freestyling over the “Who Shot Ya” beat, which he prefaces with a pointed “you listening, biatch?” implicitly directed at Tupac: Take a listen to this rare audio of The Notorious B.I.G. maintained that the song was written before Shakur’s shooting and was not originally about him, it became a vehicle for Biggie to taunt his West Coast rival. The fires of the highly publicized conflict were stoked by the music itself–particularly Biggie’s menacing “Who Shot Ya,” released after Tupac was shot by a rival gang. While Biggie and Tupac started as friends, a series of altercations and retaliations between the two MCs and their respective cohorts eventually escalated into a full-blown feud between the East Coast and the West Coast. In a similar way – and at around the same time – Tupac Shakur had made his name as the voice of L.A.’s booming rap scene. When Puff Daddy struck out on his own with Bad Boy Records later that year, Biggie signed with him, starting his trajectory toward the top of the hip-hop world.Īs his popularity rose, Biggie’s clever lyrical style and masterfully smooth yet complex flow began to put Bed-Stuy on the map, giving the masses a window into the street patois of King’s County. The tape also made its way to a young producer by the name of Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs at Uptown Records. Street Corner FreestyleĪfter being released from prison, he recorded a demo tape under the name “Biggie Smalls.” The mixtape caught the ears of tastemakers around the city including hip-hop rag The Source, who featured Biggie in their 1992 “Unsigned Hype” column (ten years later, in 2002, The Source would name him the greatest rapper of all time in their 150th issue). deliver an iconic battle verse on a Brooklyn street corner below: Nevertheless, his lyrical prowess was undeniable even at a young age, imbued with the street hustle and silky flow of his Brooklyn upbringing. was all about his business–rapping was just a way to kill time, talk shit, and gain respect.

Addicted to the money and the image the dubious endeavor afforded him, his operation grew in size and scale until it eventually landed him a 9-month stint in prison in 1990 on drug and weapons charges.

The Beach Boys defined the good vibrations of Southern California in the early 1960s The Velvet Underground was emblematic of the nascent avant-garde punk scene in lower Manhattan in the late ’60s and early ’70s R.E.M. evokes visions of a burgeoning music community in 1980’s Athens, GA and, of course, no artist embodied the mean streets of Brooklyn in the 90’s more than Christopher George Latore Wallace, better known as The Notorious B.I.G.īorn and bred in Bed-Stuy, Wallace started selling crack at age 12. Over the years, there have been a handful of artists who helped define their era, who were the manifestation of the time and place in which they existed.

Notorious big death scene