If You Dont Know, Now You Know

Christopher George Latore Wallace, better known as the rapper the Notorious B.I.G, was born on May 21, 1972 in Brooklyn, New York. He was raised by a single parent, his mother Voletta Wallace, in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant. As he was growing up, he was distraught between two directions he could potentially take to steer his life the way he wanted. On one hand, he dreamed of being a graphic artist and was an honour student to fulfill those dreams. On the other hand, there was a lot of peer pressure from the neighbourhood he lived in, for young men from that area were known for being junior outlaws. As he grew up in this area of BedStuy, he became known as “Big Chris” and he found himself holding down the corner of his neighbourhoods block. However, he wasn’t just known on the block for having a prolific dice game, he was also known for his rhyming abilities.

He recorded a mix tape in 1989 with a DJ called Mister Cee, who later submitted the tape to The Source Magazine for their “Unsigned Hype” competition. This competition was to see which up and coming rappers there were out in the streets, who actually had the talent and skill to become something in the rap industry. Big Chris’ tape won the challenge and this is where his jumpstart to stardom would begin. After winning, the magazine forwarded his tape to the founder and CEO of Bad Boy Records, Sean “P.Diddy” Combs, who at the time, was looking for a new hardcore rapper that he could put as the face of the record company. Within weeks of signing Biggie, he was immediately put to work. He was put on re-mixes with R&B legend, Mary J. Blige, and other rappers such as Super Cat and Neneh Cherry. As the years went on Christopher Wallace had merely stirred a buzz with his rapping abilities, with his first album “Ready to Die” set to debut in 1994. The anticipation for this album was electric. Ready to Die had attributes that the hip hop world had not come across as of yet. It was a first person autobiographical...