"THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. blasted his way <img height="280" src="http://www.notoriousbig.4mg.com/nbigrip2.jpg">
onto the hip-hop scene with his platinum-selling album Ready To Die, and entered the mainstream public's eye in much the same way when he was murdered in March of 1997. Until his death, B.I.G., a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, né Christopher Wallace, was virtually unknown outside the world of hip-hop. But news of his death fueled intensive mediacoverage of an East Coast-West Coast rap war, rallied hip-hop artists from both coasts, and left two young children without a father."