1972–1990: Early life Christopher George Latore Wallace was born at
Cumberland Hospital in
Brooklyn, New York City, on May 21, 1972. Wallace was the only child of
Jamaican immigrant parents; his mother, Voletta Wallace (died 2025), was a preschool teacher, while his father, Selwyn George Latore, was a welder. At the age of five, he began attending preschool at Quincy-Lexington Open Door Day Care Center, where he was already bigger than most of the other children. Three months before Wallace's third birthday, his father left the family, leaving his mother to raise him while working two jobs. He grew up in Brooklyn's
Clinton Hill, near the border of
Bedford-Stuyvesant. As a child, Wallace spent most of his time on
Fulton Street, where he was introduced to
drug dealing,
alcoholism, and
gambling. Raised as a
Jehovah's Witness, Wallace attended St. Peter Claver Church in Brooklyn, graduating from the parish elementary school in 1982. He excelled in English at
Queen of All Saints Middle School. He attended
Westinghouse High School, a public school attended by several future celebrities, including
Jay-Z and
Busta Rhymes. While attending Westinghouse High School, Wallace weighed , which earned him the nickname "Big". During this period, his interest in drug dealing intensified, having been influenced by the
crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s. A friend introduced him to buying and selling
marijuana when he was around the age of twelve. Having grown up in a strict household, Wallace concealed the money he earned on the roof of his apartment. A year later, Wallace was arrested in
North Carolina for dealing
crack cocaine and spent nine months in jail before making bail. Although Wallace reportedly had little ambition for the tape, local disc jockey
Mister Cee, known for his work with
Big Daddy Kane and
the Juice Crew, discovered and promoted it. Mister Cee sent the tape to Matteo Capoluongo, an editor at
The Source magazine, who featured the track in the "Unsigned Hype" section in March 1992, a chart dedicated to showcasing promising rappers. That year, Wallace started gaining exposure; after reading the "Unsigned Hype" section,
Sean Combs arranged to meet him. Combs connected Wallace to rhyme on the remix of
Mary J. Blige's hit "
Real Love". In 1992, Wallace's girlfriend, Jan Jackson, became pregnant, and he was signed to
Uptown Records in March by Combs. Wallace's first chance to record a solo track for Uptown Records, rather than featuring on another artist's remix, came in 1993 when Combs was creating a song for
the soundtrack of the
hip-hop comedy ''
Who's the Man?''. The song was "
Party and Bullshit", produced by the Brooklyn-based
Easy Mo Bee. The song was heavily inspired by "When the Revolution Comes" by
the Last Poets, which uses sarcasm, frustration, and humor to critique young Black people's lack of seriousness in the struggle for equality. In the track, vocalist
Umar Bin Hassan delivers lines like "niggas will party and bullshit, and party and bullshit". Development on Wallace's first album began at Capoluongo's apartment in late 1992. Wallace appeared on
Heavy D & the Boyz's 1992 album
Blue Funk, on the track "A Buncha Niggas". In July 1993—a month before Wallace's first child was born—Combs was fired from Uptown Records by his mentor
Andre Harrell, resulting in the loss of access to the songs recorded at that time. Jan gave birth to T'yanna Dream Wallace on August 8, 1993. Wallace promised his daughter "everything she wanted," believing that if he had experienced the same support in his own childhood, he would have graduated at the top of his class. Soon after he was fired, Combs started his own record,
Bad Boy Records, and promptly signed Wallace to the label. Combs discovered that Wallace continued dealing drugs and insisted he stop. When Wallace found out the name Biggie Smalls was already taken, he adopted a new moniker, settling on the Notorious B.I.G. Wallace explained that the
acronym "B.I.G." stood for "Business Instead of Game". Combs and
Clive Davis, then CEO of
Arista Records, reached an agreement in which Davis provided Combs with a $1.5 million advance and full creative control. Combs promptly used the money to repurchase the tracks recorded for Wallace's album from Harrell. Around this time, Wallace formed a friendship with fellow rapper
Tupac Shakur in
Los Angeles.
Yukmouth, an Oakland emcee, stated that Wallace's style was influenced by Shakur. The "Real Love" remix single was followed by a remix of a Mary J. Blige song, "
What's the 411?". Wallace's success continued, though to a lesser extent, with remixes of
Neneh Cherry's "
Buddy X" and reggae artist
Super Cat's "
Dolly My Baby" in 1993. In July 1994, Wallace appeared alongside
LL Cool J and
Busta Rhymes on a remix of
Craig Mack's track "
Flava in Ya Ear", which reached No. 9 on the
Billboard Hot 100. "Flava in Ya Ear" reached No. 1 on the rap chart for three consecutive weeks.
1994: Ready to Die and marriage to Faith Evans , whom Wallace married in 1994 On August 4, 1994, Wallace married
R&B singer
Faith Evans, whom he first met in June 1994 at a promotional photoshoot. Wallace and Mo Bee originally wanted "Machine Gun Funk" as Wallace's upcoming album's first single due to its "funky, upbeat" sound, but Combs preferred a "smoother" sound for the release. The upcoming album's first song to be released was the title track, "Ready to Die", followed by "Gimme the Loot", "Things Done Changed", "Machine Gun Funk", and "Warning". Wallace had his first pop chart success as a solo artist with double A-side, "
Juicy / Unbelievable", which reached No. 27 as the lead single to his debut album. Recorded at
the Hit Factory between 1993 and 1994, Wallace released his debut studio album,
Ready to Die, on September 13, 1994. Inspired by
Snoop Dogg's bold, violent, and darkly humorous hit records, Wallace sought to create a similar style with
Ready to Die, infused with an East Coast influence. Wallace originally wanted to name the album
The Teflon Don, drawing inspiration from
John Gotti, who was then making headlines for his ability to avoid legal troubles. Combs disagreed, arguing that the title should make an impact in a way that would "represent for the masses". Wallace agreed to follow Combs' decision, and the two conceived the name
Ready to Die.
Ready to Die reached No. 15 on the
Billboard 200 chart, sold 500,000 copies in its first week, and was certified four times
platinum. It received positive reviews upon release and has been widely praised in retrospect. In addition to "Juicy", the album produced two other hit singles: the platinum-selling "
Big Poppa", which topped the U.S. rap chart; and "
One More Chance", which sold onemillion copies in 1995 (the year of its release). Busta Rhymes recalled seeing Wallace handing out copies of
Ready to Die from his home, which the former saw as "his way of marketing himself". In 1994, Wallace formed the hip-hop group
Junior M.A.F.I.A., which included many of his childhood friends, such as
Lil' Kim and Lil' Cease. The name is a
backronym for "Masters at Finding Intelligent Attitudes". Wallace also befriended basketball player
Shaquille O'Neal. O'Neal said they were introduced during a listening session for "Gimme the Loot"; Wallace mentioned him in the lyrics and attracted O'Neal to his music. O'Neal requested a collaboration with Wallace, which resulted in the song "
You Can't Stop the Reign". According to Combs, Wallace would not collaborate with "anybody he didn't really respect" and that Wallace paid O'Neal his respect by "shouting him out". In 2015,
Daz Dillinger, a frequent collaborator with Shakur, said that he and Wallace were "cool", with Wallace traveling to meet him to smoke
cannabis and record two songs.
1995: Collaboration with Michael Jackson, Junior M.A.F.I.A. success, and coastal feud Junior M.A.F.I.A. began working on their debut studio album in 1994. On August 29, 1995,
Conspiracy was released via
Undeas Recordings. and sold over 500,000 copies in the U.S. The first single, "
Player's Anthem", features Wallace, Lil' Kim, and Lil' Cease, and was produced by
Clark Kent. The third single, "
Get Money", a battle-of-the-sexes track featuring Wallace and Lil' Kim, became their most popular song. "Player's Anthem" and "Get Money" charted within the top 20 in the U.S. and also earned gold and platinum status, respectively. Wallace continued collaborating with R&B artists, working with groups like
112 on "
Only You" and
Total on "
Can't You See", both of which reached the top 20 on the Hot 100. By the end of the year, Wallace had become the top-selling male solo artist and rapper on both the U.S. pop and R&B charts. In July 1995, Wallace appeared on the cover of
The Source with the caption "The King of New York Takes Over," a nod to his alias Frank White, inspired by the character from the 1990 film
King of New York. At
The Source Awards in August 1995, he won Best New Artist, Lyricist of the Year, and Live Performer of the Year, He was also honored as Rap Artist of the Year at the
Billboard Awards. In 1995, Wallace became embroiled in the
East Coast–West Coast hip-hop rivalry, which involved his now-former friend, Shakur. In an April 1995 interview with
Vibe while serving time in
Clinton Correctional Facility, Shakur accused Harrell, Combs, and Wallace of having prior knowledge of a robbery on November 30, 1994, during which he was shot five times and lost thousands of dollars' worth of jewelry. They denied any involvement. Wallace stated, "I had nothing to do with that, it just happened to be a coincidence that he was in the studio. He couldn't really say who really had something to do with it at the time, so he just kind of leaned the blame on me". In 2012, Dexter Isaac, who was serving a life sentence for unrelated crimes, claimed responsibility for the attack on Shakur that night, stating that the robbery was orchestrated by entertainment executive and former drug trafficker
James Rosemond. After his release from prison, Shakur signed with
Death Row Records in October 1995. This made Bad Boy Records and Death Row business rivals, further escalating the conflict between Shakur and Wallace. In October 1995, Wallace revealed that he still had not received any earnings from
Ready to Die, despite the album having sold twomillion copies at the time. With each CD priced at $15 (), the album should have generated approximately $30 million ($million in ) in revenue. Amid the rivalry between Wallace and Shakur, many speculated that "
Who Shot Ya?", released in late February 1995 as a secondary
B-side to "Big Poppa", was intended to taunt Shakur. According to Lil' Cease, the song was not intended to be a comment on the shooting, stating, "He knew that song wasn't about him[...] he was around at that time". Lil' Cease stated that the song was an introduction for Mary J. Blige's
second album, however, "the shit was too hard, so Big kept it and said, 'I'm gonna put it out'". on
HIStory Continues (1995). In June 1995, Wallace guest appeared with pop singer
Michael Jackson on the album
HIStory Continues, providing vocals for the song "
This Time Around". Lil' Cease claimed that when Wallace met Jackson, he was made to stay behind, with Wallace explaining that he did not "trust Michael with kids" due to the
1993 child sexual abuse allegations against Jackson. The engineer John Van Nest recalled that Wallace was excited to meet Jackson and was nearly brought to tears when it happened. Wallace began recording his second studio album in late 1995, working on it over the course of eighteen months in New York City,
Trinidad, and
Los Angeles. The recording process was disrupted by injuries, legal issues, and the publicized hip-hop feud between Wallace and Shakur.
1996: More arrests, accusations regarding Shakur's death and second child In 1996, Lil' Kim became pregnant with Wallace's child while the two were having an affair, but she later decided to get an abortion. Wallace also started a relationship with
Charli Baltimore, a Philadelphia native who portrayed Evans in the "Get Money" music video. Although Wallace shared his plans to include her in a supergroup called the Commission, she was aware that she was not the only woman in his life. On March 23, 1996, Wallace was arrested outside a Manhattan nightclub for chasing and threatening two fans who were asking for autographs, smashing the windows of their taxi, and punching one of them. He pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment and was sentenced to 100 hours of community service. Later that year, he was arrested at his home in
Teaneck, New Jersey, on drug and weapons possession charges. At the
Soul Train Music Awards in 1996, "One More Chance (Remix)" was nominated for
Song of the Year and received the R&B/Soul or Rap Song of the Year award in the same year. In June 1996, Shakur released "
Hit 'Em Up". A
diss track directed towards Wallace and other East Coast rappers, Shakur claimed to have had an affair with Evans, who was estranged from Wallace at the time, and accused Wallace of copying his style and image. Described as "manic", "Hit 'Em Up" disses Wallace, Combs, and their associates, including Junior M.A.F.I.A., Evans, and Bad Boy Records. In 1996, Wallace collaborated with rising rapper
Jay-Z on his debut album,
Reasonable Doubt, recording a duet titled "
Brooklyn's Finest". The track used humor to address speculation surrounding Wallace and Shakur: "If Faith has twins, she'll probably have two Pacs. Get it? Tu... Pac's." According to Wallace, humor had always been his way of coping with hardship since elementary school, explaining, "I gotta make jokes about it [...] I can't be the [guy] running around all serious". On September 7, 1996, Shakur
was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas and died six days later. Because of Shakur's accusations in his records, Wallace, along with other New York rappers like
Mobb Deep,
Capone, and
Noreaga, became suspects in his murder. In a 2002
Los Angeles Times series titled "Who Killed Tupac Shakur?", journalist
Chuck Philips reported, based on police reports and multiple sources, that the shooting was carried out by the
Southside Crips, a Compton gang, seeking revenge for a beating Shakur had allegedly inflicted earlier that day. The report also claimed that Wallace had paid for the gun used in the shooting. The night Shakur died, Wallace called Evans in tears; Evans recalled that "he was in shock[...] and it's fair to say he was probably afraid". Wallace expressed regret over Shakur's death but declined to attend his funeral when asked by a friend. He explained his decision by saying, "[Shakur] made my life miserable[...] he told lies, fucked with my marriage, [and] turned [my] fans against me". The
Los Angeles Times editor Mark Duvoisin stated that "Philips' story has withstood all challenges to its accuracy,[...] [and] remains the definitive account of the Shakur slaying". Wallace's family denied the report, providing documents that claimed he was in New Jersey at the time of the incident.
The New York Times called the documents inconclusive, stating: The pages purport to be three computer printouts from Daddy's House, indicating that Wallace was in the studio recording a song called "Nasty Boy" on the night Shakur was shot. They indicate that Wallace "wrote half the session", was "in and out/sat around" and "laid down a ref", shorthand for a reference vocal, the equivalent of a first take. But nothing indicates when the documents were created. And Louis Alfred, the recording engineer listed on the sheets, said in an interview that he remembered recording the song with Wallace in a late-night session, not during the day. He could not recall the date of the session but said it was likely not the night Shakur was shot. "We would have heard about it", Mr. Alfred said.
Wayne Barrow, Wallace's co-manager at the time, stated that Wallace was recording the track "
Nasty Girl" on the night Shakur was shot. Shortly after Shakur's death, Wallace met with
Snoop Dogg, who claimed he never hated Shakur. During the recording of his second album,
Life After Death, Wallace and Lil' Cease were arrested for public marijuana use, resulting in the repossession of their car. Wallace opted to rent a
Chevrolet Lumina rental SUV, despite Lil' Cease's concerns about its faulty brakes. The car was ultimately crashed into a rail, breaking Wallace's left leg and fracturing Lil' Cease's jaw. Wallace spent months in the hospital, initially using a wheelchair, later relying on a cane (which he used until his death), and undergoing therapy. Despite his hospitalization, he continued working on the album, referencing the accident in "Long Kiss Goodnight" with the line, "Ya still tickle me, I used to be as strong as Ripple be / Til Lil' Cease crippled me". Lil' Kim described herself as Wallace's "biggest fan" and referred to herself as "his pride and joy". In a 2012 interview, Lil' Kim revealed that Wallace stopped her from recording a remix of
Jodeci's single "
Love U 4 Life" by locking her in a room. According to Kim, Wallace told her she was "not gonna go do no song with them", likely due to Jodeci's association with Shakur and Death Row Records. While working on
Life After Death, Wallace began to lose weight, losing around , according to his mother.
1997: Conclusion of development on Life After Death In January 1997, Wallace was ordered to pay $41,000 in damages following an incident involving a friend of a concert promoter who claimed Wallace and his entourage beat him following a dispute in May 1995. He faced
criminal assault charges for the incident, which remains unresolved, but all robbery charges were dropped. Following the events, Wallace spoke of a desire to focus on his "peace of mind" and his family and friends. The development of
Life After Death concluded in January 1997 for a March 25 release. In February 1997, Wallace traveled to California to promote
Life After Death. On the morning of February 16, Wallace began preparations for the day's work. He had arrived in Los Angeles two weeks before the Soul Train Music Awards to film the video for his album's lead single, "
Hypnotize". The three-day shoot, with a budget of $700,000, was both a promotional effort and a statement of his return to the music scene. "Hypnotize" was officially released on March 4, 1997. After production of the video had ended, Wallace recorded his vocals for Combs' upcoming album,
Hell Up in Harlem; following the former's death, the album was retitled
No Way Out. He was posthumously featured on the tracks "
Victory" and "
It's All About the Benjamins". == Murder ==