Biggie Smalls Research Paper

During a time in which gang activity and hip-hop music were at their peak, one hip-hop artist stood out amongst the crowd. Christopher Wallace, otherwise known as his stage names, Biggie Smalls & Notorious B.I.G., was one of hip-hop’s elite performers during the 1990s. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Christopher George Latore Wallace grew up surrounded by drugs, violence, and rap music. These influences helped inspire Smalls to record hit songs that would appeal to a vast majority of the hip-hop community. Biggie Smalls started out as a young teen who spent most of his adolescence on the streets selling drugs and committing robberies. Biggie would use rap music as a way to escape the dark realities surrounding his life. Biggie’s music often times told stories depicting the lifestyle associated with growing up in the streets of Brooklyn. These songs caught the interest of many individuals who lived in similar conditions as Biggie Smalls and often times were viewed as inspiring. Biggie …show more content…
Smalls would eventually drop out of school and would end up getting arrested for drug charges at the age of 17. Biggie was quoted of saying, “I can’t say I’m proud of dealing drugs--But you do what you can to survive in the 'hood.” (Gale) Notorious B.I.G. depicts how difficult it was to make it big in the ‘hood in one of his hit songs, Things Done Changed. Smalls raps, “Because the streets is a short stop, either you’re slingin’ crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot.” Biggie implies that escaping the negativity that was Brooklyn was not an easy goal to accomplish unless one made a living dealing drugs or found enough success to make it out of the dangerous environment. Biggie was one of the very few that found his way out of the drugs and violence by becoming a “fire spitting, ruthless rapper” whose music changed the music industry as a whole. (Williams, Marcus