The Notorious B.I.G

The Notorious B.I.G. married R&B singer Faith Evans on August 4, 1994. They had one child, Christopher "C.J." Wallace Jr., who was born on October 29, 1996. Wallace also had a daughter, T'yanna Dream Wallace, with his former girlfriend Jan Jackson, born in August 1993.

Wallace's mother, Voletta Wallace, was a preschool teacher, and his father, Selwyn George Latore, was a welder. He grew up in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods.

Wallace began recording in Brooklyn and produced the 1991 demo tape Microphone Murderer with DJ 50 Grand. Mister Cee promoted the tape, and The Source featured Wallace in its "Unsigned Hype" column in March 1992. Sean Combs then arranged to meet him and helped connect him with early recording opportunities, including a remix of Mary J. Blige's "Real Love."

After Combs founded Bad Boy Records, he signed Wallace to the label. Wallace released his debut album, Ready to Die, on September 13, 1994. The album included "Juicy," "Big Poppa," and "One More Chance," earned strong critical praise, and helped restore attention to East Coast hip-hop while West Coast rap dominated the U.S. charts.

In 1994, Wallace formed Junior M.A.F.I.A. with childhood friends including Lil' Kim and Lil' Cease. The group's 1995 album Conspiracy achieved gold certification, while Wallace received several honors at the 1995 Source Awards and was named Rap Artist of the Year at the Billboard Music Awards.

Wallace initially formed a close friendship with Tupac Shakur. Their relationship deteriorated after Shakur was shot and robbed at Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan in November 1994. Shakur accused Wallace and Sean Combs of knowing about the attack, but both denied involvement. The dispute became part of the wider rivalry between Bad Boy Records and Death Row Records.

Wallace and Shakur exchanged musical accusations as the conflict intensified, although Wallace said he did not want to make a record attacking Shakur. After Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in September 1996, speculation about Wallace's involvement continued. Wallace's family denied claims connecting him to the killing, and Wallace himself was killed in a separate drive-by shooting in Los Angeles six months later.

Wallace recorded his second album, Life After Death, during the final eighteen months of his life. A car accident in 1996 left him with a broken leg and led to months of hospitalization and therapy, but he continued working on the album. He completed its development in January 1997, and its lead single, "Hypnotize," reached number one after its release in March.

Life After Death was released sixteen days after Wallace's death and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. It produced the number-one singles "Hypnotize" and "Mo Money Mo Problems," the latter making Wallace the first artist to achieve two posthumous number-one singles. Later posthumous albums included Born Again, Duets: The Final Chapter, and The King & I, a duet album with Faith Evans.

Wallace was known for a deep baritone voice, a laid-back delivery, layered rhymes, and detailed storytelling. His lyrics combined crime narratives and autobiographical material with humor, celebration, material ambition, and romantic themes. In 2020, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in Brooklyn, the corner of Fulton Street and St. James Place was renamed in his honor in 2019.