WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.480 Okay, let's unpack this. We are talking about 00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:10.140 a figure today who looms so large. over music, 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:13.160 over culture, really over the entire city of 00:00:13.160 --> 00:00:15.460 New York, that it's almost hard to see the human 00:00:15.460 --> 00:00:17.940 being underneath the legend. It really is. We 00:00:17.940 --> 00:00:19.879 are talking about Christopher Wallace. Better 00:00:19.879 --> 00:00:22.219 known to the world, of course, as the notorious 00:00:22.219 --> 00:00:26.379 B .I .G. or simply Biggie Smalls. Exactly. I 00:00:26.379 --> 00:00:28.320 mean, the man is widely considered one of the 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:30.500 greatest rappers of all time. The GOAT, according 00:00:30.500 --> 00:00:32.520 to places like Billboard and The Source. Right. 00:00:32.619 --> 00:00:34.740 He's the savior of East Coast hip hop. He's a 00:00:34.740 --> 00:00:37.240 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. But when 00:00:37.240 --> 00:00:39.700 you look at the stack of sources we have today, 00:00:39.880 --> 00:00:42.979 biographical data, historical accounts, discography 00:00:42.979 --> 00:00:46.030 notes. What really jumps out is just how short 00:00:46.030 --> 00:00:48.890 this story actually was. It is a tragically compressed 00:00:48.890 --> 00:00:51.530 timeline. We're looking at a life that ended 00:00:51.530 --> 00:00:55.469 at 24 years old. 24. It's unbelievable. And yet, 00:00:55.530 --> 00:00:58.049 in that brief window, he managed to fundamentally 00:00:58.049 --> 00:01:01.229 change the sonic landscape of hip -hop. He shifted 00:01:01.229 --> 00:01:03.270 the entire gravitational center of the genre. 00:01:03.570 --> 00:01:05.849 That's what we're here to do today. The mission 00:01:05.849 --> 00:01:07.989 of this deep dive isn't just to list his hits. 00:01:08.069 --> 00:01:10.230 We want to move beyond the King of New York legend 00:01:10.230 --> 00:01:13.819 and understand the man. How does a shy... English 00:01:13.819 --> 00:01:16.640 prize -winning student from a strict household. 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:20.000 We've become a gangster rap icon. It's the central 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:23.480 question. It is. And we need to analyze his artistry. 00:01:23.709 --> 00:01:26.590 what specifically made his flow and storytelling 00:01:26.590 --> 00:01:28.829 so distinct that he didn't even need to write 00:01:28.829 --> 00:01:31.590 lyrics down. That part just blows my mind every 00:01:31.590 --> 00:01:34.049 time. It's a key part of his genius. And of course, 00:01:34.049 --> 00:01:37.269 we have to untangle that tragic, complex web 00:01:37.269 --> 00:01:39.950 of friendship and rivalry with Tupac Shakur that 00:01:39.950 --> 00:01:43.030 came to define the mid -90s. I am so ready to 00:01:43.030 --> 00:01:45.109 get into this. It's a heavy story for sure, but 00:01:45.109 --> 00:01:47.340 it's also just an incredible story of... pure, 00:01:47.379 --> 00:01:50.159 raw talent. It is. And to understand Christopher 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:52.280 Wallace, you cannot just look at the music charts. 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:54.700 You have to look at the sociological context 00:01:54.700 --> 00:01:56.980 of Brooklyn in the 80s and 90s. You have to look 00:01:56.980 --> 00:01:58.599 at the crack epidemic. You have to look at the 00:01:58.599 --> 00:02:02.140 technical evolution of hip hop flow itself. Let's 00:02:02.140 --> 00:02:03.739 start at the beginning. Part one, the origin 00:02:03.739 --> 00:02:05.560 story, because I think a lot of people assume 00:02:05.560 --> 00:02:08.460 Biggie was just born hard. You know, he came 00:02:08.460 --> 00:02:11.139 out of the womb wearing a coogie sweater and 00:02:11.139 --> 00:02:13.620 holding a mic. Not quite. Not at all. Actually, 00:02:13.780 --> 00:02:16.469 Christopher George Latore Wallace was born. born 00:02:16.469 --> 00:02:21.409 on May 21, 1972, in Brooklyn, New York. And a 00:02:21.409 --> 00:02:24.030 crucial detail right off the bat, he was the 00:02:24.030 --> 00:02:26.729 only child of Jamaican immigrant parents. That 00:02:26.729 --> 00:02:29.330 Jamaican heritage is huge for his musical influences 00:02:29.330 --> 00:02:31.150 later on, right? I feel like you can hear it 00:02:31.150 --> 00:02:34.030 in the rhythm of his voice. Absolutely. We'll 00:02:34.030 --> 00:02:36.270 get to the reggae and mento influence on his 00:02:36.270 --> 00:02:39.240 flow, but... Culturally, it just meant he was 00:02:39.240 --> 00:02:41.860 raised in a specific type of household. His mother, 00:02:42.039 --> 00:02:44.400 Valetta Wallace, was a preschool teacher. A preschool 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:46.439 teacher. That already paints a very different 00:02:46.439 --> 00:02:49.340 picture. And his father, Selwyn George LaTorre, 00:02:49.479 --> 00:02:52.280 he was a welder and a local politician. But, 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:54.840 and this is a motif we see so often in these 00:02:54.840 --> 00:02:57.259 stories, he left the family when Christopher 00:02:57.259 --> 00:02:59.599 was just two years old. So you have the absent 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:01.919 father motif right from the start. It's Valetta 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:04.400 and Christopher against the world. Precisely. 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:07.319 She worked two jobs to support him. She was incredibly 00:03:07.319 --> 00:03:09.439 dedicated. And by all accounts, Christopher was 00:03:09.439 --> 00:03:11.939 not a bad kid initially. This is the good kid 00:03:11.939 --> 00:03:14.240 narrative that so often gets lost in the legend. 00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:16.719 What do we know about that side of him? Well, 00:03:16.819 --> 00:03:18.819 for one, he was raised as a Jehovah's Witness. 00:03:19.099 --> 00:03:22.599 A Jehovah's Witness. I cannot imagine Big Papa 00:03:22.599 --> 00:03:25.310 going door to door with the Watchtower. It speaks 00:03:25.310 --> 00:03:27.509 to the strictness of his upbringing. It was a 00:03:27.509 --> 00:03:31.169 very structured, very disciplined home. He attended 00:03:31.169 --> 00:03:33.409 Queen of All Saints Middle School, a Catholic 00:03:33.409 --> 00:03:36.870 school. Okay. And get this, he excelled in English. 00:03:36.930 --> 00:03:39.069 He was winning awards for it. That makes total 00:03:39.069 --> 00:03:40.930 sense, though. When you listen to his lyrics 00:03:40.930 --> 00:03:43.689 later, the vocabulary, the syntax, the storytelling, 00:03:43.930 --> 00:03:46.770 it's literary. The man was a writer before he 00:03:46.770 --> 00:03:49.439 was a rapper. He understood narrative. He was. 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:52.159 The foundation was there. And he went on to George 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:54.659 Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High 00:03:54.659 --> 00:03:56.699 School. Now, if you want to talk about destiny 00:03:56.699 --> 00:03:59.240 or just a concentration of talent, look at the 00:03:59.240 --> 00:04:01.539 alumni list of that school. Oh, this is the famous 00:04:01.539 --> 00:04:03.520 part. At the same time Wallace was there, you 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:07.120 had future peers like Jay -Z. Jay -Z. Busta Rhymes. 00:04:07.199 --> 00:04:09.819 And DMX. And DMX all walking the same halls. 00:04:10.060 --> 00:04:13.039 That is wild. Can you just imagine the cafeteria 00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:15.719 rap battles? Just the energy in that building. 00:04:16.060 --> 00:04:18.560 You have to wonder if they knew, if they sensed 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:20.740 they were all on the cusp of changing music forever. 00:04:21.079 --> 00:04:24.379 So, okay, he's this good kid. He's doing well 00:04:24.379 --> 00:04:26.500 in school, winning English awards. His mom is 00:04:26.500 --> 00:04:31.379 a teacher. Where does the turn happen? How do 00:04:31.379 --> 00:04:35.699 we get from honor student Christopher to Frank 00:04:35.699 --> 00:04:37.740 White? It's the pull of the streets. It's the 00:04:37.740 --> 00:04:39.519 environment. You have to understand what his 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:41.560 neighborhood was like. He grew up in Clinton 00:04:41.560 --> 00:04:43.699 Hill, right on the border of Bedford -Stuyvesant. 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:47.319 Bids do do or die. Exactly. And this is the 1980s 00:04:47.319 --> 00:04:50.040 and early 90s. The crack epidemic is tearing 00:04:50.040 --> 00:04:52.259 through New York City. It wasn't just a drug. 00:04:52.279 --> 00:04:54.660 It was an economy. It was a social force. It 00:04:54.660 --> 00:04:57.000 changed everything. It was everywhere. And he 00:04:57.000 --> 00:04:59.019 got into dealing young, right? Around age 12. 00:04:59.259 --> 00:05:02.519 12. Wow. That is incredibly young to be navigating 00:05:02.519 --> 00:05:05.120 that world. It is. And the juxtaposition between 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:07.660 his home life and his street life is fascinating. 00:05:08.490 --> 00:05:11.009 There's this one detailed anecdote in the sources 00:05:11.009 --> 00:05:13.069 that I love because it perfectly captures that 00:05:13.069 --> 00:05:15.329 duality. What was it? He was making good money 00:05:15.329 --> 00:05:18.529 dealing, but his mother was so strict, he couldn't 00:05:18.529 --> 00:05:20.790 just come home with new sneakers and wads of 00:05:20.790 --> 00:05:23.250 cash. She would have known something was up. 00:05:23.290 --> 00:05:24.970 Right. The preschool teacher would not be having 00:05:24.970 --> 00:05:27.410 that. So he would hide his earnings on the roof 00:05:27.410 --> 00:05:30.170 of his apartment building. He'd climb up there 00:05:30.170 --> 00:05:32.230 and stash the money so she wouldn't find it. 00:05:32.329 --> 00:05:35.220 That is such a vivid image. Yeah. hiding the 00:05:35.220 --> 00:05:37.220 drug money on the roof so his mom doesn't find 00:05:37.220 --> 00:05:39.879 it while she's like grading papers downstairs. 00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:42.560 And she didn't know. According to her, she didn't 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:44.879 find out about his dealing until he was 20 years 00:05:44.879 --> 00:05:47.120 old. He kept that double life going for eight 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:50.160 years. A complete double life. But, you know, 00:05:50.319 --> 00:05:52.740 the streak started winning. He started gaining 00:05:52.740 --> 00:05:54.720 a lot of weight, which is where the nickname 00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:58.050 Big came from among his friends. He started losing 00:05:58.050 --> 00:06:00.730 interest in school. He eventually dropped out 00:06:00.730 --> 00:06:03.689 at 16. And that's when the legal troubles started 00:06:03.689 --> 00:06:06.529 ramping up, I assume. Yes. It went from hiding 00:06:06.529 --> 00:06:09.170 money on the roof to arrest for weapons charges, 00:06:09.449 --> 00:06:12.310 probation violations. The stakes got higher. 00:06:12.470 --> 00:06:15.410 And then the really serious one. The jail time. 00:06:15.670 --> 00:06:18.430 Right. He was arrested for dealing crack cocaine 00:06:18.430 --> 00:06:21.310 in North Carolina and ended up serving nine months 00:06:21.310 --> 00:06:23.790 in jail. Nine months is a long time to sit and 00:06:23.790 --> 00:06:26.339 think. Especially when you're that young. Do 00:06:26.339 --> 00:06:28.120 we know if that was a major turning point for 00:06:28.120 --> 00:06:31.000 him creatively? It seems to be part of the incubation 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:34.120 period. It was a harsh reality check. But his 00:06:34.120 --> 00:06:36.480 musical education had been happening all along, 00:06:36.600 --> 00:06:39.019 even before that. Because of his Jamaican roots, 00:06:39.259 --> 00:06:41.660 he grew up hearing reggae and mento. You can 00:06:41.660 --> 00:06:43.639 hear that in his cadences sometimes, that sort 00:06:43.639 --> 00:06:46.579 of melodic bounce. For sure. He also listened 00:06:46.579 --> 00:06:49.560 to soul and funk artists like Curtis Mayfield, 00:06:49.860 --> 00:06:52.459 Teddy Pendergrass, and of course the early hip 00:06:52.459 --> 00:06:56.699 -hop greats. Run DMC, LL Cool J. He was a student 00:06:56.699 --> 00:06:59.420 of the game. I read somewhere he also dabbled 00:06:59.420 --> 00:07:02.420 in jazz. That seems like an outlier. It's a critical 00:07:02.420 --> 00:07:04.339 piece of the puzzle that often gets overlooked. 00:07:04.620 --> 00:07:06.839 He worked with a local jazz saxophonist named 00:07:06.839 --> 00:07:08.579 Donald Harrison. What did he learn from him? 00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:10.740 Harrison taught him about breath control and 00:07:10.740 --> 00:07:13.600 phrasing, not just rhyming, but how to use your 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:16.160 breath to write a beat, to pause, to create tension 00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:18.660 and release. So when you hear Biggie rap later, 00:07:18.759 --> 00:07:20.740 and he's so smooth, almost like a horn player. 00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:23.180 That's the jazz training. That's the jazz training. 00:07:23.240 --> 00:07:25.600 He's not just shouting rhymes. He's playing his 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:28.060 voice like an instrument. That connects so many 00:07:28.060 --> 00:07:31.160 dots. Okay, so he gets out of jail. He's back 00:07:31.160 --> 00:07:34.019 in Brooklyn. He has this incredible, eclectic 00:07:34.019 --> 00:07:36.740 musical knowledge. How do we get from ex -con 00:07:36.740 --> 00:07:41.040 to superstar? It starts, as it so often does, 00:07:41.300 --> 00:07:44.399 with a demo tape. He wasn't even trying to become 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:47.100 a professional rapper, really. He was just doing 00:07:47.100 --> 00:07:49.180 it for fun, to entertain people on the block. 00:07:49.439 --> 00:07:51.540 So it wasn't a serious career ambition at first? 00:07:51.740 --> 00:07:54.220 Not according to the sources. He recorded a tape 00:07:54.220 --> 00:07:56.699 called Microphone Murderer with a local DJ named 00:07:56.699 --> 00:08:00.120 50 Grand. Just messing around, basically. But 00:08:00.120 --> 00:08:03.220 the tape found its way to DJ Mr. C. Mr. C from 00:08:03.220 --> 00:08:05.740 the Juice Crew. Big Daddy Kane's DJ. I mean, 00:08:05.740 --> 00:08:09.459 that's hip -hop royalty. Exactly. Mr. C was a 00:08:09.459 --> 00:08:12.199 major tastemaker. He heard the raw talent, the 00:08:12.199 --> 00:08:14.240 voice, the storytelling, and he knew it was something 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:16.639 special. So he submitted the tape to the Source 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:20.730 magazine for their legendary Un - Unsigned hype 00:08:20.730 --> 00:08:23.230 was the Bible back then. If you were in there, 00:08:23.310 --> 00:08:25.269 your phone was about to start ringing. It was 00:08:25.269 --> 00:08:28.290 the ultimate cosign. It was the gatekeeper. And 00:08:28.290 --> 00:08:31.470 he was featured in the March 1992 issue. And 00:08:31.470 --> 00:08:33.909 that column caught the eye of a young, ambitious 00:08:33.909 --> 00:08:37.750 A &R executive at Uptown Records named Sean Combs. 00:08:37.889 --> 00:08:40.269 Puffy. At the time, he was still Puffy. Sean 00:08:40.269 --> 00:08:43.669 Puffy Combs. And the rest, as they say, is history. 00:08:43.830 --> 00:08:46.559 But it wasn't a straight line, was it? I remember 00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:48.779 reading about some drama with the record labels 00:08:48.779 --> 00:08:51.820 that almost derailed everything. It was the industry 00:08:51.820 --> 00:08:54.919 game, as he might put it. It was messy. Puffy 00:08:54.919 --> 00:08:57.100 signed him to Uptown Records first. That's where 00:08:57.100 --> 00:08:58.960 he got his first real taste of the industry, 00:08:59.100 --> 00:09:02.240 recording on a remix of Mary J. Blige's smash 00:09:02.240 --> 00:09:04.840 hit Real Love. He sounds so young on that track, 00:09:04.919 --> 00:09:07.059 but the voice is already there. It's unmistakable. 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:09.980 But then, disaster struck. Puffy had a falling 00:09:09.980 --> 00:09:12.080 out with Andre Harrell, the head of Uptown, and 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:14.840 he got fired. Ouch. So your champion, the guy 00:09:14.840 --> 00:09:16.820 who discovered you, gets the booth. What happens 00:09:16.820 --> 00:09:19.480 to Biggie? He's just left hanging. He's in limbo. 00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:21.460 He had recorded material, but he lost access 00:09:21.460 --> 00:09:24.519 to it. He was stuck. But this is where loyalty 00:09:24.519 --> 00:09:27.220 and maybe a bit of Puffy's legendary salesmanship 00:09:27.220 --> 00:09:29.720 kicked in. Puffy went out and started his own 00:09:29.720 --> 00:09:31.919 label, Bad Boy Records. And Biggie went with 00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:34.179 him. He followed him immediately. It was a huge 00:09:34.179 --> 00:09:35.879 risk. He was betting on the guy who just got 00:09:35.879 --> 00:09:38.279 fired to build a new empire from scratch. But 00:09:38.279 --> 00:09:40.720 it was a bet that paid off, obviously. It certainly 00:09:40.720 --> 00:09:43.220 did. But they had a branding issue right away. 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:46.820 He had been performing as Biggie Smalls, which 00:09:46.820 --> 00:09:50.200 was a character from the 1975 Sidney Poitier 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:52.799 film, Let's Do It Again. A great movie, by the 00:09:52.799 --> 00:09:55.320 way. A classic. But the name was legally taken 00:09:55.320 --> 00:09:57.539 by another artist. They couldn't use it. So they 00:09:57.539 --> 00:10:00.639 needed a new name. Something bigger. Enter... 00:10:00.909 --> 00:10:04.190 The notorious B .I .G. And here's a fun fact 00:10:04.190 --> 00:10:06.309 that I think really speaks to his mindset at 00:10:06.309 --> 00:10:08.370 the time. Moving from the streets to the boardroom, 00:10:08.509 --> 00:10:11.970 he said the acronym B .I .G. stood for business 00:10:11.970 --> 00:10:14.610 instead of game. Business instead of game. I 00:10:14.610 --> 00:10:17.090 love that. He's signaling right there, I'm done 00:10:17.090 --> 00:10:18.929 playing on the corner. This is a career now. 00:10:19.169 --> 00:10:22.169 This is a business. Exactly. And the career started 00:10:22.169 --> 00:10:25.389 taking off. His first official solo track was 00:10:25.389 --> 00:10:27.610 Party and Bullshit on the Who's the Man soundtrack 00:10:27.610 --> 00:10:31.610 in 1993. What a debut. i was a terror since the 00:10:31.610 --> 00:10:33.769 public school era that opening line is iconic 00:10:33.769 --> 00:10:36.750 it is but listen to the subtext of that song 00:10:36.750 --> 00:10:39.789 the title sounds like a simple party track but 00:10:39.789 --> 00:10:42.049 the song was actually inspired by the last poets 00:10:42.049 --> 00:10:45.549 the revolutionary spoken word group really how 00:10:45.549 --> 00:10:48.289 so he was using sarcasm to critique the lack 00:10:48.289 --> 00:10:50.590 of political seriousness in the youth culture 00:10:50.590 --> 00:10:53.750 of the time even while making a brilliant party 00:10:53.750 --> 00:10:56.950 anthem it was layered he was playing both sides 00:10:57.559 --> 00:10:59.740 And then came the remix that changed everything. 00:10:59.980 --> 00:11:03.139 Craig Mack's Flava in Yair. The remix was stacked. 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:06.159 LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes. Everyone was on it. 00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:08.759 But Biggie's verse is the one everyone remembers. 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:11.000 N words, wanna know who's the best? I'm the B 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:13.220 .I .G. He just came in and completely stole the 00:11:13.220 --> 00:11:15.559 show. That remix hit the top ten. That's what 00:11:15.559 --> 00:11:17.440 put him on the map commercially, right? That 00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:19.620 was the moment. After that verse, everyone knew 00:11:19.620 --> 00:11:21.779 who he was. He was no longer just an unsigned 00:11:21.779 --> 00:11:24.240 hype. He was ready for the album. Ready to Die, 00:11:24.440 --> 00:11:28.990 1994. The debut. Just the title alone sends a 00:11:28.990 --> 00:11:32.210 shiver down your spine. It's so fatalistic. It's 00:11:32.210 --> 00:11:33.730 incredibly intense. And there's an interesting 00:11:33.730 --> 00:11:36.450 backstory there. Biggie originally wanted to 00:11:36.450 --> 00:11:39.570 call the album the Teflon Don. The Teflon Don. 00:11:39.690 --> 00:11:42.870 Like John Gotti. Exactly. He was leaning into 00:11:42.870 --> 00:11:47.259 that mafioso persona. But Puffy... ever the marketing 00:11:47.259 --> 00:11:50.379 genius insisted on a title that was more vulnerable 00:11:50.379 --> 00:11:53.100 something that he felt represented the masses 00:11:53.100 --> 00:11:55.220 more effectively he wanted that emotional connection 00:11:55.220 --> 00:11:58.179 and they settled on ready to die the themes on 00:11:58.179 --> 00:12:00.460 the album perfectly matched that title it was 00:12:00.460 --> 00:12:03.200 this semi -autobiographical journey swinging 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:06.340 wildly from the celebratory highs of making it 00:12:06.340 --> 00:12:09.500 in juicy it was all a dream to the absolute rock 00:12:09.500 --> 00:12:12.360 bottom depression and suicidal ideation of the 00:12:12.360 --> 00:12:15.950 final track suicidal thoughts. That song is still 00:12:15.950 --> 00:12:19.110 one of the darkest, most honest tracks in hip 00:12:19.110 --> 00:12:21.750 -hop history. It felt real. That's what I remember 00:12:21.750 --> 00:12:23.429 from first hearing it. It felt like a documentary 00:12:23.429 --> 00:12:25.889 on wax. That was its power. And it shifted the 00:12:25.889 --> 00:12:27.909 entire landscape, didn't it? Because before this, 00:12:27.990 --> 00:12:29.690 the West Coast was running everything. Oh, completely. 00:12:29.929 --> 00:12:32.750 Dr. Dre's The Chronic and Snoop Dogg's Doggy 00:12:32.750 --> 00:12:35.289 Style had the radio in a chokehold. It was all 00:12:35.289 --> 00:12:37.919 G -funk. Ready to Die shifted the hip -hop power 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:40.480 center back to the East Coast. It was a massive 00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:42.960 cultural correction. It brought that New York 00:12:42.960 --> 00:12:46.039 grit back to the forefront. And the marketing 00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:49.059 was so authentic. Busta Rhymes tells a story 00:12:49.059 --> 00:12:51.019 about Biggie personally handing out cassette 00:12:51.019 --> 00:12:53.740 tapes from his home on Fulton Street. Imagine 00:12:53.740 --> 00:12:56.059 knocking on a door in Bed -Stay and Biggie Smalls 00:12:56.059 --> 00:12:58.980 himself hands you a cassette. That's legendary. 00:12:59.259 --> 00:13:01.840 But let's pause here. and really dig into the 00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:04.299 how. We've talked about the jazz influence, the 00:13:04.299 --> 00:13:07.379 storytelling awards. Expert, break down the style 00:13:07.379 --> 00:13:10.960 for us. What technically made his flow so superior? 00:13:11.279 --> 00:13:13.559 Well, it starts with the instrument itself, his 00:13:13.559 --> 00:13:16.809 voice. He had this deep distinctive baritone. 00:13:17.029 --> 00:13:19.730 Rolling Stone once described it as a thick jaunty 00:13:19.730 --> 00:13:21.590 grumble. That's a great description. It took 00:13:21.590 --> 00:13:23.149 up space in the mix. You couldn't ignore it when 00:13:23.149 --> 00:13:25.710 it came on. It commanded attention. But the most 00:13:25.710 --> 00:13:27.909 legendary aspect of his craft, the thing that 00:13:27.909 --> 00:13:30.190 other rappers still marvel at, was his process. 00:13:30.450 --> 00:13:32.509 He did not write lyrics down. I've heard this, 00:13:32.570 --> 00:13:34.870 but it still just blows my mind. How is that 00:13:34.870 --> 00:13:36.750 possible? He just thought of these incredibly 00:13:36.750 --> 00:13:39.690 complex verses. He composed them entirely in 00:13:39.690 --> 00:13:42.159 his head. Producers and engineers who worked 00:13:42.159 --> 00:13:44.379 with him said he would just sit in the studio, 00:13:44.519 --> 00:13:47.679 sometimes for hours, not saying much. Maybe smoke, 00:13:47.940 --> 00:13:50.059 listen to the beat on a loop. Just absorbing 00:13:50.059 --> 00:13:52.659 it. Exactly. And then he would get up, go into 00:13:52.659 --> 00:13:55.559 the booth, and lay it down perfectly in one or 00:13:55.559 --> 00:13:58.820 two takes. The entire verse fully formed. That 00:13:58.820 --> 00:14:00.460 allowed for a different kind of rhythm, I bet. 00:14:00.679 --> 00:14:03.279 It created what's been called an effusive rhythmic 00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:05.980 style because he wasn't reading from a page. 00:14:06.220 --> 00:14:08.299 He was feeling the beat in the moment. It feels 00:14:08.299 --> 00:14:10.500 more conversational, more natural. Right. It's 00:14:10.500 --> 00:14:13.200 not rigid. And he was a master of onomatopoeia, 00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:15.899 the famous. intros, the little clicks and breaths, 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:18.299 they're all part of the musicality. Then there 00:14:18.299 --> 00:14:21.639 are the rhyme schemes. He was a master of multi 00:14:21.639 --> 00:14:24.179 -syllabic rhymes. Can you break that down for 00:14:24.179 --> 00:14:27.139 us? Sure. A simple rhyme is rhyming cat with 00:14:27.139 --> 00:14:29.940 hat. A multi -syllabic rhyme is rhyming a whole 00:14:29.940 --> 00:14:33.019 phrase with another phrase, like in Hypnotize 00:14:33.019 --> 00:14:35.299 when he rhymes sicker than your average with 00:14:35.299 --> 00:14:37.879 pop -a -twist cabbage. He's rhyming multiple 00:14:37.879 --> 00:14:40.600 syllables across the bar. It's incredibly difficult 00:14:40.600 --> 00:14:43.159 to do, let alone to do it in your head. And the 00:14:43.159 --> 00:14:45.919 storytelling. He could be so funny too. It wasn't 00:14:45.919 --> 00:14:48.220 all doom and gloom. That's the key to his genius. 00:14:48.419 --> 00:14:51.429 The range. You have a track like... just playing 00:14:51.429 --> 00:14:54.029 dreams, where he's just fantasizing about sleeping 00:14:54.029 --> 00:14:56.610 with R &B singers. It's hilarious and lighthearted. 00:14:56.750 --> 00:14:58.809 I'll fuck RuPaul before I fuck them ugly ass 00:14:58.809 --> 00:15:02.169 Xscape bitches. It's so raw. But then on the 00:15:02.169 --> 00:15:04.909 same album, you can get Nigga's Bleed, which 00:15:04.909 --> 00:15:08.190 is this cinematic, violent, mafioso narrative. 00:15:08.490 --> 00:15:11.629 He mixed gritty reality with humor and exaggeration. 00:15:11.789 --> 00:15:13.990 He even admitted in interviews that the lyrics 00:15:13.990 --> 00:15:17.009 weren't 100 % autobiographical facts. He was 00:15:17.009 --> 00:15:18.769 heightening the narrative for dramatic effect. 00:15:18.970 --> 00:15:21.110 He was a storyteller. He understood that a good 00:15:21.110 --> 00:15:22.889 story needs a little spice, a little fiction. 00:15:23.049 --> 00:15:25.529 Precisely. But while his professional career 00:15:25.529 --> 00:15:28.009 was absolutely exploding, his personal life was 00:15:28.009 --> 00:15:30.470 getting incredibly complicated. And this leads 00:15:30.470 --> 00:15:32.350 us to the relationship that would come to define 00:15:32.350 --> 00:15:35.179 the era. Tupac Shakur. Yeah. You can't tell the 00:15:35.179 --> 00:15:36.980 Biggie story without the Tupac story. And it's 00:15:36.980 --> 00:15:38.899 so sad because they started as friends, right? 00:15:38.980 --> 00:15:41.320 Like genuinely close friends. Very close friends. 00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:44.100 That's what makes the fallout so tragic. In the 00:15:44.100 --> 00:15:46.480 early days, Biggie would stay at Tupac's home 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:49.899 whenever he was in California. Lil Cease, Biggie's 00:15:49.899 --> 00:15:52.539 childhood friend and member of Junior MAFIA, 00:15:52.740 --> 00:15:54.840 confirmed they traveled together, celebrated 00:15:54.840 --> 00:15:58.799 birthdays together. Pac was like a mentor. Piers 00:15:58.799 --> 00:16:01.379 even noted that Biggie's early style, his showmanship, 00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:04.620 was influenced by Tupac. They were brothers in 00:16:04.620 --> 00:16:07.159 the game. They really were. Until November 30, 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:10.639 1994, the incident at Quad Recording Studios 00:16:10.639 --> 00:16:13.399 in New York. Tupac gets shot and robbed in the 00:16:13.399 --> 00:16:17.120 lobby. Five times. A brutal, near -fatal attack. 00:16:17.539 --> 00:16:19.720 And by what seemed like a terrible coincidence, 00:16:20.440 --> 00:16:22.840 Biggie and Puffy were upstairs in the same building 00:16:22.840 --> 00:16:25.159 working on a session. And that's where the paranoia 00:16:25.159 --> 00:16:27.600 starts. Tupac, recovering in the hospital, came 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:29.639 to believe that they had to have had prior knowledge 00:16:29.639 --> 00:16:31.879 of the attack, that they set him up. Biggie always 00:16:31.879 --> 00:16:34.039 denied it, right? He swore it was just a coincidence. 00:16:34.419 --> 00:16:37.000 He did. He was reportedly devastated by the accusation. 00:16:37.179 --> 00:16:40.039 But the seed of paranoia was planted. And when 00:16:40.039 --> 00:16:42.539 Tupac, while in prison for a separate sexual 00:16:42.539 --> 00:16:45.320 assault charge, signed with Sudanite's death 00:16:45.320 --> 00:16:48.179 row records. The personal beef became a corporate 00:16:48.179 --> 00:16:51.559 war. It became bad. Bad Boy vs. Death Row, East 00:16:51.559 --> 00:16:54.720 Coast vs. West Coast. It escalated beyond just 00:16:54.720 --> 00:16:57.960 two men. And then came the war on wax, the diss 00:16:57.960 --> 00:17:00.759 tracks. It started, in many people's eyes, with 00:17:00.759 --> 00:17:04.559 Biggie releasing the song, Who Shot Ya?, shortly 00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:07.160 after the shooting. Now, Biggie and the Bad Boy 00:17:07.160 --> 00:17:09.319 camp have always maintained that song was recorded 00:17:09.319 --> 00:17:12.119 months before the Quad Studios incident. But 00:17:12.119 --> 00:17:14.359 the timing. I mean, if you're Tupac, sitting 00:17:14.359 --> 00:17:17.329 in a jail cell, hearing that song. How do you 00:17:17.329 --> 00:17:19.650 possibly interpret that? Exactly. The public 00:17:19.650 --> 00:17:22.089 perception was that it was a direct taunt. And 00:17:22.089 --> 00:17:24.849 Tupac responded with nuclear force. He released 00:17:24.849 --> 00:17:27.569 Hit Em Up. Hit Em Up is, well, it's arguably 00:17:27.569 --> 00:17:29.730 the most vicious, most aggressive, most personal 00:17:29.730 --> 00:17:32.269 diss track ever made. He didn't just insult Biggie. 00:17:32.269 --> 00:17:34.769 He tried to destroy his life. He claimed he had 00:17:34.769 --> 00:17:37.450 an affair with Faith Evans, Biggie's wife. He 00:17:37.450 --> 00:17:40.009 went after Biggie's street credibility, his weight, 00:17:40.130 --> 00:17:42.250 his friends. It was absolutely brutal. And what 00:17:42.250 --> 00:17:45.819 was Biggie's reaction to that? Publicly, he mostly 00:17:45.819 --> 00:17:48.039 stayed silent or tried to brush it off with humor. 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:51.400 In the song Brooklyn's Finest with Jay -Z, there's 00:17:51.400 --> 00:17:53.440 that famous line where they joke about it. If 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:55.339 Faith have twins, she'll probably have two packs. 00:17:55.539 --> 00:17:58.019 Get it, two packs. It's a clever line, but man, 00:17:58.180 --> 00:18:00.380 you can feel the tension underneath that joke. 00:18:00.700 --> 00:18:03.240 He said in an interview he had to make jokes 00:18:03.240 --> 00:18:05.779 like that because he couldn't be the guy running 00:18:05.779 --> 00:18:08.019 around all serious and angry all the time. It 00:18:08.019 --> 00:18:10.799 wasn't his persona. But the turbulence wasn't 00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:13.819 just with Tupac. His personal life at home was... 00:18:14.419 --> 00:18:17.740 Frankly, a mess. It was incredibly chaotic. Let's 00:18:17.740 --> 00:18:19.839 talk about the relationships. He married the 00:18:19.839 --> 00:18:23.099 R &B singer Faith Evans in August 1994, pretty 00:18:23.099 --> 00:18:25.200 much right after meeting her. It was a whirlwind 00:18:25.200 --> 00:18:27.680 romance. A very, very short time. But he was 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:30.200 simultaneously involved in a long -term, very 00:18:30.200 --> 00:18:32.460 passionate and very volatile relationship with 00:18:32.460 --> 00:18:34.680 Lil' Kim, who he was mentoring in his protege 00:18:34.680 --> 00:18:37.519 group, Junior MAFIA. And then later there was 00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:39.799 Charlie Baltimore as well. Right. It was a love 00:18:39.799 --> 00:18:42.259 square, essentially. A lot of drama, a lot of 00:18:42.259 --> 00:18:44.180 heartbreak, and there was real pain. there. I 00:18:44.180 --> 00:18:46.480 mean, Lil' Kim has spoken openly about being 00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:48.839 pregnant with his child at one point, but terminating 00:18:48.839 --> 00:18:51.180 the pregnancy, feeling he wasn't ready to be 00:18:51.180 --> 00:18:53.539 a father with her. It's just so much to deal 00:18:53.539 --> 00:18:55.859 with, especially when you're in your early 20s 00:18:55.859 --> 00:18:58.000 and the whole world is watching. And amidst all 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:00.099 this emotional chaos, there was physical trauma, 00:19:00.180 --> 00:19:02.160 too. We often forget about the car accident. 00:19:02.299 --> 00:19:04.680 This was in 96, right? The rental car crash? 00:19:04.900 --> 00:19:08.680 Yes. He was in a rented Chevrolet Lumina with 00:19:08.680 --> 00:19:12.200 Lil' Cease. The brakes were faulty. They crashed 00:19:12.200 --> 00:19:15.380 into a rail. And it was a very serious accident. 00:19:15.619 --> 00:19:18.079 This wasn't just a fender bender. This shattered 00:19:18.079 --> 00:19:20.900 his leg. It broke his left leg so badly that 00:19:20.900 --> 00:19:23.160 it had to be surgically repaired. He was confined 00:19:23.160 --> 00:19:25.740 to a wheelchair for months. And even after that, 00:19:25.900 --> 00:19:28.119 he had to use a cane for the rest of his life. 00:19:28.220 --> 00:19:30.839 That cane you see in all the later videos and 00:19:30.839 --> 00:19:33.480 photos, the one from the hypnotized video, that 00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:35.440 wasn't just a fashion statement. It was a medical 00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:37.859 necessity. Not at all. He was in constant pain. 00:19:38.490 --> 00:19:40.549 And he references it in the song Long Kiss Goodnight 00:19:40.549 --> 00:19:42.950 from his second album. Used to be as strong as 00:19:42.950 --> 00:19:45.710 Ripple Bee till Lil Cease crippled me. He turned 00:19:45.710 --> 00:19:49.349 his pain into rhymes again. But it had a profound 00:19:49.349 --> 00:19:52.390 effect on him, physically and mentally. There's 00:19:52.390 --> 00:19:54.329 another weird detail from this period I want 00:19:54.329 --> 00:19:56.250 to bring up. The Michael Jackson collaboration. 00:19:56.690 --> 00:19:59.269 This time around from the History album. Yes, 00:19:59.349 --> 00:20:03.450 1995. A huge moment for him, artistically. But 00:20:03.450 --> 00:20:06.529 there's that strange story about Lil Cease not 00:20:06.529 --> 00:20:08.480 being allowed in a recording session. It's a 00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:10.319 surprising detail, and it comes from Little Cease 00:20:10.319 --> 00:20:12.759 himself. He said that Biggie wouldn't let him 00:20:12.759 --> 00:20:15.240 in the studio with Michael Jackson because, and 00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:17.200 this is a direct quote from Cease relaying what 00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:20.160 Biggie said, he didn't trust Michael with kids, 00:20:20.359 --> 00:20:23.420 referencing the 1993 child molestation allegations 00:20:23.420 --> 00:20:26.400 against Jackson. That is just, it's wild. It 00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:28.359 shows a certain protective side or maybe just 00:20:28.359 --> 00:20:31.180 how street smart and cynical he was. He wasn't 00:20:31.180 --> 00:20:33.259 so starstruck that he dropped his guard completely. 00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:35.660 And yet the engineer on the session said that 00:20:35.660 --> 00:20:37.819 Biggie was nearly in tears from the excitement 00:20:37.819 --> 00:20:40.519 of meeting Michael. It's that duality again, 00:20:40.660 --> 00:20:43.619 the hard, cynical exterior and the sensitive 00:20:43.619 --> 00:20:45.500 fan inside who couldn't believe he was working 00:20:45.500 --> 00:20:48.359 with the king of pop. So we move into late 1996. 00:20:48.680 --> 00:20:50.680 The climate is getting incredibly dangerous. 00:20:51.059 --> 00:20:54.619 The coastal feud is at its absolute peak. And 00:20:54.619 --> 00:20:57.160 then Tupac is murdered in Las Vegas in September. 00:20:57.680 --> 00:21:00.880 And immediately, the rumors and accusations swirl. 00:21:01.079 --> 00:21:03.880 A lot of people looked at Biggie and the bad 00:21:03.880 --> 00:21:05.900 boy camp. Was there any evidence he had anything 00:21:05.900 --> 00:21:08.779 to do with it? No. Subsequent police reports 00:21:08.779 --> 00:21:11.220 and investigative journalism have largely suggested 00:21:11.220 --> 00:21:13.640 the murder was the result of a conflict between 00:21:13.640 --> 00:21:16.559 the Southside Crips and Tupac's entourage from 00:21:16.559 --> 00:21:19.680 earlier that night. And Biggie's family and camp 00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:22.220 provided alibis that he was in a recording studio 00:21:22.220 --> 00:21:25.569 in New Jersey at the time. But in the court of 00:21:25.569 --> 00:21:27.210 public opinion and certainly on the streets, 00:21:27.369 --> 00:21:30.190 the tension was at a boiling point. Biggie genuinely 00:21:30.190 --> 00:21:32.369 feared for his safety. I can't even imagine that 00:21:32.369 --> 00:21:34.190 kind of pressure. He was getting death threats. 00:21:34.230 --> 00:21:36.710 He had to hire more security. But he still felt 00:21:36.710 --> 00:21:38.990 he had to go to the West Coast. Why? Why would 00:21:38.990 --> 00:21:41.289 he go to L .A. after all that? He wanted to try 00:21:41.289 --> 00:21:43.890 and make peace. He said in interviews he wanted 00:21:43.890 --> 00:21:46.650 to show there was no beef. But also he had to 00:21:46.650 --> 00:21:48.970 promote his new album, the double LP Life After 00:21:48.970 --> 00:21:52.619 Death. So in March of 1997, he traveled to L 00:21:52.619 --> 00:21:54.799 .A. for the Soul Train Awards and to film the 00:21:54.799 --> 00:21:57.180 video for the album's first single, Hypnotize. 00:21:57.259 --> 00:22:00.259 The Hypnotize video with the speedboats and the 00:22:00.259 --> 00:22:02.940 helicopters, it looked so triumphant, like he 00:22:02.940 --> 00:22:04.960 was on top of the world. It was meant to be his 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:08.299 coronation, but the trip ended in tragedy. On 00:22:08.299 --> 00:22:11.740 the night of March 8, 1997, he attended a Vibe 00:22:11.740 --> 00:22:14.220 magazine afterparty at the Peterson Automotive 00:22:14.220 --> 00:22:16.619 Museum in Los Angeles. This is the night. The 00:22:16.619 --> 00:22:19.700 party was packed. So packed, in fact, that it 00:22:19.700 --> 00:22:21.900 was shut down early by the fire marshals due 00:22:21.900 --> 00:22:25.359 to overcrowding. So around 1230 a .m., everyone 00:22:25.359 --> 00:22:27.200 is spilling out onto the street. It's chaotic. 00:22:27.680 --> 00:22:30.960 Biggie gets into his vehicle, a green GMC Suburban. 00:22:30.980 --> 00:22:32.839 He's in the front passenger seat. They leave 00:22:32.839 --> 00:22:35.259 in a two -car convoy. Puffy's in the car ahead. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:38.559 Biggie's car, driven by his friend, stops at 00:22:38.559 --> 00:22:40.900 a red light on Wilshire Boulevard, just 50 yards 00:22:40.900 --> 00:22:44.160 from the museum, and a dark -colored Chevy Impala 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:46.660 SS pulls up alongside them. And we know what 00:22:46.660 --> 00:22:49.039 happens next. An African -American male, described 00:22:49.039 --> 00:22:51.359 as wearing a blue suit and a bow tie, rolls down 00:22:51.359 --> 00:22:54.019 the window. The shooter, he fires multiple shots 00:22:54.019 --> 00:22:56.660 from a 9mm pistol into the suburban. Four of 00:22:56.660 --> 00:22:58.920 the shots hit Biggie. And here is a heartbreaking 00:22:58.920 --> 00:23:01.880 medical detail from the autopsy report. The first 00:23:01.880 --> 00:23:04.279 three shots were not immediately life -threatening. 00:23:04.670 --> 00:23:06.829 One in the forearm, one in the back, one in the 00:23:06.829 --> 00:23:10.269 thigh. It was the final shot, the fourth one, 00:23:10.369 --> 00:23:13.109 that did the fatal damage. What happened? It 00:23:13.109 --> 00:23:15.130 entered his right hip and traveled up through 00:23:15.130 --> 00:23:18.309 his body, perforating his colon, liver, heart, 00:23:18.470 --> 00:23:21.250 and the upper lobe of his left lung. That was 00:23:21.250 --> 00:23:23.730 the fatal blow. He was rushed to Cedars -Sinai 00:23:23.730 --> 00:23:26.430 Medical Center, but it was too late. He was pronounced 00:23:26.430 --> 00:23:30.069 dead at 1 .15 a .m. He was 24 years old. 24. 00:23:30.210 --> 00:23:32.329 Just a kid, really, with a son and a daughter. 00:23:32.549 --> 00:23:35.309 And then in the most eerie... surreal piece of 00:23:35.309 --> 00:23:37.910 timing in music history just two weeks later 00:23:37.910 --> 00:23:41.029 the album drops life after death the timing is 00:23:41.029 --> 00:23:42.869 just chilling the album debuted at number one 00:23:42.869 --> 00:23:44.890 on the billboard 200 it eventually went on to 00:23:44.890 --> 00:23:47.309 be certified diamond selling over 11 million 00:23:47.309 --> 00:23:49.869 copies and the tone was so different from ready 00:23:49.869 --> 00:23:52.869 to die completely ready to die was desperate 00:23:52.869 --> 00:23:55.420 it was about the struggle to survive Life After 00:23:55.420 --> 00:23:57.740 Death was about having survived and now dealing 00:23:57.740 --> 00:24:00.660 with power. It focused on those mafioso themes, 00:24:00.940 --> 00:24:04.380 a slick pimp persona. You hear the paranoia and 00:24:04.380 --> 00:24:07.279 anger in tracks like Niggas Bleed and What's 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:09.960 Beef, but you also hear the polish and the success. 00:24:10.299 --> 00:24:12.559 And the records just kept coming even after he 00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:14.640 was gone. He became the first artist to have 00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:17.200 two posthumous number one singles. Kidnatize 00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:20.660 and Moe, Money Moe Problems, they were everywhere 00:24:20.660 --> 00:24:22.759 that summer of 97. You couldn't escape them. 00:24:22.859 --> 00:24:25.220 And we can't forget I'll Be. missing you the 00:24:25.220 --> 00:24:28.259 tribute by puffy faith evans and one tool that 00:24:28.259 --> 00:24:31.500 song became a global anthem of grief it cemented 00:24:31.500 --> 00:24:34.259 his legacy not just as a rapper but as a beloved 00:24:34.259 --> 00:24:36.700 almost mythical figure who has gone too soon 00:24:36.700 --> 00:24:38.859 so let's look at that legacy now all these years 00:24:38.859 --> 00:24:40.819 later we mentioned the king of new york title 00:24:41.210 --> 00:24:43.869 For many, it's undisputed. He influenced an entire 00:24:43.869 --> 00:24:47.450 generation of rappers. Jay -Z, Nas, Eminem, 50 00:24:47.450 --> 00:24:49.970 Cent. Everyone who came after had to reckon with 00:24:49.970 --> 00:24:52.450 the bar that Biggie set, both lyrically and commercially. 00:24:52.849 --> 00:24:56.130 He proved you could be deeply lyrical and have 00:24:56.130 --> 00:24:59.029 massive pop hits. You could be gritty and smooth. 00:24:59.349 --> 00:25:02.089 You didn't have to choose. He contained multitudes. 00:25:02.470 --> 00:25:05.269 And the brand lived on, of course. The Brooklyn 00:25:05.269 --> 00:25:07.730 Mint clothing line, which was one of the first 00:25:07.730 --> 00:25:10.430 to really cater to plus -sized apparel and streetwear. 00:25:10.809 --> 00:25:13.750 And his mother, Valetta, started the Christopher 00:25:13.750 --> 00:25:16.410 Wallace Memorial Foundation, which hosts the 00:25:16.410 --> 00:25:20.150 B .I .G. Night Out books instead of guns. Using 00:25:20.150 --> 00:25:23.109 his legacy for something positive. And his influence 00:25:23.109 --> 00:25:26.210 pops up in the strangest places. Even in pop 00:25:26.210 --> 00:25:28.509 culture, like the villain Cottonmouth Stokes 00:25:28.509 --> 00:25:31.049 in the Marvel Netflix show Luke Cage. Right. 00:25:31.130 --> 00:25:34.509 He had that huge, iconic Biggie portrait on his 00:25:34.509 --> 00:25:37.210 office wall. The character was inspired by that 00:25:37.210 --> 00:25:39.619 King of New York persona. It all comes back to 00:25:39.619 --> 00:25:41.799 that short life, long shadow concept. Two official 00:25:41.799 --> 00:25:44.440 studio albums. That's it. And yet, here we are, 00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:46.559 decades later, still breaking it down, still 00:25:46.559 --> 00:25:49.079 finding new things in his verses. It really makes 00:25:49.079 --> 00:25:50.599 you wonder about the what ifs. That's always 00:25:50.599 --> 00:25:52.880 a tragic question. It hangs over his entire story. 00:25:53.140 --> 00:25:56.259 If he hadn't been killed at 24, where does he 00:25:56.259 --> 00:25:59.039 go? Does he become a Jay -Z level mogul? I think 00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:02.259 he had the business mind for it. Business instead 00:26:02.259 --> 00:26:05.400 of game, remember? I could easily see him moving 00:26:05.400 --> 00:26:07.759 into executive roles, starting his own label, 00:26:07.900 --> 00:26:11.240 signing artists, maybe even acting. He had incredible 00:26:11.240 --> 00:26:14.160 charisma. Or just musically. Where would he have 00:26:14.160 --> 00:26:16.880 taken the art of rapping? He was so adaptable. 00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:19.339 He could rap fast with bone thugs and harmony. 00:26:19.559 --> 00:26:22.079 He could rap slow and smooth over an R &B track. 00:26:22.339 --> 00:26:24.940 He would have evolved. The potential was limitless. 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:27.279 It's one of the greatest losses in modern music 00:26:27.279 --> 00:26:29.099 history. You know, you look at the titles of 00:26:29.099 --> 00:26:31.500 his two albums. Ready to Die and Life After Death. 00:26:31.700 --> 00:26:34.569 The irony is just... It's chilling. It's almost 00:26:34.569 --> 00:26:36.569 Shakespearean. It's like they unintentionally 00:26:36.569 --> 00:26:39.890 prophesied this short, explosive impact. He was 00:26:39.890 --> 00:26:42.589 ready to die, in a sense, on that first album, 00:26:42.690 --> 00:26:45.470 and he found eternal life after death through 00:26:45.470 --> 00:26:48.029 the music he left behind. That is a profound 00:26:48.029 --> 00:26:50.369 and, I think, very accurate way to look at it. 00:26:50.549 --> 00:26:52.009 So I want to leave our listener with a thought 00:26:52.009 --> 00:26:54.829 today. We live in an era of manufactured viral 00:26:54.829 --> 00:26:58.230 stars, of TikTok snippets, and algorithm -driven 00:26:58.230 --> 00:27:02.289 fame. In this landscape, could a talent as raw 00:27:02.809 --> 00:27:04.930 as technically proficient and as unwilling to 00:27:04.930 --> 00:27:07.309 compromise his gritty reality as the notorious 00:27:07.309 --> 00:27:11.369 BIG even exists today? Or was he a singular product 00:27:11.369 --> 00:27:13.589 of a specific time and place that we will simply 00:27:13.589 --> 00:27:16.250 never see again? That is the question. A true 00:27:16.250 --> 00:27:18.309 original. Thanks for diving deep with us. Always 00:27:18.309 --> 00:27:18.650 a pleasure.