The Life & Death of the Notorious BIG
10 years ago today, the rapper Notorious BIG, (aka Biggie, aka Biggie Smalls) was murdered. He was leaving party in LA when he was shot in a drive-by shooting. The killer has never been caught by police!
Biggie's death came 6 months after the death of another rapper, 2pac (aka Tupac Shakur). 2pac and Biggie didn't get along, and 2pac made insulting Biggie. Some thought Biggie was responsible for 2pac's death, and that Biggie was killed in retaliation!
(for my commentary on 2pac, go to http://pablothemadtiger.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_archive.html)
1) I still remember the first time I heard of the Notorious BIG. It was in the summer of 1994, between my 7th & 8th grade years. I first saw the video for "Juicy"The song was about Biggie's dream of being a rapper, living in public housing, his trouble with the law, and how he was trying to live a more positive and successful life! The video illustrated that even better than the song itself!
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/notoriousbig/juicy.html
That song was part of Biggie's 1st album "Ready to Die". It also had another song "Everyday Struggles", another song about how hard it was for someone in the ghetto to survive, and that getting in trouble with the law isn't glamorous at all!
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/notoriousbig/everydaystruggle.html
I also remembered the song "Big Poppa" which was his 1st mainstream hit! It was a more happy song, about living a life of luxury and being a stud. Every guy my age loved that song because we wanted to live that Big Poppa lifestyle!
http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Notorious-B-I-G/Big-Poppa.html
2) That song also had a beat that was popular with West Coast rappers at the time. Though Biggie was from the East Coast, and most of his songs used East Coast beats, he used a West Coast beat for "Big Poppa" because 1) West Coast rappers were the most popular that time, 2) he wanted to have fans in both the East & West coast!
However, Biggie had problems with 2pac (who was born in New York, but moved to California as a teenager) and it was seen as a "East Coast vs West Coast" war!
However, 2pac did make songs with East Coast rappers like Naughty By Nature, Method Man, Redman and the Outlawz.And Biggie made songs with West Coast rapper Too Short (the Word is Filled ..), and made a solo hit "Going Back to Cali" (another song with a West Coast beat), which he stated he loved to visit California!
3) While Biggie had some serious songs, he also had some funny stuff as well. Just go to the following website and you'll find some interesting stuff!
http://www.azlyrics.com/n/notorious.html
4) "Ready to Die" was Biggie's 1st album. "Life After Death" came out 2 weeks after he was killed.
The other 2 albums listed, "Born Again" & "Duets: The Final Chapter" had mostly stuff that Biggie made, but wasn't planned for release. However, the fans wanted more stuff, so Bad Boy Records released them.
Most of the stuff wasn't as great as his 1st 2 albums!You could also find more stuff with Biggie on Puff Daddy's (aka Puffy, now known as Diddy) album "No Way Out"!
Puffy and Biggie were good friends, so they made a lot of songs together! "No Way Out" came out a few months after Biggie's death, and you'll find some great stuff there!
5) I remembered when I 1st found out Biggie was dead.
It was early in the morning, and I just got up. I was still tired!
I could hear my mom's radio (usually tuned to KSSK, which mostly played slow songs).
The hosts Perry & Price were talking about 2pac & Biggie's feud, and I was wondering why were they talking about it, since that radio station didn't play rap music! I was wondering if Biggie was being questioned by police about it!
Then about a 1/2 hour later( when I was finally wide awake!) , the TV news mentioned Biggie was killed!
Then it finally hit me! That was why Perry & Price were talking about it!
