Wallace was born and raised in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. His debut album Ready to Die (1994) made him a central figure in East Coast hip hop and increased New York City's visibility in the genre at a time when West Coast hip hop dominated the mainstream. The following year, he led Junior M.A.F.I.A.—a protégé group composed of his childhood friends—to chart success. In 1996, while recording his second album, Wallace was heavily involved in the growing East Coast–West Coast hip hop feud. On March 9, 1997, he was murdered by an unknown assailant in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. His second album, Life After Death (1997), released two weeks later, rose to No. 1 on the U.S. album charts. In 2000, it became one of the few hip-hop albums to be certified Diamond.
Wallace was noted for his "loose, easy flow"; dark, semi-autobiographical lyrics; and storytelling abilities, which focused on crime and hardship. Three more albums have been released since his death, and he has certified sales of over 17 million records in the United States, including 13.4 million albums.
Wallace was born at St. Mary's Hospital in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on May 21, 1972, the only child of Jamaican immigrant parents. His mother, Voletta Wallace, was a preschool teacher, while his father, Selwyn George Latore, was a welder and politician. His father left the family when Wallace was two years old, and his mother worked two jobs while raising him. Wallace grew up at 226 St. James Place in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill, near the border with Bedford-Stuyvesant. Wallace excelled at Queen of All Saints Middle School winning several awards as an English student. He was nicknamed "Big" because he was overweight by the age of 10. Wallace said he started dealing drugs when he was around the age of 12. His mother, often away at work, did not know of his drug dealing until he was an adult. He began rapping as a teenager, entertaining people on the streets, and performed with local groups the Old Gold Brothers and the Techniques. At his request, Wallace transferred from Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School to George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, where future rappers DMX, Jay-Z, and Busta Rhymes were also attending. According to his mother, Wallace was still a good student but developed a "smart-ass" attitude at the new school. At age 17, Wallace dropped out of school and became more involved in crime. In 1989, he was arrested on weapons charges in Brooklyn and sentenced to five years' probation. In 1990, he was arrested on a violation of his probation. A year later, Wallace was arrested in North Carolina for dealing crack cocaine. He spent nine months in jail before making bail.
Wallace's lyrical topics and themes included mafioso tales ("Niggas Bleed"), his drug-dealing past ("10 Crack Commandments"), materialistic bragging ("Hypnotize"), as well as humor ("Just Playing (Dreams)"), and romance ("Me & My Bitch"). Rolling Stone named Wallace in 2004 as "one of the few young male songwriters in any pop style writing credible love songs".
Guerilla Black, in the book How to Rap, describes how Wallace was able to both "glorify the upper echelon" and "[make] you feel his struggle". According to Touré of The New York Times in 1994, Wallace's lyrics " autobiographical details about crime and violence with emotional honesty". Marriott of The New York Times (in 1997) believed his lyrics were not strictly autobiographical and wrote he "had a knack for exaggeration that increased sales". Wallace described his debut as "a big pie, with each slice indicating a different point in my life involving bitches and niggaz... from the beginning to the end".
Ready to Die is described by Rolling Stone as a contrast of "bleak" street visions and being "full of high-spirited fun, bringing the pleasure principle back to hip-hop". AllMusic write of "a sense of doom" in some of his songs and the NY Times note some being "laced with paranoia"; Wallace described himself as feeling "broke and depressed" when he made his debut. The final song on the album, "Suicidal Thoughts", featured Wallace contemplating suicide and concluded with him committing the act.
On Life After Death, Wallace's lyrics went "deeper". Krims explains how upbeat, dance-oriented tracks (which featured less heavily on his debut) alternate with "reality rap" songs on the record and suggests that he was "going pimp" through some of the lyrical topics of the former. XXL magazine wrote that Wallace "revamped his image" through the portrayal of himself between the albums, going from "midlevel hustler" on his debut to "drug lord".
AllMusic wrote that the success of Ready to Die is "mostly due to Wallace's skill as a storyteller"; in 1994, Rolling Stone described Wallace's ability in this technique as painting "a sonic picture so vibrant that you're transported right to the scene". On Life After Death, Wallace notably demonstrated this skill on "I Got a Story to Tell", creating a story as a rap for the first half of the song and then retelling the same story "for his boys" in conversation form.
Considered one of the best rappers of all time, Wallace was described by AllMusic as "the savior of East Coast hip-hop". The Source magazine named Wallace the greatest rapper of all time in its 150th issue in 2002. In 2003, when XXL magazine asked several hip hop artists to list their five favorite MCs, Wallace's name appeared on more rappers' lists than anyone else. In 2006, MTV ranked him at No. 3 on their list of The Greatest MCs of All Time, calling him possibly "the most skillful ever on the mic". Editors of About.com ranked him No. 3 on their list of the Top 50 MCs of Our Time (1987–2007). In 2012, The Source ranked him No. 3 on their list of the Top 50 Lyrical Leaders of all time. Rolling Stone has referred to him as the "greatest rapper that ever lived". In 2015, Billboard named Wallace as the greatest rapper of all time.
Since his death, Wallace's lyrics have been sampled and quoted by a variety of hip hop, R&B and pop artists including Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, Fat Joe, Nelly, Ja Rule, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Game, Clinton Sparks, Michael Jackson and Usher. On August 28, 2005, at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, Sean Combs (then using the rap alias "P. Diddy") and Snoop Dogg paid tribute to Wallace: an orchestra played while the vocals from "Juicy" and "Warning" played on the arena speakers. In September 2005, VH1 held its second annual "Hip Hop Honors", with a tribute to Wallace headlining the show.
Wallace had begun to promote a clothing line called Brooklyn Mint, which was to produce plus-sized clothing but fell dormant after he died. In 2004, his managers, Mark Pitts and Wayne Barrow, launched the clothing line, with help from Jay-Z, selling T-shirts with images of Wallace on them. A portion of the proceeds go to the Christopher Wallace Foundation and to Jay-Z's Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation. In 2005, Voletta Wallace hired branding and licensing agency Wicked Cow Entertainment to guide the estate's licensing efforts. Wallace-branded products on the market include action figures, blankets, and cell phone content.
The Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation holds an annual black-tie dinner ("B.I.G. Night Out") to raise funds for children's school equipment and to honor Wallace's memory. For this particular event, because it is a children's schools' charity, "B.I.G." is also said to stand for "Books Instead of Guns".
There is a large portrait mural of Wallace as Mao Zedong on Fulton Street in Brooklyn a half-mile west from Wallace's old block. A fan petitioned to have the corner of Fulton Street and St. James Place, near Wallace's childhood home renamed in his honor, garnering support from local businesses and attracting more than 560 signatures.
A large portrait of Wallace features prominently in the Netflix series Luke Cage, due to the fact that he served as muse for the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's version of Marvel Comics character Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes.
Unbelievable
The Notorious B.I.G. Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
What? Uh
Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls is the illest
Uh
Biggie Smalls, Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls
Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls is the illest
Uh, yeah
Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls is the illest
Live from Bedford-Stuyvesant, the livest one
Representin' BK to the fullest
Gats I pull it, bastards duckin' when B.I.G. be buckin'
Chickenheads be cluckin' in my bathroom fuckin'
It ain't nothin', they know B.I.G. be handlin'
With the MAC in the Ac' door panelin'
Bandagin' MC's, oxygen they can't breathe
Mad tricks up the sleeve, wear boxers so my dick can breathe
Breeze through in the Q, .45 by my side, lyrical high
And those that rushes my clutches get put on crutches
Get smoked like Dutches from the master
Hate to blast you, but I have to, you see I smoke a lot
Your life is played out like Kwame, and them fuckin' polka dots
Who rock the spot? Biggie
You know how the weed go, unbelievable
It's unbelievable
Biggie Smalls is the illest
It's unbelievable (uh)
Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls is the illest (uh, yeah)
It's unbelievable
Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls is the illest (what? What? Uh)
It's unbelievable
Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls is the illest
B-I-G, G-I-E, AKA, B.I.G.
Get it? Biggie
Also known as the bon appétit
Rappers can't sleep need sleepin'
B.I.G. keep creepin'
Bullets heat-seekin', casualties need treatin'
Dumb rappers need teachin'
Lesson A, don't fuck with B-I
That's that, "Oh I, thought he was wack"
Oh come, come now, why y'all so dumb now?
Hunt me or be hunted
I got three hundred and fifty-seven ways
To simmer sauté, I'm the winner all day
Lights get dimmer down Biggie's hallway
My forte causes Caucasians to say, "He sounds demented"
Car weed scented
If I said it, I meant it
Bite my tongue for no one
Call me evil, or unbelievable
It's unbelievable
Biggie Smalls is the illest
It's unbelievable
Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls is the illest (uh)
It's unbelievable (what? Uh)
Biggie Smalls is the illest (uh)
It's unbelievable
Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls is the illest
Buckshots out the sun roof of Lexus coupes
Leave no witnesses, what you think this is?
Ain't no amateurs here, I damage and tear
MC's fear me, they too near not to hear me
Clearly, I'm the triple beam dream
One thousand grams of uncut to the gut
It seems fucked up, the way I touched up the grill
Tryin' to play gorilla, when you ain't no killer
The gat's by your liver, your upper lip quiver
Get ready to die, tell God I said hi
And throw down some ice, for the nicest MC
Niggas know the steelo, unbelievable
It's unbelievable
Biggie Smalls is the illest
It's unbelievable
Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls is the illest
It's unbelievable
Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls is the illest
It's unbelievable
Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls is the illest
It's unbelievable
Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls is the illest
'Believable
Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls is the illest
'Believable
Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls is the illest
'Believable
Biggie Smalls-Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls
Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls is the illest
The lyrics of the song "Unbelievable" by The Notorious B.I.G. describes his street credibility and rapping talent in the rap game. He starts the song by proudly proclaiming himself as the "illest." He talks about living in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and representing it to the fullest, highlighting his street smarts and ability to handle any situation. He describes himself as a skilled shooter, and others fear him when he has a weapon in his hand. He also boasts about his prowess with women and how they flock to him, emphasizing his appeal.
In the second verse, Biggie Smalls further asserts his dominance in the rap game. He informs other rappers not to mess with him since he is unstoppable in the industry. He confidently states that he has 357 ways to deal with people who try to challenge him. He also talks about his success in the genre and how he continues to dominate everyone with his skill set while others bite their tongues for many reasons. In the final verse, he continues this boasting by indicating he's smarter than the people working to defeat him.
Overall, the song "Unbelievable" is a braggadocious anthem by The Notorious B.I.G, emphasizing his street credibility, his skill with a gun, his appeal with the ladies, and his success in the rap game.
Line by Line Meaning
Biggie Smalls is the illest (uh)
Acknowledging Biggie's prowess in hip-hop
Biggie-Biggie-Biggie Smalls is the illest
Asserting Biggie's unparalleled lyrical talent
Live from Bedford-Stuyvesant, the livest one
Introductory line, emphasizing Biggie's gritty roots
Representin' BK to the fullest
Proudly representing Brooklyn as his hometown
Gats I pull it, bastards duckin' when B.I.G. be buckin'
Warning that others fear Biggie and his guns
Chickenheads be cluckin' in my bathroom fuckin'
Boasting about his sexual conquests, demeaning women
It ain't nothin', they know B.I.G. be handlin'
Downplaying his enemies' threats, affirming his strength
With the MAC in the Ac' door panelin'
Referencing his hidden weapon in his car's door panel
Bandagin' MC's, oxygen they can't breathe
Claiming to be so superior, leaving other rappers breathless
Mad tricks up the sleeve, wear boxers so my dick can breathe
Boasting about his lyrical arsenal and style
Breeze through in the Q, .45 by my side, lyrical high
Cruising through and dominating with his lyrics and guns
And those that rushes my clutches get put on crutches
Threatening to physically harm his enemies
Get smoked like Dutches from the master
Promising to easily defeat and destroy his opponents
Hate to blast you, but I have to, you see I smoke a lot
Almost regretful about having to take down his foes, but it's necessary
Your life is played out like Kwame, and them fuckin' polka dots
Dissing other rappers for their lack of style and originality
Who rock the spot? Biggie
Proclaiming himself as the one who dominates the rap scene
You know how the weed go, unbelievable
Referencing his drug use, and how his talents are beyond belief
B-I-G, G-I-E, AKA, B.I.G.
Listing his various aliases and stage names
Rappers can't sleep need sleepin'
Implying that other rappers are inferior and not worthy of rest
B.I.G. keep creepin'
Asserting his dominance and superiority in the rap game
Bullets heat-seekin', casualties need treatin'
Warning that he's dangerous and will harm anyone who tries him
Dumb rappers need teachin'
Insulting other rappers' intelligence and skills
Lesson A, don't fuck with B-I
Issuing a warning to not mess with him
Oh come, come now, why y'all so dumb now?
Questioning why others can't see his greatness and superiority
Hunt me or be hunted
Threatening his enemies, painting himself as the predator
I got three hundred and fifty-seven ways
Claiming to have countless ways to defeat his opponents
To simmer sauté, I'm the winner all day
Playing on cooking metaphors, saying that he always wins
Lights get dimmer down Biggie's hallway
Metaphorically saying that others pale in comparison to him
My forte causes Caucasians to say, "He sounds demented"
Boasting about his unique, unsettling vocal style
Car weed scented
Admitting to smoking weed in his car
If I said it, I meant it
Affirming that his lyrics are always truthful and intentional
Bite my tongue for no one
Refusing to censor himself or hold back
Call me evil, or unbelievable
Embracing his intimidating, sinister persona
Buckshots out the sun roof of Lexus coupes
Portraying himself as a gangster who shoots from car roofs
Leave no witnesses, what you think this is?
Threatening to kill anyone who sees him in action
Ain't no amateurs here, I damage and tear
Boasting about his skills and success in the rap game
MC's fear me, they too near not to hear me
Claiming that other rappers are afraid of him and his talent
Clearly, I'm the triple beam dream
Boasting about his success and wealth
One thousand grams of uncut to the gut
More boasts about his drug use and dealing
It seems fucked up, the way I touched up the grill
Dramatically saying how he destroyed another rapper
Tryin' to play gorilla, when you ain't no killer
Calling out fake gangsters who pretend to be tough
The gat's by your liver, your upper lip quiver
Threatening to shoot and harm his opponents
Get ready to die, tell God I said hi
Alluding to his violent tendencies and lack of remorse
And throw down some ice, for the nicest MC
Asking for recognition as the best rapper
Niggas know the steelo, unbelievable
Acknowledging his unique and impressive style
'Believable
Shortened form of the previous line, reaffirming his talent
Biggie Smalls is the illest
Coming full circle, reiterating his greatness and skills
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Songtrust Ave, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Robert S. Kelly, Christopher Wallace, Chris E. Martin
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@nocar_mkemke4851
Remember my pops playing this in this small little room he rented so I could spend time with him. Moms said I couldn’t go with him unless he had a place for me to sleep. He made a way...R.I.P dad
@chasegrant-jackson1051
😍😍😍😎😎😎
@israelhuss4
I’m doing that right now. Respect to your Pop’s!
@stanleyq7944
Remarkable.
@greatchoices3091
Good stuff bro
@cashawnnallred6479
I felt this comment
@jaredmorse1107
This beat is INSANE
@kadence7901
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2XxxN76jmo
@Jag_da_producer1442
Fr
@DealW
Some might say that it is unbelievable