Download Whatchu Want (Ver. 2) Ringtone

Greatest rapper ever? Bed-Sty's lost son Christopher Wallace AKA Notorious B.I.G. usually hangs out at the top of the list of any hip hop head who knows their way around a rhyme. Growing up with fellow legends Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes in Brooklyn's Westinghouse High School, Biggie grew up with the game in his heart and a dream in his head. At first, he was skeptical that rap music could bring in enough cash to live on-despite his lyrical gifts, he was sucked into Brooklyn's rough drug trade and subsequently incarcerated in North Carolina at the age of 17. The always physically dominating Wallace took the name Biggie Smalls after his release, tipping his hat to his childhood nickname (the 6'3 MC maintained a steady body weight of 300-400 lbs.) The tape worked its way through the hip hop scene, earning Biggie a column in street bible The Source's "Unsigned Hype" column. Bad Boy Records pounced on the unsigned Biggie and Bad Boy producer P.Diddy formed an instant bond with him. After releasing a couple singles-"Cruisin'" and "Juicy/Unbelievable"-Biggie dropped his debut album, the stone-cold classic hardcore disc Ready to Die. Biggie struck a blow for East Coast hip hop, revealing a gritty technique that owed little to West Coast g-funk, to socially conscious acts like A Tribe Called Quest or to the intense mythology of Wu Tang Clan. His beats were catchy without being overly slick and his flow was crisp and intelligible while telling involved stories. The disc's standout track was the Isely Brothers-sampling "Big Poppa." The double-disc follow-up, 1994's Life After Death sold over 690,000 copies in its first week. The disc sees Biggie delving deeper into his own Scarface/Mafia mythology, a mentality that may have ultimately led to the MC's murder. After trading diss tracks with Death Row's Tupac Shakur, Biggie was implicated by scenesters in his murder. Within months, Biggie was slain in Los Angeles after the 1997 Soul Train Awards. Notorious B.I.G.'s talent for composing rhymes spontaneously in his head during recording sessions has left him with only a spattering of posthumous material, but he remains an enduring influence on the scene til this day.

More The Notorious B.I.G.