Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 - March 9, 1997), also known as Biggie Smalls (after a stylish gangster in 1975's Let's Do it Again) and Frank White (from the film King of New York), but best known as The Notorious B.I.G. (Business Instead of Game and, since his death, Books Instead of Guns), was a popular Brooklyn-born rapper of the mid-1990s. His career was overshadowed by the Bad Boy/Death Row Records feud during his life, but following his untimely death in 1997, The Notorious B.I.G. has been celebrated as a hip-hop legend. ...show more

Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 - March 9, 1997), also known as Biggie Smalls (after a stylish gangster in 1975's Let's Do it Again) and Frank White (from the film King of New York), but best known as The Notorious B.I.G. (Business Instead of Game and, since his death, Books Instead of Guns), was a popular Brooklyn-born rapper of the mid-1990s. His career was overshadowed by the Bad Boy/Death Row Records feud during his life, but following his untimely death in 1997, The Notorious B.I.G. has been celebrated as a hip-hop legend.

He is remembered for his storytelling ability, talented freestyling ability, and his easy to understand yet complex flow. The Notorious B.I.G. is considered by many to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Early Life Christopher Wallace was born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York.

His father, George Latore, left the family shortly after his birth, and his mother, Voletta, was a schoolteacher. While he is known to have dropped out of school and become a drug dealer, his mother has claimed that the family was not poor and that Wallace exaggerated his childhood situation in his lyrics. His best childhood friend and inspiration was a chubby kid who went by the name of Lil Punisha. Wallace, who originally didn't stray much farther than his Brooklyn neighborhood to sell drugs, began to traffic drugs to Virginia and Maryland where it was sold at a higher price. ...show less