister Cee, who passed it to The Source. Biggie appeared in its “Unsigned Hype” column, which introduced promising rappers without record deals. That exposure helped open the industry’s doors to him. His second album carries a particularly tragic history. Biggie was killed on March 9, 1997, and Life After Death arrived on March 25, just sixteen days later. Its title acquired a painful significance: listeners were hearing new music from someone who was already gone. In 2020, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, recognizing an artist whose brief career left a lasting mark on hip-hop.

Material: wooden