03/19/10
In just a few short years, the Notorious B.I.G. went from a Brooklyn street hustler to the savior of East Coast hip-hop to a tragic victim of the culture of violence he depicted so realistically on his records. His all-too-brief odyssey almost immediately took on mythic proportions, especially since his murder followed the shooting of rival Tupac Shakur by only six months. In death, the man also known as Biggie Smalls became a symbol of the senseless violence that plagued inner-city America in the waning years of the 20th century. Whether or not his death was really the result of a much-publicized feud between the East and West Coast hip-hop scenes, it did mark the point where both sides stepped back from a rivalry that had gone too far. Hip-hop’s self-image would never be quite the same, and neither would public perception. The aura of martyrdom that surrounds the Notorious B.I.G. sometimes threatens to overshadow his musical legacy, which was actually quite significant. Helped by Sean “Puffy” Combs’ radio-friendly sensibility, Biggie re-established East Coast rap’s viability by leading it into the post-Dr. Dre gangsta age. Where fellow East Coasters the Wu-Tang Clan slowly built an underground following, Biggie crashed onto the charts and became a star right out of the box. In the process, he helped Combs’ Bad Boy label supplant Death Row as the biggest hip-hop imprint in America, and also paved the way to popular success for other East Coast talents like Jay-Z and Nas. Biggie was a gifted storyteller with a sense of humor and an eye for detail, and his narratives about the often violent life of the streets were rarely romanticized; instead, they were told with a gritty, objective realism that won him enormous respect and credibility. The general consensus in the rap community was that when his life was cut short, sadly, Biggie was just getting started. The Notorious B.I.G. was born Christopher Wallace on May 21, 1972, and grew up in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. He was interested in rap from a young age, performing with local groups like the Old Gold Brothers and the Techniques, the latter of whom brought the teenaged Wallace his first trip to a recording studio. He had already adopted the name Biggie Smalls at this point, a reference to his ample frame, which would grow to be over six feet tall and nearly 400 pounds. Although he was a good student, he dropped out of high school at age 17 to live his life on the streets. Attracted by the money and flashy style of local drug dealers, he started selling crack for a living. He got busted on a trip to North Carolina and spent nine months in jail, and upon his release, he made some demo recordings on a friend’s four-track. The resulting tape fell into the hands of Mister Cee, a DJ working with Big Daddy Kane; Cee in turn passed the tape on to hip-hop magazine The Source, which gave Biggie a positive write-up in a regular feature on unsigned artists. Thanks to the publicity, Biggie caught the attention of Uptown Records producer Sean “Puffy” Combs, who signed him immediately. With his new daughter in need of immediate financial support, Biggie kept dealing drugs for a short time until Combs found out and laid down the law. Not long after Biggie’s signing, Combs split from Uptown to form his own label, Bad Boy, and took Biggie with him. Changing his primary stage name from Biggie Smalls to the Notorious B.I.G., the newly committed rapper made his recording debut on a 1993 remix of Mary J. Blige’s single “Real Love.” He soon guested on another Blige remix, “What’s the 411?,” and contributed his first solo cut, “Party and Bullshit,” to the soundtrack of the film Who’s the Man? Now with a considerable underground buzz behind him, the Notorious B.I.G. delivered his debut album, Ready to Die, in September 1994. Its lead single, “Juicy,” went gold, and the follow-up smash, “Big Poppa,” achieved platinum sales and went Top Ten on the pop and R&B charts. Biggie’s third single, “One More Chance,” tied Michael Jackson’s “Scream” for the highest debut ever on the pop charts; it entered at number five en route to an eventual peak at number two, and went all the way to number one on the R&B side. By the time the dust settled, Ready to Die had sold over four million copies and turned the Notorious B.I.G. into a hip-hop sensation — the first major star the East Coast had produced since the rise of Dr. Dre’s West Coast G-funk. Not long after Ready to Die was released, Biggie married R&B singer and Bad Boy labelmate Faith Evans. In November 1994, West Coast gangsta star Tupac Shakur was shot several times in the lobby of a New York recording studio and robbed of thousands of dollars in jewelry. Shakur survived and accused Combs and his onetime friend Biggie of planning the attack, a charge both of them fervently denied. The ill will gradually snowballed into a heated rivalry between West and East Coast camps, with upstart Bad Boy now challenging Suge Knight’s Death Row empire for hip-hop supremacy. Meanwhile, Biggie turned his energies elsewhere. He shepherded the career of Junior M.A.F.I.A., a group consisting of some of his childhood rap partners, and guested on their singles “Player’s Anthem” and “Get Money.” He also boosted several singles by his labelmates, such as Total’s “Can’t You See” and 112’s “Only You,” and worked with superstars like Michael Jackson (HIStory) and R. Kelly (“[You to Be] Happy,” from R. Kelly). With the singles from Ready to Die still burning up the airwaves as well, Biggie ended 1995 as not only the top-selling rap artist, but also the biggest solo male act on both the pop and R&B charts. He also ran into trouble with the law on more than one occasion. A concert promoter accused Biggie and members of his entourage of assaulting him when he refused to pay the promised fee after a concert cancellation. Later in the year, Biggie pled guilty to criminal mischief after attacking two harassing autograph seekers with a baseball bat. 1996 proved to be an even more tumultuous year. More legal problems ensued after police found marijuana and weapons in a raid on Biggie’s home in Teaneck, NJ. Meanwhile, Junior M.A.F.I.A. member Lil’ Kim released her first solo album under Biggie’s direction, and the two made little effort to disguise their concurrent love affair. 2Pac, still nursing a grudge against Biggie and Combs, recorded a vicious slam on the East Coast scene called “Hit ‘Em Up,” in which he taunted Biggie about having slept with Faith Evans (who was by now estranged from her husband). What was more, during the recording sessions for Biggie’s second album, he suffered rather serious injuries in a car accident and was confined to a wheelchair for a time. Finally, in September 1996, Tupac Shakur was murdered in a drive-by shooting on the Las Vegas strip. Given their very public feud, it didn’t take long for rumors of Biggie’s involvement to start swirling, although none were substantiated. Biggie was also criticized for not attending an anti-violence hip-hop summit held in Harlem in the wake of Shakur’s death. Observers hoped that Shakur’s murder would serve as a wake-up call for gangsta rap in general, that on-record boasting had gotten out of hand and spilled into reality. Sadly, it would take another tragedy to drive that point home. In the early morning hours of March 9, 1997, the Notorious B.I.G. was leaving a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, thrown by Vibe magazine in celebration of the Soul Train Music Awards. He sat in the passenger side of his SUV, with his bodyguard in the driver’s seat and Junior M.A.F.I.A. member Lil’ Cease in the back. According to most witnesses, another vehicle pulled up on the right side of the SUV while it was stopped at a red light, and six to ten shots were fired. Biggie’s bodyguard rushed him to the nearby Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, but it was already too late. As much as Shakur was mourned, Biggie’s death was perhaps even more shocking; it meant that Shakur’s death was not an isolated incident, and that hip-hop’s highest-profile talents might be caught in the middle of an escalating war. Naturally, speculation ran rampant that Biggie’s killers were retaliating for Shakur’s death, and since the case remains unsolved, the world may never know for sure. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the release of the Notorious B.I.G.’s second album went ahead as planned at the end of March. The eerily titled Life After Death was a sprawling, guest-laden double-disc set that seemed designed to compete with 2Pac’s All Eyez on Me in terms of ambition and epic scope. Unsurprisingly, it entered the charts at number one, selling nearly 700,000 copies in its first week of release and spending a total of four weeks on top. The first single, “Hypnotize,” went platinum and hit number one on the pop chart, and its follow-up, “Mo Money Mo Problems,” duplicated both feats, making the Notorious B.I.G. the first artist ever to score two posthumous number one hits. A third single, “Sky’s the Limit,” went gold, and Life After Death was certified ten times platinum approximately two years after its release. Plus, Combs — now rechristened Puff Daddy — and Faith Evans scored one of 1997’s biggest singles with their tribute, “I’ll Be Missing You.” In 1999, an album of previously unreleased B.I.G. material, Born Again, was released and entered the charts at number one. It eventually went double platinum. Six years later, Duets: The Final Chapter (studio scraps paired with new verses from several MCs and vocalists) surfaced and reached number three on the album chart. In the years following Christopher Wallace’s death, little official progress was made in the LAPD’s murder investigation, and it began to look as if the responsible parties would never be brought to justice. The 2Pac retaliation theory still holds sway in many quarters, and it has also been speculated that members of the Crips gang murdered Wallace in a dispute over money owed for security services. In an article for Rolling Stone, and later a full book titled Labyrinth, journalist Randall Sullivan argued that Suge Knight hired onetime LAPD officer David Mack — a convicted bank robber with ties to the Bloods — to arrange a hit on Wallace, and that the gunman was a hitman and mortgage broker named Amir Muhammad. Sullivan further argued that when it became clear how many corrupt LAPD officers were involved with Death Row Records, the department hushed up as much as it could and all but abandoned detective Russell Poole’s investigation recommendations. Documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield used Labyrinth as a basis for 2002’s Biggie and Tupac, which featured interviews with Poole and Knight, among others. In April 2002, Faith Evans and Voletta Wallace (Biggie’s mother) filed a civil suit against the LAPD alleging wrongful death, among other charges. In September of that year, the L.A. Times published a report alleging that the Notorious B.I.G. had paid members of the Crips one million dollars to murder 2Pac, and even supplied the gun used. Several of Biggie’s relatives and friends stepped forward to say that the rapper had been recording in New Jersey, not masterminding a hit in Las Vegas; the report was also roundly criticized in the hip-hop community, which was anxious to avoid reopening old wounds.
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elvia
03/09/10
bjezus
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elena
02/27/10
sitting pretty
the last one is an optical illusion....
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niki
02/17/10
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andrew
02/15/10
loco! coco? whatever
laws and laws and claws and clause and time and clocks and cocks and tick and tocks and waits and gates and almost completely make believed you were my mate and fate and not fate and cash and change and splashing water or deranged tame and semi-sane or semi-insane.
i went to the bike store to buy a bike and all i got was a chain that broke and then i woke from my dream and realized it was my dad's car and i was speeding down the interstate from ohio to michigan and the sky was that kind of gray-pink hue that looks how puke would look if it were beautiful. i ate a few clementines and walked around a graveyard which sat across from a high school football stadium and then i yawned and fell asleep by the grave of a guy who served in the spanish-american war.
bill clinton was president when i first realized how babies were made. i shoved my penis against the bed and tried to make an inanimate baby. i wanted to make a friend to cuddle with. my mom took me to church the next morning and i ate doughnuts in sunday school. i prayed to god for guidance with my erections and fantasies. that was around the time that i stopped beliieving in santa claus, or even the spirit of santa claus, although i guess santa claus is okay.
i stared smoking cigartettes because i wanted to look cool and get fucked up in a very minimal way. i stopped smoking cigarettes because some things never end. when my great-grandfather was 29 he rode broncos and when turned 30 he was in africa killing beasts that got in his way as he walked along dirty muddy paths. he smoked dutch tobacco. sometimes he rolled it into cigarettes and sometimes he put it in a pipe.
the second time i awoke from my dream there were loud drums playing futuristic primitive beats in a big grassy field. everyone was taking their science text books and throwing them in a large fire. i watched with great interest and had sporadic spontaneous grins slash across my face. it is a disgrace the apathy and disregard we have for ourselves and all those who attempt to preach to us. as for me, i say "fuck the preacher" and "fuck the teacher", but i am using the word "fuck" in a very ambiguous sense. you must have sexual relations with them in some way even if it is only in your own person. but you also have to kill them, so i leave the big decisions up to you.
one should either learn to lock their door or close their unlocked door or lose their love for the possessions that own their life.
in the middle of the night i dreamt of my best friends from the university all stoned and moaning in a mansion in the french countryside that had been turned into an opium den. sex was veery casual and fun. staring was a good experience too, although that one was still fun after the drugs wore off, i think. everything made sense to me for a little bit, and then i realized i was dreaming awake.
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elvia
02/08/10
THAT THING
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niki
02/04/10
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andrew
02/04/10
Fruit flies were fluttering around Drake as he sat in his chair staring at his computer screen. The flies were visible against the backdrop of his screen saver, which was showing the cosmos. The garbage in the trash can next to his desk reached several feet above the brim of the can. He had worked out a system of delicately placing his garbage on the pile so as to never have to empty the can. The trash consisted of banana peels, orange peels, crumbled-up wrappers, disposable microwave dinner containers, sales receipts, and scraps of paper. Next to the trash can stood half a dozen forty ounce beer bottles in neat line. Sometimes when wind blew in from the door or window a wrapper or paper scrap would fall. But in general, his pile of trash was a reliably solid structure.
Drake could hear his mother and her boyfriend Ted having sex in the adjacent room. Her loud and excited gasps carried through the wall into his room. During these times he usually would put on his headphones and listen to music. But tonight he felt too lazy to walk across the room and pick up the ear plugs off the floor. He lit a cigarette and hit the "delete" button on his computer. The screen saver disappeared to reveal The Sound of Music paused in the middle of dance scene. He had been watching it an hour before but now he could not remember what in the hell had made him want to watch that stupid movie. He stared at the still picture of Julie Andrews dancing some douchebag for a several minutes until the screen saver returned and then he lit a cigarette.
It was ten past eleven. He rubbed his eyes and put his hand down his pants to scratch his balls. He got up and left his room. In the hallway the sounds of his mother fucking were much more coherent. He walked down the stairs and out the front door and got into his car. He drove around the neighborhood for about a half-hour until he came upon an open bar and grille. He went in and sat down at the bar and ordered a half-pound cheese burger, cheese fries, and a jack and coke.
"Do you always eat that much?" asked the waitress, "Because you are a skinny kid."
"Uber-fast metabolism," said Drake. This made her laugh.
Drake forced a slight laugh and stared at the two television screens above him to his left. He could sense the waitress waiting for more of a response from him but he had already decided to passively resist interaction with her and so after twenty or thirty seconds she walked away. On one of the televisions there was a football game and on the other one there was a James Bond movie with Pierce Brosnon. He didn't remember any of the Bond movies with Brosnon but he had played the video game for each movie hundreds of times. He couldn't remember though because he was too disinterested.
A fairly-good looking brown-haired woman sat down in a seat near him. He smiled. She made a slight upward movement with both her lips and eyebrows. Drake looked away and then looked back.
"Have we met?" Drake asked.
"No," she said. He had figured they had not met but was not sure. Regardless, he figured it was a good indirect way to ask her her name.
"Oh, sorry," he said.
"Oh, it's okay," she said,"My name's Margo."
"I'm Drake. Nice shoes, by the way."
"Thanks," she said.
He nodded his head for no reason and then took a long sip from his drink. He yawned and noticed a wave of exhaustion come over him but at the same time he felt as if he were wired on uppers or something. He wondered why he wasn't in college. He finished his drink and order a beer. He leaned on his elbow and stared at the television and then the woman named Margo said something to the bartender about a trunk in her house that she couldn't move. He slid his eyes from the television and stared at her for a second.
"What did you say?" he asked.
"I was saying how I need someone to help me move a big trunk that used to belong to my grandmother."
"Oh? Where do you live?"
"Well, I live a little down the street about a mile or so," she said.
"Oh, well I was gonna head home after I finish these fries and this drink," said Drake, "But if you need help moving it I can stop at your place on my way and move it."
"Really? Thanks, that'd be great, I guess."
Drake finished his drink and fries and paid his bill. He and Margo walked out of the bar and he told her he would follow her in his car. When they arrived at her house he got out of his car and put out his cigarette with his show and followed her from the driveway across the lawn up the front steps.
"So there isn't a Mr. Margo...I don't know your last name, come to think of it?" said Drake.
"No, and the name is Jamison" she said as she gave him a questioning look while slightly laughing.
"Ah, ok. That makes sense then," he said.
"Why do you ask?" she said.
She opened the front door and they walked in. She closed the door and he noticed that she was standing close to him in the dark.
"Oh, just the moving your trunk..." He mumbled.
He noticed she hadn't moved in the past minute or so, not even to turn on a lightswitch. He put his arm around her waist and she placed her arm on his back and he felt his dick move. They began kissing and taking their clothes off and then they moved onto a couch. They fucked a couple times and then they laid on the couch and stared at the pitch dark ceiling. Then she led him upstairs and they fell asleep on her bed.
In the morning when he awoke he noticed a large trunk lying in the corner of the room. He shook her to wake her up.
"Is that the trunk?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said.
He got up and walked over to it and she did the same. They carried it downstairs and placed in a corner of the living room. He put on his shoes, kissed her on the cheek, and walked out the door and into his car. Driving home, he began thinking of excuses to tell his mother about where he had been that night.
A fairly-good looking brown-haired woman sat down in a seat near him. He smiled. She made a slight upward movement with both her lips and eyebrows. Drake looked away and then looked back.
"Have we met?" Drake asked.
"No," she said. He had figured they had not met but was not sure. Regardless, he figured it was a good indirect way to ask her her name.
"Oh, sorry," he said.
"Oh, it's okay," she said,"My name's Margo."
"I'm Drake. Nice shoes, by the way."
"Thanks," she said.
He nodded his head for no reason and then took a long sip from his drink. He yawned and noticed a wave of exhaustion come over him but at the same time he felt as if he were wired on uppers or something. He wondered why he wasn't in college. He finished his drink and order a beer. He leaned on his elbow and stared at the television and then the woman named Margo said something to the bartender about a trunk in her house that she couldn't move. He slid his eyes from the television and stared at her for a second.
"What did you say?" he asked.
"I was saying how I need someone to help me move a big trunk that used to belong to my grandmother."
"Oh? Where do you live?"
"Well, I live a little down the street about a mile or so," she said.
"Oh, well I was gonna head home after I finish these fries and this drink," said Drake, "But if you need help moving it I can stop at your place on my way and move it."
"Really? Thanks, that'd be great, I guess."
Drake finished his drink and fries and paid his bill. He and Margo walked out of the bar and he told her he would follow her in his car. When they arrived at her house he got out of his car and put out his cigarette with his show and followed her from the driveway across the lawn up the front steps.
"So there isn't a Mr. Margo...I don't know your last name, come to think of it?" said Drake.
"No, and the name is Jamison" she said as she gave him a questioning look while slightly laughing.
"Ah, ok. That makes sense then," he said.
"Why do you ask?" she said.
She opened the front door and they walked in. She closed the door and he noticed that she was standing close to him in the dark.
"Oh, just the moving your trunk..." He mumbled.
He noticed she hadn't moved in the past minute or so, not even to turn on a lightswitch. He put his arm around her waist and she placed her arm on his back and he felt his dick move. They began kissing and taking their clothes off and then they moved onto a couch. They fucked a couple times and then they laid on the couch and stared at the pitch dark ceiling. Then she led him upstairs and they fell asleep on her bed.
In the morning when he awoke he noticed a large trunk lying in the corner of the room. He shook her to wake her up.
"Is that the trunk?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said.
He got up and walked over to it and she did the same. They carried it downstairs and placed in a corner of the living room. He put on his shoes, kissed her on the cheek, and walked out the door and into his car. Driving home, he began thinking of excuses to tell his mother about where he had been that night.
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andrew
02/03/10
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