Biggie Facts:
- The last song Biggie recorded was Victory from Puffy’s No Way Out, which at the time was titled Hell Up In Harlem. It was recorded on March 8th, 1997, one day before he was killed.
- Many people do not know this, but Biggie’s close friends have said that Biggie had a sick set shot in basketball.
- Biggie’s favorite song of all the songs he ever recorded was Machine Gun Funk.
- Biggie originally wanted Ready To Die to be more rugged and more street. Puff on the other hand wanted a balance of street songs mixed in with pop records to appeal to a much wider audience. If Biggie had Ready to Die recorded the way he did, it would have sounded more like Illmatic.
- Biggie’s choice for lead single of Ready To Die was Machine Gun Funk. Instead Puff chose Juicy.
- It is NOT Biggie on the cover of Ready To Die.
- Even though Biggie recorded “c*nt Renaissance” with R.A. the Rugged Man, Biggie was not a fan of RA and really only did the track because the money was right.
- Before Biggie had a beef with certain members of the Wu Tang, Biggie was actually a huge fan of their music.
- Victory was a subliminal diss at Nas.
- Biggie’s two favorite rappers were Jay-z and Too Short.
- Although Puffy and Bad Boy marketed Biggie together with Craig Mack, they did NOT get along. They recorded together and went on the road together, but Biggie and Craig Mack had beef. People believe that because Craig Mack blew up first with Flava In Ya Ear that he was jealous of Biggie’s new found success. Biggie dropped Ready To Die and some of the hip hop world forgot about Craig Mack. Bad Boy would never release his second album.
- I Got A Story To Tell, the last song on Life After Death Disc 1 was a story about John Starks girlfriend at the time.
- Biggie was arrested 7 different times in his life
- Biggie’s mother Voletta Wallace took out an insurance policy for him when he was just 17. She figured that with his lifestyle and the people he was with, that he wouldn’t live much longer
- Biggie was also a big fan of Mase.
- A lot of Biggie’s music that he recorded as a teenager (pre-Bad Boy and pre-record deal) has been lost by his close friends.
- Biggies original demo tape was sold in the Lion’s Culture in Brooklyn. There was only a limited number for sale.
- Biggie’s long term plan was to develop all members of Junior Mafia into solo artists with their own careers. Biggie was planning to retire from rapping in 2000 and become CEO of his own label. When he was working for Puff, he tried learning as much as he could about the business.
- Juicy was originally titled “Its All Good”.
- Biggie’s first advance from Bad Boy Records was actually $25,000, not $60,000 as is portrayed in the Notorious movie
- Of all the rappers that Biggie wanted to work with, Raekwon was number one on his list.
- Victory was originally titled “The Commission”
- At the start of his career, Biggie did in fact write his rhymes down on paper. He also had books of his raps.
- Ready to Die was originally called “Biggie Smalls The Teflon Don”
- On 2Pac and Stretch’s “God Bless The Dead”, Tupac was talking about west coast rapper Biggy Smallz and not The Notorious BIG.
- Originally Puff did not want “Suicidal Thoughts” on Ready to Die. Biggie and Puff fought about it, and in the end Biggie won.
- Bone Thugs N Harmony is the only rappers to record with both Biggie and 2Pac while they were alive.
- Biggie loved L.A. so much after visiting there and spending time there that he was also planning on buying house there.
- Biggie and the Roots had beef after The Roots released their video to “What They Do”. Biggie at the time felt the video was a shot at him and Puff.
- Buddy X by Neneh Cherry was a diss towards Lenny Kravitz. Biggie appeared as a special guest on the remix.
