Ready to Die is the debut studio album by American rapper The Notorious B.I.G., released on September 13, 1994, by Bad Boy and Arista Records. The album features production by Bad Boy founder Sean 'Puffy' Combs, Easy Mo Bee, Chucky Thompson, DJ Premier, and Lord Finesse, among others. It was recorded from late 1993 to 1994 at The Hit Factory and D&D Studios in New York City. The partly autobiographical album tells the story of the rapper's experiences as a young criminal, and was the only studio album released during his lifetime, as he was murdered sixteen days before the release of his second album Life After Death in 1997.
Ready to Die was released to critical acclaim and became a commercial success, achieving Gold certification. In 1995, it was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),[1] and has since reached a certified 6x platinum with sales. It was significant for revitalizing the East Coast hip hop scene, amid West Coast hip hop's commercial dominance.[2] The album's second single 'Big Poppa' was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 1996 Grammy Awards. Ready to Die has been regarded by many critics as one of the greatest hip hop albums, as well as one of the best albums of all time.
Background and recording[edit]The album was recorded in New York City (mainly at The Hit Factory) in two stages between 1993 and 1994. In 1994, Biggie was 21 years old going on 22 when he recorded the album. In 1993, Biggie was signed to the Uptown Records label by A&RSean 'Puffy' Combs. Biggie started recording his debut album in New York, after making numerous guest appearances among his label-mates' singles during the previous year. The first tracks recorded include the album's darker, less radio-friendly content (including 'Ready to Die,' 'Gimme the Loot' and 'Things Done Changed'). In these sessions, XXL magazine describe an 'inexperienced, higher-pitched' Biggie sounding 'hungry and paranoid'.[3] When executive producer Sean 'Puffy' Combs was fired from Uptown, Biggie's career hung in limbo, as the album was only partially completed. After a brief period dealing drugs in North Carolina,[4] Biggie returned to the studio the following year on Combs' new Bad Boy Records label possessing 'a smoother, more confident vocal tone' and completed the album. In this stage, the more commercial-sounding tracks of the album were recorded, including the album's singles. Between the two stages, XXL writes that Biggie moved from writing his lyrics in notebooks to freestyling them from memory.[3] The album was released with a cover depicting an infant resembling the artist, though sporting an afro, which pertains to the album's concept of the artist's life from birth to his death. It has been listed as among the best album covers in hip hop.[5] Lawsuits and sample removal[edit]On March 24, 2006, Bridgeport Music and Westbound Records won a federal lawsuit against Bad Boy Records for copyright infringement, with a jury deciding that Combs and Bad Boy had illegally used samples for the production of the songs 'Ready to Die', 'Machine Gun Funk', and 'Gimme the Loot'.[6][7] The jury awarded $4.2 million in punitive and direct damages to the two plaintiffs, and federal judge Todd Campbell enacted an immediate sales ban on the album and tracks in question.[7] On appeal, the Sixth Circuit found the damages unconstitutionally high and in violation of due process and remanded the case, at which point Campbell reduced them by $2.8 million; however, the verdict was upheld.[8][9] All versions of the album released since the lawsuit are without the disputed samples.[10] Although a fair use issue, Combs and Bad Boy never raised the legal concept of the fair use doctrine in their defense.[8] This decision was questioned by some legal experts: Anthony Falzone of the Fair Use Project at Stanford Law School criticized Combs and Bad Boy for not defending the legality of sampling and suggested that they might have refused to raise such a defense because they feared it could later imperil their control over their own music.[11] On April 2, 2014, Lee Hutson of The Impressions filed a multimillion-dollar copyright infringement suit against Combs, Bad Boy Records, and the estate of the late Notorious B.I.G. for copyright infringement, alleging that his song 'Can't Say Enough About Mom' was illegally sampled in the production of the song 'The What'.[12] The estate countersued in turn, claiming the sample as used was short, adapted, and supplemented, and thus subject to fair use,[13] a legal tactic not pursued previously.[11] Composition[edit]Production[edit]The production on the album was mainly handled by Easy Mo Bee and The Hitmen. Cheo H. Coker of Rolling Stone depicted the beats as 'heavy bottomed and slick, but B.I.G.'s rhymes are the showstoppers. The tracks only enhance them, whether it's the live bass driving a menacing undercurrent or [the] use of bluesy guitar and wah-wah feedback' and that the production is used to 'push the rapper to new heights.'[14] The production is mainly sample-based with the samples varying from the percussion of funk tracks to the vocals of hip hop songs. Steve Huey presented some criticism over the beats, stating that the 'deliberate beats do get a little samey, but it hardly matters: this is Biggie's show'.[15] Lyrical themes[edit]The Notorious B.I.G.'s lyrics on the album were generally praised by critics. Many critics applauded his story-telling ability such as AllMusic writer Steve Huey, who stated 'His raps are easy to understand, but his skills are hardly lackingâhe has a loose, easy flow and a talent for piling multiple rhymes on top of one another in quick succession'. He also went on to mention that his lyrics are 'firmly rooted in reality, but play like [a] scene from a movie'.[15]Touré, writing for The New York Times, referred to The Notorious B.I.G., proclaiming that he stood out from other rappers because 'his lyrics mix autobiographical details about crime and violence with emotional honesty, telling how he felt while making a living as a drug dealer'.[16] The album is also noted for its dark tone and sinister sense of depression.[15] In the original Rolling Stone review, Cheo H Coker declared that he 'maintains a consistent level of tension by juxtaposing emotional highs and lows'.[14] 'Things Done Changed' was also one of the few hip hop songs in The Norton Anthology of African American Literature.[17] The lyrics on Ready to Die tend to deal with violence, drug dealing, women, alcohol and marijuana use, and other elements of Notorious B.I.G.'s environment. He rapped about these topics in 'clear, sparse terms, allowing the lyrics to hit the first time you hear them'.[14] The album contains a loose concept starting out with an intro that details his birth, his early childhood, his adolescence and his life at the point of the album's release.[16] Songs on the album range from homicide narratives ('Warning') to braggadocios battle raps ('The What,' 'Unbelievable'). The final song was 'Suicidal Thoughts', a song where The Notorious B.I.G. contemplates and finally commits suicide. Singles[edit]
Three singles were released from the album: 'Juicy', 'Big Poppa', 'One More Chance' and a promotional track of Biggie: 'Warning'. According to XXL the more commercial sound of the singles compared to the rest of the album was a result of encouragement by Combs during the later recording sessions in which they were recorded.[3] 'Juicy' was released as the lead single on August 8, 1994. It peaked at number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 14 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and reached number 3 on the Hot Rap Singles.[19] It shipped 500,000 copies in the United States and the RIAA certified it Gold on November 16, 1994.[20] Produced by Combs, it features a prominent sample of 'Juicy Fruit' as performed by James Mtume. AllMusic's Steve Huey stated that, along with the other singles, it was an 'upbeat, commercial moment', calling it a 'rags-to-riches chronicle'.[15] Andrew Kameka, of HipHopDX.com, stated that the song was one of his 'greatest and most-revealing songs' and went on to say it was a 'Part-autobiography, part-declaration-of-success. It document[s] the star's transition from Brooklyn knucklehead to magazine cover story.'[21] Producer Pete Rock, who was commissioned to remix the track, alleged that Puffy stole the idea for the original song's beat after hearing it from him during a visit. Rock explained this in an interview with Wax Poetics:[22] I did the original version, didn't get credit for it. They came to my house, heard the beat going on the drum machine, it's the same story. You come downstairs at my crib, you hear music. He heard that shit and the next thing you know it comes out. They had me do a remix, but I tell people, and I will fight it to the end, that I did the original version of that. I'm not mad at anybody, I just want the correct credit. 'Big Poppa' was released as the second single on December 24, 1994 and like the previous single, it was a hit on multiple charts. It reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100, number four on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and number one on Hot Rap Singles.[19] It sold over a million units and the RIAA certified it Platinum on May 23, 1995.[20] Featuring production by Combs and Chucky Thompson of The Hitmen, it samples 'Between the Sheets' by The Isley Brothers. The song was nominated at the 1996 Grammy Awards for Best Rap Solo Performance, but lost to Coolio's 'Gangsta's Paradise'. Steve Huey named it an 'overweight-lover anthem'.[15] 'One More Chance' was released as the third single on June 9, 1995. The single was a remix of the album track. It was produced by Combs and featured a sample from DeBarge's 'Stay With Me'. It peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks and Hot Rap Singles.[19] It sold over a million copies and the RIAA certified it Platinum on July 31, 1995.[20] Steve Huey labeled it a 'graphic sex rap'.[15]Rolling Stone writer Cheo H. Coker had a similar view of the song, noting that it was 'one of the bawdiest sex raps since Kool G Rap's classic, 'Talk Like Sex' and continued, stating it 'proves hilarious simply because of B.I.G.'s Dolemitelike vulgarity.'[14] Critical reception[edit]
Ready to Die received critical acclaim from music critics. In his review for Rolling Stone, Cheo H. Coker stated 'Ready to Die is the strongest solo rap debut since Ice Cube's Amerikkka's Most Wanted. From the breathtakingly visual moments of his birth to his Cobainesque end in 'Suicidal Thoughts,' B.I.G. proves a captivating listen. It's difficult to get him out of your head once you sample what he has to offer'.[14]Robert Christgau from The Village Voice commented 'His sex raps are erotic, his jokes are funny, and his music makes the thug life sound scary rather than luxuriously laid back. When he considers suicide, I not only take him at his word, I actively hope he finds another way'.[24]The New York Times wrote 'Though drug dealing carries tremendous heroic value with some young urban dwellers, he sacrifices the figure's romantic potential. His raps acknowledge both the excitement of drug dealing and the stress caused by the threat from other dealers, robbers, the police and parents, sometimes one's own. In presenting the downside of that life, Ready to Die offers perhaps the most balanced and honest portrait of the dealer's life of any in hip-hop'.[31] Q magazine gave Ready to Die three out of five stars, and stated 'the natural rapping, clever use of sound effects and acted dialogue, and concept element (from a baby being born at the start to the fading heartbeat at the end) set this well apart from the average gangsta bragging'.[27] In their original review for Ready to Die, The Source gave it four-and-a-half out of five 'mics', stating 'Big weaves tales like a cinematographer, each song is like another scene in his lifestyle. Overall, this package is complete: ridiculous beats, harmonizing honeys, ill sound effects, criminal scenarios, and familiar hooks'.[29] Legacy[edit]Ready to Die has been highly acclaimed. In 1998, The Source included it on their 100 Best Rap Albums of All Time list,[32] and in 2002, they re-rated it to the maximum five 'mics'.[33]Rolling Stone has also given acclaim to Ready to Die over the years. In 2003, they ranked it number 133 on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list,[32] and one year later, they re-rated it to five stars.[28] In 2011, Rolling Stone also placed it at number eight on their 100 Best Albums of the Nineties list, and described it as 'mapping out the sound of 'Nineties cool'.[34] Kilian Murphy from Stylus Magazine wrote favorably of the album in a retrospective review, and concluded 'Sweet, hypocritical, sensitive, violent, depressed and jubilant; these words could all fittingly describe Big at various points on Ready to Die.'[35] Steve Huey from AllMusic gave it five stars, stating 'The album that reinvented East Coast rap for the gangsta age, Ready to Die made the Notorious B.I.G. a star. Today it's recognized as one of the greatest hardcore rap albums ever recorded, and that's mostly due to Biggie's skill as a storyteller'.[18] In 2006, Time magazine included it on their 100 Greatest Albums of All Time list, and stated 'On Ready to Die, Wallace took his street corner experiences and filtered them through his considerable charm. The result was a record that mixed long stretches of menace with romance and lots of humor. No rapper ever made multi-syllabic rhymes sound as smooth'.[36] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[37] Accolades[edit]
Ready To Die Biggie MovieCommercial performance[edit]Simcity 4 free download full game pc. The album shipped 57,000 units in its first week of release.[45] However, it was then certified Gold by the RIAA only two months after its release on November 16, 1994, and was certified double Platinum on October 16, 1995, only a year and one month after its release.[20] Ready to Die was then certified triple Platinum on August 26, 1998 and was later certified 4Ã Platinum by the RIAA on October 19, 1999.[20] Track listing[edit]
Sample credits[edit]
Personnel[edit]
Charts[edit]
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âExcellence is my presence. Never tense, never hesitant.â
Biggie Smalls, also known as 'The Notorious B.I.G.,' was a revered hip-hop artist and face of East Coast gangsta rap. He was shot and killed on March 9, 1997.
Who Was Biggie Smalls?Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls and the Notorious B.I.G., lived a short life. He was 24 years old when he was gunned down in 1997 in Los Angeles, a murder that has never been solved. Smalls was from New York and had almost single-handedly reinvented East Coast hip hop â overtaken in the early 1990s by the West Coast 'g-funk' sound of Dr. Dre and Death Row Records. With his clear, powerful baritone, effortless flow on the mic and willingness to address the vulnerability, as well as the harshness, of the hustler lifestyle, Smalls swung the spotlight back towards New York and his label home, Bad Boy Records. He styled himself as a gangster and although he was no angel, in reality he was more of a performer than a hardened criminal. In this regard, he was similar to Tupac Shakur, his one-time friend turned bitter rival â a contest that spiraled horrifyingly out of control leaving neither man alive to tell the tale.
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Born and Raised in Brooklyn to Jamaican ParentsTwenty-three years before Rolling Stone would describe him, in a 1995 interview, as 'a mountain of a man, 6ft 3 in, 280 lbs, black as tar, with a W.C. Fields scowl and a lazy left eye,' Christopher George Latore Wallace was born on May 21, 1972 in Brooklyn, New York. His parents both hailed from the Caribbean island of Jamaica â his mom, Voletta taught preschool; his pop, Selwyn, was a welder and local Jamaican politician. Selwyn left the family when Biggie was two, but Voletta worked two jobs in order to send her son to a private school â the Roman Catholic Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School; alumni include Rudy Giuliani and former Primark CEO Arthur Ryan. But Biggie subsequently transferred to the George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School; alumni include the rappers DMX, Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes. Biggie had excelled at English, but often played truant at Westinghouse and dropped out altogether in 1989 at age 17. Acquiring the childhood nickname 'Big' because of his plus-sized girth, he began selling drugs at 12, according to an interview he gave to the New York Times in 1994, working the streets near his mom's apartment on St. James Place. Voletta worked long hours and had no inkling of her son's activities. Biggie stepped up the drug dealing after quitting school and was soon in trouble with the law. He received a five-year probationary sentence in 1989 after being arrested on weapons-possession charges. The following year he was arrested for violating that probation. The year after that, he was charged with dealing cocaine in North Carolina and reportedly spent nine months in jail while waiting to make bail. Biggie and Bad Boy RecordsBiggie began rapping as a teenager to entertain people in his neighborhood. After he got out of jail, he made a demo tape as Biggie Smalls â named after a gang leader from the 1975 movie Let's Do It Again; also a nod to his childhood nickname. He had no serious plans to pursue a career in music â 'It was fun just hearing myself on tape over beats,' he later said in an Arista Records biography â but the tape found its way to The Source magazine, who were so impressed that they profiled Biggie in their Unsigned Hype column in March 1992; from there, Biggie was invited to record with other unsigned rappers. This recording came to the attention of Sean 'Puffy' Combs, an A&R executive and producer who worked for the leading urban label Uptown Records â he started there as an intern in 1990. Combs arranged a record deal for Biggie, but left the label soon after, having fallen out with his boss, Andre Harrell. Combs went on to set up his own imprint, Bad Boy Records, and by mid-1992 Biggie had joined him. Before he had the chance to put anything out on Bad Boy, Uptown released music that Biggie recorded during his brief stint at the label, including a remix of Mary J. Blige's 'Real Love' in August 1992 that featured a guest verse from The Notorious B.I.G. (He had been forced to change his recording name after a lawsuit; though he continued to be widely known as Biggie). In June 1993, the label released The Notorious BIG's first single as a solo artist, 'Party and Bullshit.' Biggie and Tupac's FriendshipThat same year, as he worked on music for his debut album, Biggie Smalls met Tupac Shakur for the first time. Their encounter, detailed in Ben Westhoff's book, Original Gangstas, took place at a party held by an L.A. drug dealer. They ate, drank and smoked together, and Tupac, already a successful recording artist, gifted Biggie, then unknown outside New York, a bottle of Hennessy. After that, Tupac mentored Biggie whenever the two met up â at one point Biggie even asked if Tupac would become his manager. 'Nah, stay with Puff,' Tupac apparently said. 'He will make you a star.' Biggie was particularly concerned about money around that time because he became a father in August to T'yanna, his daughter, with high-school sweetheart, Jan. It has been reported that Biggie went back to drug dealing at this point, until Combs learned what he was up to and made him stop. 'Ready to Die' Album Takes OffThe Notorious B.I.G.'s debut album came out on Bad Boy in September 1994, a month after 'Juicy,' his first single for the label. The album, Ready to Die, was certified gold within two months, double-platinum the following year, and eventually quadruple-platinum. 'Big Poppa,' the second of the album's four singles, was nominated for a Grammy for best rap solo performance. Ready to Die marked a resurgence in East Coast hip hop, and Biggie was widely acclaimed for the narrative ability he displayed on the album's semi-autobiographical tales from his wayward youth. Away from the more playful radio-friendly singles â 'Birthdays was the worst days/Now we sip champagne when we thirst-ay' he chortled on 'Juicy' â Biggie did not sugar-coat the drug-dealer lifestyle; the album's final track, 'Suicidal Thoughts,' sounded like a cry for help. 'In street life you're not allowed to show if you care about something,' Sean Combs told the New York Times. 'You've got to keep that straight face. The flip side of that is this album. He's giving up all his vulnerability.' In the run-up to Ready to Die's release, Biggie married the R&B singer Faith Evans, his label-mate on Bad Boy, on August 4, 1994. They wed just days after meeting at a photoshoot. Evans went on to be featured on 'One More Chance,' the fourth single from Ready to Die, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and was certified platinum. She gave birth to their son, Christopher 'CJ' Wallace Jr. on October 29, 1996. Biggie and Tupac's FeudBut perhaps the most significant date in Biggie's rollercoaster year was November 29, 1994. This was the day Tupac Shakur was shot five times during a robbery in a recording-studio lobby in New York. Shakur survived, but believed Biggie and his label boss Combs had orchestrated the attack. It didn't help that the B-side to Biggie's single 'Big Poppa,' released a little more than two months after the incident, featured the song 'Who Shot Ya?' Tupac interpreted this as Biggie taunting him, and released an explosive diss track, 'Hit 'Em Up,' the following year, on which he claimed to have slept with Biggie's wife. (Evans would speak about this many years later in 2014, when she told MTV that Shakur once hit on her after a recording session, 'but that ain't how I do business,' she said.) Biggie & Michael Jackson, More Legal ProblemsBiggie's next album release came on August 29, 1995, as part of the group Junior MAFIA (an acronym for Masters at Finding Intelligent Attitudes). He had formed the group to mentor young rappers including Lil' Kim, with whom he would have an affair. That year he also became one of the only hip hop artists to collaborate with Michael Jackson on the song 'This Time Around.' (The story goes that Biggie was with another of his Junior MAFIA protégés, Lil Cease, who was then 16, when he was summoned to the studio to record with Jackson. But according to Cease, Biggie would not allow him to meet the King of Pop because he didn't 'trust him with kids.') Biggie also guested on R. Kelly's eponymous album on the track '(You to Be) Be Happy.' By the end of 1995, the Notorious B.I.G. was the biggest-selling solo male artist on the Billboard charts â not only in hip hop, but in pop and R&B, too. Biggie began working on his second studio album in September 1995 and continued into the following year. But there would be more trouble. In March 1996, he was arrested after chasing two autograph hunters with a baseball bat in Manhattan, threatening to kill them; he was sentenced to 100 hours of community service. Months later police raided his house in New Jersey and found 50 grams of marijuana and four automatic weapons. That same summer, he was charged with beating and robbing a friend of a concert promoter at a New Jersey nightclub. And then in the fall, he was arrested again, this time for smoking marijuana in his car in Brooklyn. The Death of TupacOn September 7, 1996, his former friend Tupac Shakur was shot dead in Las Vegas. Nobody has ever been charged for the murder, but as a consequence of the ongoing East Coast/West Coast rap beef that Biggie and Tupac's rivalry had come to embody, and also of Tupac publicly blaming Biggie and Puffy for his non-fatal shooting in 1994, there were plenty who believed that the East Coast rap kingpins were behind Tupac's murder. (Both Biggie and Puffy strenuously denied their involvement and other key suspects have since emerged.) 'It's a funny thing, I kind of realized how powerful Tupac and I was,' reflected Biggie to the interviewer Jim Bean after his great rival's death. 'We two individual people, we waged a coastal beef. You know what i'm saying? One man against one man made a whole West coast hate a whole East Coast. And vice versa. And that really bugged me out . . .Like yo, dude don't like me, so his whole coast don't like me. I don't like him, so my whole coast don't like him. It let me know how much strength I have. So what I'm trying to do now, I've got to be the one to try to flip it. And take my power and flip it, like, yo, because Pac can't be the one to try to squash it because he's gone. So I gotta take the weight on both sides.' Biggie Smalls Shot to Death in Los AngelesSadly, Biggie did not live long enough to see the peace he wished for. He himself was murdered the early hours of March 9, 1997. It happened shortly after he left a Vibe magazine party at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. As Biggie's SUV â in which he was riding with a bodyguard and Lil' Cease â waited at a red light, a vehicle pulled up alongside it, and a gunman opened fire. His bodyguard rushed Biggie to the hospital, but it was already too late. Like that of Tupac Shakur, the killing of Biggie Smalls would never be solved. There would be no closure. Also like Tupac, Biggie would release a double album posthumously, in Biggie's case a mere fortnight after his demise. On March 25, 1997, Bad Boy released the spookily titled Life After Death. It had collaborations with artists including Puff Daddy, Jay-Z, 112, Lil' Kim, Mase, R Kelly, Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels and Angela Winbush, and would be nominated for three Grammy awards â for best rap album, best solo rap performance for the lead single 'Hypnotize,' and best performance by a duo or group for its second single, 'Mo Money Mo Problems,' which featured Puff Daddy and Mase. The album was certified diamond in 2000 after selling more than 10 million copies. With his murder seen by many hip hop fans as a tit-for-tat killing, Biggie appeared to continue the beef from beyond the grave on the album track 'Long Kiss Goodnight.' The lyrics seemed to refer to the time Tupac got shot, and survived, in New York ('When my men bust, you just move with such stamina / Slugs missed you, I ain't mad atcha'). But according to the hip hop magazine XXL, the song was likely to have been recorded before Tupac's actual murder. Whatever the case may be, Biggie's shocking fate spelled the end of the East Coast/West Coast rap feud. Things had gotten way out of hand. Two of the greatest rappers to ever pick up a microphone were dead and gone. Hip hop's reputation had been dragged through the gutter. Nobody had any appetite for more. On March 18, 1997 Biggie's memorial service was held at the the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan among 350 guests, which included Lil Kim, Mary J. Blige, Queen Latifah, Run DMC, Busta Rhymes, Foxy Brown and other high profile artists. Biggie lay in an open mahogany casket dressed in a white suit. After the service, his remains were cremated. Life After Death: Biggie Smalls' LegacyBut this wasn't the last that the world had heard from Biggie Smalls. He was featured on no fewer than five songs on Puff Daddy's 1997 album, No Way Out. A single from that album, 'I'll Be Missing You,' dedicated to Biggie's memory, won the Grammy for best rap performance by a duo or group in 1998 â ironically beating Biggie himself, whose 'Mo Money Mo Problems' was nominated in the same category. There were two more posthumous albums using previously unreleased material: Born Again in 1999 and Duets: the Final Chapter in 2005 â featuring a host of guests including Eminem, Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige and, bizarrely, Bob Marley â also from beyond the grave â and the metal band Korn. Watch an animated tribute to Biggie Smalls by Steve Stoute, one of Bigâs contemporaries who worked as a talent manager and executive at Interscope Records. Stoute is the author of 'The Tanning of America: How Hip Hop Created a Culture that Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy.' The actor, rapper and comedian Jamal Woolard played Biggie Smalls in a biopic in 2009, which grossed $44 million worldwide. It sparked a war of words between Faith Evans and Lil' Kim, who was upset at her portrayal in the movie. But they have since reconciled, and Kim appears on an album of duets between Evans and Smalls. Titled The King and I, the album reportedly features a mix of familiar and unreleased rhymes. 'At the end of the day we're family, whether we like it or not,' Kim said last year, shortly before she and Evans went on tour. 'I'm part of the estate. She's part of the estate. We're a part of Big, and we both share a lot in common. We all realized how strong we could be together.' It is a great shame that Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur were not able to reach the same conclusion. (Photo of Biggie Smalls by Clarence Davis/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images.) Fact CheckWe strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Citation InformationComments are closed.
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