(He had been forced to change his recording name after a lawsuit though he continued to be widely known as Biggie). Blige's 'Real Love' in August 1992 that featured a guest verse from The Notorious B.I.G. Combs went on to set up his own imprint, Bad Boy Records, and by mid-1992 Biggie had joined him.īefore he had the chance to put anything out on Bad Boy, Uptown released music that Biggie recorded during his brief stint at the label, including a remix of Mary J. Combs arranged a record deal for Biggie, but left the label soon after, having fallen out with his boss, Andre Harrell. This recording came to the attention of Sean 'Puffy' Combs, an A&R executive and producer who worked for the leading urban label Uptown Records - he started there as an intern in 1990. He had no serious plans to pursue a career in music - 'It was fun just hearing myself on tape over beats,' he later said in an Arista Records biography - but the tape found its way to The Source magazine, who were so impressed that they profiled Biggie in their Unsigned Hype column in March 1992 from there, Biggie was invited to record with other unsigned rappers.

After he got out of jail, he made a demo tape as Biggie Smalls - named after a gang leader from the 1975 movie Let's Do It Again also a nod to his childhood nickname. Photo: Raymond Boyd/Getty Images Bad Boy Recordsīiggie began rapping as a teenager to entertain people in his neighborhood. Scott 'Zimer' Zimmerman and Naoufal 'Rocko' Alaoui's mural of Biggie Smalls in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York

In this regard, he was similar to Tupac Shakur, his one-time friend turned bitter rival - a contest that spiraled horrifyingly out of control leaving neither man alive to tell the tale. He styled himself as a gangster and although he was no angel, in reality he was more of a performer than a hardened criminal. With his clear, powerful baritone, effortless flow on the mic and willingness to address the vulnerability, as well as the harshness, of the hustler lifestyle, Smalls swung the spotlight back towards New York and his label home, Bad Boy Records. Smalls was from New York and had almost single-handedly reinvented East Coast hip hop - overtaken in the early 1990s by the West Coast 'g-funk' sound of Dr. He was 24 years old when he was gunned down in 1997 in Los Angeles, a murder that has never been solved. Who Was Biggie Smalls?Ĭhristopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls and the Notorious B.I.G., lived a short life.

Biggie Smalls, also known as 'The Notorious B.I.G.,' was a revered hip-hop artist and face of East Coast gangsta rap.

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