Today marks what would have been rapper, “The Notorious B.I.G.” or Biggie Small’s 47th birthday. Ahead, learn about the late rapper’s life, details surrounding his death, and the fortune he left behind.
What’s Biggie Smalls’ birthplace?
Born Christopher George Latore Wallace, on May 21, 1972, in Brooklyn, New York, Smalls’ parents were from Jamaica. Voletta, his mother, worked as a preschool teacher while his father, Selwyn, worked as a welder and local politician.
- Died: March 9, 1997. Biggie Smalls Mother Death; The Notorious B.I.G.' The Notorious B.I.G. Was born Christopher George Latore Wallace in Brooklyn, New.
- Prior to Brooklyn Nets vs. New York Knicks, the Notorious B.I.G.' S mother thanks the Barclays Center crowd. Subscribe for daily sports videos!
Following the death of Biggie, she collaborated with Puff Daddy, and 112 band to release a tribute single named, ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ in honor of Biggie Smalls alias The Notorious B. The single which was critically and commercially acclaimed went on to win a Grammy Award in the Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group category. Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, was born on May 21, 1972 in Brooklyn, New York. He was the son of Jamaican parents, Voletta Wallace, a pre-school teacher, and George Latore, a welder and small-time politician.
Voletta raised Smalls after her Selwyn left the family in 1974. To support her son, Voletta worked two jobs. After transferring from a private school — the Roman Catholic Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School — to George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, Smalls eventually dropped out at the age of 17 in 1989.
Smalls started dealing drugs at the age of 12 unbeknownst to his mother. He had trouble with the law throughout his teen years.
How did the Biggie Smalls get his nicknames?
The rapper got the nickname “Big” during childhood because of his size. As an adult, he stood at 6’ 3” tall and 280 pounds.
After getting out jail, he made a demo tape under the name, Biggie Smalls, which the rapper got from a drug dealer character in the 1975 film, Let’s Do It Again. But he wasn’t serious about rapping. “It was fun just hearing myself on tape over beats,” Smalls later said.
Voletta Wallace In Mental Hospital
As for the name, The Notorious B.I.G., there are multiple theories about the origin of the name. The rapper himself said B.I.G. stood for Biggie “Business Instead of Game.”
His mother has said otherwise. She once claimed the acronym stood for “Books Instead of Guns” because her son excelled in English classes in school.
How did Biggie Smalls die?
Smalls died on March 9, 1997, in a shooting after leaving a party in Los Angeles. Stopped at a red light, another vehicle pulled up next to Smalls’ and open fired. His murder remains unsolved.
His death has been connected to his rivalry with fellow rapper, Tupac Shakur.
The two men who were once friends became bitter rivals, dividing the east and west coasts of the United States. Shakur also died in a shooting with many people thinking Smalls had something to do with it even though he continuously denied being involved.
How old was Biggie Smalls at the time of his death?
Smalls died at the age of 24 only a few months before his 25th birthday.
What was Biggie Smalls’ net worth at the time of his death?
When he died, the rapper had an estimated net worth of $20 million. He made money off his debut album, Ready to Die. His second album, eerily named Life After Death, went on sale in the days following his death.
Notorious Big Death Photo
Today, his estate has an estimated worth of $160 million. The Notorious B.I.G.’s music continued to be released posthumously. The estate’s also made money through biographies including a movie about the rapper’s life and legacy.
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In the early morning hours of March 9th, 1997, rap music star Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls, took four bullets in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, according to CNN. Wallace was in town for his new album, appropriately titled Life After Death, and of those shots, the one that struck his hip proved fatal. The Notorious B.I.G. was pronounced dead soon afterward, when emergency surgery proved unsuccessful.
Got any questions? Well, you're not alone. More than twenty years later, those two sentences represent just about everything that the world knows for sure. The homicide investigation into the death of Biggie Smalls went cold not long after it started, and nobody was ever charged in his killing. Plenty of people were trying, too: In 2010, the New York Times described a 'cottage industry of criminal speculation' surrounding the murder of Christopher Wallace, yet another celebrity who died at the peak of his fame, and all told, there have been dozens of books, documentaries, and biopics investigating the murders of both Biggie and Tupac.
Still, the questions greatly outnumber the answers.
Biggie Smalls Death Photo
B.I.G. questions remain
The elephant in the room, of course, is 'Who killed Biggie Smalls?'
Theories have been floated over the years. The big one is that his death was a coordinated hit, in retaliation for Tupac's death six months earlier. An LAPD officer named Russell Poole, who worked as the lead investigator on Biggie's murder, believed that corrupt police officers may have had something to do with it, coordinating efforts with Suge Knight and Death Row Records. Ominously, he was ordered off the case before retiring in 1999. Billboard states that he was in the process of writing a book about the murders when he died of a heart attack in 2015.
Poole's investigation led Wallace's mother to file a wrongful death suits against the City of Los Angeles 2005 and 2007, according to the New York Times. The first ended in a mistrial, and the second was dismissed after a lengthy bureaucratic back and forth. At this point, though, it's unlikely that the world will ever have concrete answers. A high profile death, combined with popular speculation, means that no confession or newfound evidence will ever be enough to satiate the public's curiosity.
The only thing known for sure is that Tupac Shakur is still alive, and living under the assumed identity of Elvis Costello (not). Probably should have opened with that.