The Legacy of Notorious B.I.G. Tribute

Not many artists in this business can lay claim to the title “Greatest of all time” and even be considered to be in touch with reality. Even fewer can be taken seriously if it is known they are in perfect mental health, however there are a few exceptions in the history of Hip-Hop. The late Brooklyn born Christopher Wallace is one of the select few that can even be acknowledged by the Hip-Hop community as one of the Greatest Rappers ever to touch a mic. Today Koncrete Messages would like to pay tribute to the self-donned Notorious B.I.G. AKA Biggie Smalls would change the face of Hip Hop and take the world by storm with his extremely potent, superior written rhymes that would bring on platinum hit after platinum hit.

Biggie was born May 21, 1972 in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant to Voletta Wallace, and from the beginning showed signs of potential talent. Biggies initial dream was to become a graphic designer and with his scholastic abilities did not seem like something too far from his reach. Eventually he would become intrigued with local thugs and hustlers, and soon the allure of the street life became too much for Chris to turn away from.


In 1991 a tape was sent in to The Source magazine by a fresh new talent who called himself The Notorious B.I.G. The tape, which ended up giving Biggie the Unsigned Hype competition spot for, the magazine eventually won. This tape eventually came by the way of Uptown Records producer Sean “Puffy” Combs who immediately contacted biggie and singed him to his newly formed label, Bad Boy Entertainment. In 1992 Biggie had a song out that got a lot of attention. The song "Party and Bullshit" was the song that first got peoples attention toward biggie and his amazing rhyming ability.

B.I.G. eventually became a multi-platinum superstar. Biggies CEO and friend Puffy had been at the heart of East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry, which was headed by Puffy’s, N.Y. based Bad Boy Entertainment going against the notorious Suge Knight and his company, the L.A. based Death Row Records. What eventually raised the stakes for this rivalry was Biggies former good friend and rapper 2pac who in late 1995 signed to Death Row after posting bail paid by Suge Knight himself. The set up couldn't have been better if it was written for a blockbuster movie, Biggie on dominating East coast label: Bad Boy and 2Pac, who believed that Biggie was the one who set up 2Pac's shooting in 1994, on the dominating West coast label: Death Row. Tragedy was the only outcome anyone could see from this... They were right. On September 7th, 1996 2Pac was shot on the Las Vegas strip and died a week later. If that didn't strike enough grief in the hearts of the Hip-Hop world, just 6 months later another tragedy hit.



Therefore we pay tribute to Christopher "B.I.G." Wallace was shot and killed on March 9th in Los Angeles 11years ago. All of the music nation was stunned by the loss of two of the only artists that could have laid claim to the title "Greatest of all time" 

Not too long after all the tragedy Biggies sophomore album Life After Death hit the streets and became an instant classic in the eyes of the Hip- Hop elite. The Source gave the albums a 5-mic rating which is a very rare occurrence, the singles from the album dominated the radio, and the album itself would go on to be certified Diamond (10x Platinum). This album too brought on awards. R and B album of the year from billboard, another MTV VMA, Spin magazine named him the artist of the year, and multiple times Life After Death was named album of the year. An undoubtedly Hip-Hop classic which included the hit singles "Hypnotize", "Sky's The Limit", Mo Money Mo Problems", and "Fucking You Tonight" to name just a few. As said before Biggies death was a vicious shock to the entire music industry and sent shock waves around the world.



The Notorious B.I.G.'s public funeral, however, was anything but peaceful. Thousands flooded into his Brooklyn neighborhood to catch a glimpse of his hearse, jumping on cars and clashing with police; ten people were arrested. A private funeral held earlier was more cordial, with Queen Latifah and members of Public Enemy and Naughty by Nature in attendance.

Till this day the case of Biggies murder has not been solved. Voletta Wallace still searches for the murder(s) and the answer to the most important question: "why?" All over the world, the B.I.G. fans tend not to remember that a great man was taken from the Hip-Hop world, but more so that he brought an extremely prosperous and positive presence to Hip-Hop itself. For that he may very well be the greatest of all time.