More street-oriented or “gangsta” acts may have gained notoriety and respect (and infamy) but they weren’t exactly expected to dominate the radio or sell several million units.

Biggie’s approach would prove to be wildly successful and hugely influential on how New York rappers would approach the mainstream in the post-Death Row Records landscape.īefore the success of Death Row, hip-hop’s most mainstream, crossover-friendly artists tended to be pop-rap superstars like Salt-N-Pepa and Heavy D. That development was significant, even as the East Coast’s latest wave of emcees were coming to the forefront.

The first verse would become as ubiquitous as any in hip-hop, and it made The Notorious B.I.G. The classic breakthrough single was a fixture on MTV and BET in the late summer of 1994, with its Mtume sample (and uncredited production assist from superproducer Pete Rock) carrying Biggie’s semi-autobiographical rags-to-riches tale. “Juicy” would be a major success for Bad Boy and for Biggie.

to Have Brooklyn Street Named After Himīiggie would definitely blow up. “When Puff tells me he’s selling this amount of records a week, I’m like, ‘Is that good?’ All I know is Gold and Platinum,” Biggie told Interview magazine in 1994 after his career was heating up. Vernon’s Craig Mack, but it would soon become apparent that Puff saw Big as the label’s cornerstone. Big was looking to get back to the streets, but Puff’s ambitions were set towards launching his own label, Bad Boy Entertainment. “And it had a lot of personality - like a light on his feet kind of big brother.” But Uptown dropped Biggie after Combs was fired, setting the rapper’s career in limbo. “He had a voice that just sounded like it was heavy, funky and rhythmic,” Harrell would tell the New York Times in 1994, just after Ready To Die went Gold. Uptown CEO Andre Harrell was immediately impressed with B.I.G. The MC would land some noteworthy early guest appearances on tracks by artists like Super Cat ( “Dolly My Baby”) and Heavy D ( “A Buncha N-as”), working closely with Combs at Uptown Records. From there, word got to upstart mogul-in-the-making Sean “Puffy” Combs about the gifted lyricist from Brooklyn. The story is well-known: Big Daddy Kane’s DJ Mister Cee heard Biggie on a tape and invited the burgeoning rapper to a showcase for The Source.

Notorious big ready to die album cover