The Notorious B.I.G.
The king of East Coast rap, The Notorious B.I.G. revolutionized rap with his gritty storytelling. Life After Death was certified 11x Multi-Platinum by the RIAA in 2018, and with “Hypnotize” and “Mo Money Mo Problems” in 1997 he became the only artist to top the Hot 100 posthumously twice. He joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, and in 2024 the Library of Congress added Ready to Die to the National Recording Registry. Ready to Die tops Rolling Stone’s 200 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time (2022).
The Notorious B.I.G. was born Christopher Wallace in Brooklyn, New York, and released his debut album, Ready to Die, in 1994.
Ready to Die spawned three Hot 100 hits, all dual-sided singles: “Big Poppa/Warning” gave him his first top 10, at number 6 in March 1995, and earned a platinum certification that May, and “One More Chance/Stay With Me” climbed to number 2 that July. His hits also included “Juicy” and “Gimme the Loot”; “Juicy” and “Big Poppa” each reached 6x Platinum in 2022, and the RIAA certified the album 6x Multi-Platinum in 2018. He founded Junior M.A.F.I.A., and his second album was Life After Death, whose singles “Hypnotize” and “Mo Money Mo Problems” were both certified platinum in 1997. Born Again reached 2x Platinum in January 2000, and Duets: The Final Chapter followed with a platinum certification in 2006.
On March 9, 1997, he died. He received four Grammy nominations, the first in 1996 for “Big Poppa” and three at the 40th Grammy Awards, for Life After Death and two of its singles. Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2020) has Ready to Die at number 22 and Life After Death at 179, and its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2021) counts “Juicy” at 32.
Primary Wave Music announced a partnership with his estate in March 2025. His mother, Voletta Wallace, whom he mentioned in songs including “Juicy” and “Things Done Changed,” published a memoir about him in 2005 and served as a producer of the 2009 biopic Notorious, and the Brooklyn Nets raised a banner for him at Barclays Center in 2017. In 2022 his mother and his children changed the colors of the Empire State Building to red and white for his 50th birthday.
