Why Does Biggie Matter?

originally published in the Gonzaga Bulletin, 2009

Even here, at a private, Catholic university in Spokane, the name Biggie Smalls means something. With last week’s release of the feature film Notorious, the memory of the slain rapper has been resurrected. While hardened gangsters on the gritty streets of America’s cities and pocket-protector-wearing white kids in the suburbs of the Midwest alike know his lyrics, it begs the question: why does Notorious B.I.G. matter?

Born in Brooklyn in 1972, Notorious B.I.G. (legally named Christopher Wallace) was quickly faced with the hardships that accompany the hardscrabble life of the projects. Although many records show that his early academic performance looked promising, he soon fell prey to the drug trade, buying and selling by the time he was 12.

Like many other rappers, he got his start on the street, quickly impressing others with his flowing lyricism and storytelling abilities. His enormous stature earned him the nickname “Biggie Smalls” which soon morphed into Notorious B.I.G. After he released a demo tape, noted producer, entrepreneur and nickname aficionado Sean (P. Diddy, Puff Daddy, Diddy, etc.) Combs quickly set up meetings and record appearances for the budding star. When Combs started his powerhouse Bad Boy Records, Notorious signed on.

Fame could not hold back the persistent symptoms of a life defined by crime and strife and Notorious was arrested and served nine months for a drug deal gone awry. He was later arrested for other violations involving violence and drugs. Shortly thereafter, he was back on top of recording industry and had many singles hit the Billboard charts with resounding success.

In 1994, Notorious married singer Faith Evans with whom he would go on to have a child. His marriage to Faith Evans merged the two into one of hip-hop’s most powerful and recognizable duos. It was his friendship and subsequent rivalry with Tupac Shakur, though, which he is most famous (indeed notorious) for.

Originally, Notorious’s relationship with Shakur was on friendly terms. That changed when Shakur was robbed at gunpoint in 1994, which was subsequently blamed on Notorious’s entourage. By this time, Notorious had collaborated with a group called Junior M.A.F.I.A., a rapping entourage and hip-hop culture dynasty.

What ensued quickly spiraled into all-out turf war between East and West, Shakur and Notorious and competing rap labels. Rappers, producers and average civilians found themselves embroiled in a nationwide rivalry that encouraged violence both explicitly and implicitly. Tensions boiled over in 1996, at the height of the coastal beef, when Shakur was murdered in Las Vegas in a drive-by shooting.

Immediately, rumors swirled about Notorious’s involvement in Shakur’s death. Notorious traveled to Los Angeles to promote his popular single “Hypnotize”. On March 9, 1997 Notorious left a party accompanied by Junior M.A.F.I.A. members in a black Suburban. When the car stopped at a red light, an unidentified man rolled down his window and shot Notorious, killing him.

The saga of the unsolved Shakur-Smalls murders plays on in rap songs today, cultural lore and hip-hop history. People call for greater efforts to find the culprits. However, it is in the final chapter of this story that is the most important in understanding the importance of the life and death of one of rap’s biggest superstars.

It is not the tale of his meteoric rise to fame out of a life of crime, poverty and despair into one of unimaginable riches but rather the persistence of the tragic narrative of the lifestyle he could not escape. With his extreme popularity, stranglehold over the rap game, endless monetary resources and a powerful network and entourage it seemed that he had transcended his toxic past. Perhaps what matters most is not the allusion to the American dream of the young, poor scrapper rising to the top but rather the fact that his lifestyle of crime, rivalry and violence followed him to higher levels of fame and wealth, with its symptoms reverberating over the entire nation. Notorious, in all ways, lived on an exaggerated scale. As the scope of his fame widened, so did the magnitude of the tragic narrative he could never escape.