Christopher Wallace was born on May 21, 1972 to Voletta Wallace, a single mother living in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y. From very early on, Ms. Wallace, a grade-school teacher, stressed the importance of education, determined to give her son opportunities she never had.

1977­1989
"Way back, when I had the red and black lumberjack..."

Melvin Blackman: I used to work as an assistant teacher at Christopher's daycare center, Quincy-Lexington Open Door Day Care Center in Brooklyn. He must have been 5 or 6-I remember him because he was one of the biggest kids in the class. He could eat and eat and eat! He was so smart. He was a heavier kid, and they tend to intimidate by just being, but [Christopher] used his mind. He dealt with kids mentally. I guess you could call it charisma.

Arty-B: We lived next door to each other in 226 St. James Place, between Gates [Avenue] and Fulton [Street]. We became best friends at the age of 8 or 9 because we were the only kids in the building. We both had West Indian parents, we had a lot in common. A typical Saturday for us would be hanging in the house all day. At 3 o'clock on channel 5 was the drive-in movie with the kung-fu flicks. The whole day was mapped out. We would build a tent out of me and my brother's bunk bed. We would put a blanket from the top bunk to the dresser. Under the canopy I had a little 13-inch black-and-white TV, and we'd play Intellivision-that was before Atari-a car-racing game. We'd get little bowls and put in chips, Skittles, and cut-up fruits, like mangos, tangerines, cherries. And we'd have a little picnic thing going on there. So while we were playing our video game, we're eating our snacks and talking about how we wanted to have all the things that Ricky Schroder had in Silver Spoons. It was definitely a joyous occasion.

Chris had a lot of personality. I remember once when my little bro was sick and real down. So Big thought of making a puppet out of cloth. We sewed it together and put faces on it and we put on a show for my brother to make him feel better.

Lil' Cease: I was 7, so Big had to be 11 or 12 when we met. But when we got older, like when I was 12 or 13, that's when I started hangin' out on the corner, cuttin' school and all that. That's when I started bonding with [Big]. He wasn't serious about the rap thing yet. We was just hangin' on the avenue.

Justice Rivera: I used to see Big when he was, like, 14 or 15, hanging out on St. James Place. I would drive through playing Kid Capri tapes and Big used to love Capri. He'd come up to my car and ask, "Yo man, you think you could go uptown and bring me one back?"

Lil' Kim: I would always see him on the block and he would be playin' dice with his friends. And if he only won $5 that day and I was like, "Big, I'm hungry," he would give me $2.50 of his $5.

Damion Butler: He was so smart that you could ask him questions like, How many miles is Pluto from Earth? and he could break it down.

DJ Mister Cee: People would be flocking to this kid like he was the mayor of St. James Place. Everybody would be around him, and he'd be joking with the Arab store owners.

Damion Butler: And everybody was scared of his mother. Mrs. Wallace don't play. When we were 15 or 16 I used to stay [at Big's house], and if we came in at, like, three in the morning, trying to tiptoe in the crib, she would be right there. She'd direct you into the living room and sit you down on the couch. And she wouldn't just be talkin' to Big. There would be three of us and she'd treat everybody like her son. She'd say, "Don't come in here this late, y'all gotta be careful, you smell like reefer." She'd just always be on us, but not in a bad way. I mean, you can't be mad at somebody who cares, you know?

Lil' Kim: I was with Biggie way before anybody, and he was always romantic. When you don't have money, you can think of more romantic things to do. One Valentine's Day I went over to his house and he said he was gonna buy a bunch of roses and put them on the bed, but he didn't have enough money. So he wanted to put a bunch of pennies on the bed instead, in the shape of a heart, but he thought I'd be mad.

Damion Butler: [Big] used to [rhyme] just for us. 50 Grand had some DJ equipment in his basement, so we would go there and smoke, drink, and Biggie would just rhyme, to, like, bug out. And we used to tell him, "Yo, you kinda nice at this."

50 Grand: There was a little church across from his house and every Friday night there would be little parties there. [Big] and this kid Preme used to battle each other, [but] Big was always called the nicest in the neighborhood. He rapped under the name Quest [back then]. Then he was called Big, not even Biggie. He always said it stood for Business Instead of Games.

Justice Rivera: The whole area was telling me how nice this kid Big was.

Damion Butler: But he never wanted a [record] deal. He always used to say, "Man, I don't wanna rap." Once we got old enough, we got us a little Cadillac or whatever. And then one day we made a tape that we would just ride around with in our car.

Elizabeth Butler: Chris would come to my house with Damion-and you couldn't separate them-maybe two or three times a week, most of the time to eat. His favorite was pineapple upside-down cake. He'd call me Mom and I'd call him Babyface because he had such a baby look about him.

Carolyn Sampson: I used to study Jehovah's Witness teachings with [Ms. Wallace]. I would go to her house every week, and I had about two sessions with Chris. He made promises to attend meetings, but he was always in his room with his friends listening to music and writing. Once he made connections with someone who could promote his [rhymes], that's where I lost him.

1990­1995
"Now I'm in the limelight 'cause I rhyme tight..."

DJ Mister Cee: I was always close to 50 Grand. I was deejaying for Big Daddy Kane and [50] kept telling me, "Yo, I got this kid Biggie Smalls, and he's dope." He gave me this home demo tape. It wasn't even like he had songs. He was rhymin' off of other people's beats, like he rhymed over the instrumental of this song called "Blind Alley" that we used for [Kane's] "Ain't No Half Steppin'." I listened to the tape one time and that was it. It blew my mind.

Justice Rivera: Biggie used to hang with this kid named Chico who let me hear the tape, and I was like, Damn. He could really rap. It kinda reminded me of Big Daddy Kane's style, but hardcore and with a different voice. Everything he kicked was Brooklyn. I told [Biggie] that I had connections with Kedar [Massenburg, current president/CEO of Motown], who was working with [rap group] Freestyle Fellowship at the time. Kedar's hands were tied, but he told me to bring the tape back later. Soon after, Big hooked up with DJ Mister Cee. Kedar once told me that the biggest mistake he made was having [Biggie] on his couch and then letting him get away.

DJ Mister Cee: [Big] came to my house-I'll never forget-wearing a white T-shirt and black jeans, looking grimy, hungry. I told him about a Source [magazine] contest [for the Unsigned Hype column]. We remade the same tape and I submitted it to Matty C [former Source editor] who called me and was like, "Yo, this kid is ridiculous." Puffy called Matty and said he was lookin' for a hardcore rapper. Matty told him about Big, so Puff gives me a call.

Damion Butler: [DJ Mister Cee] was like, "This guy wants to meet Big." So Big was like, "Please. For what?"

Lil' Cease: Puff came through Fulton Street lookin' for him. Biggie wanted to know, "Who the fuck is this nigga, man?" Nobody really knew who he was. But it wasn't until Puff came lookin' for him that Biggie started taking the rap thing seriously.

Puffy: When I first met him it was bugged because he was this big, black muthafucker. I thought, Now how am I gonna market him? My man looked like a liquor-store robber! But damn, he could spit.

Damion Butler: Once he really knew he could get a record deal, that's when everything else went out the window. He was 150 percent focused on rap.

DJ Mister Cee: Puffy went the extra mile to get [Biggie] 'cause he was the most hungry. I just knew nobody was gonna know what to do with Big besides this kid. That's why I told Big that I would rather he be with somebody [like Puffy] that's young, black, business-savvy, and hungry.

Sybil Pennix: I was Puffy's assistant [at Uptown Records], and he used to stuff everybody into my little office even though he had the big VP office. He would make Biggie wait for him in my office all the time. It almost became a big sister/mother/girlfriend type of thing. He told me everything. Before he signed his deal he was worried about getting in trouble with the law, 'cause he was having little issues back then. And he was carrying a gun because he thought he needed it to survive, but I made him give it to me. I kept it in a drawer in the office and no one ever knew. He ended up going to jail for a day or so, so it was a good thing that he didn't have the gun on him after all.

Tupac and Biggie first connected during Bad Boy's first trip to L.A. and they were, like, immediate friends. Tupac knew Biggie was coming and he really respected him as a lyricist. He brought us to his house in L.A. and barbecued for everyone. After that, the two of them were like Frick and Frack.

Lil' Cease: Sometime in '93, Tupac came to [New York] to do a show at The Ritz. Big had just met him, like, a month earlier, and Tupac asked Big to come down there to perform. So Big's out there doin' "Party and Bullshit," and he went crazy 'cause everybody was givin' him love. Big got so hyper and was movin' around so much that he fell and bust his ass right on stage! The whole crowd saw, but he kept on goin'. It amazed me 'cause nothin' stopped his flow. He was on his back still rhymin'. We laughed, but not for long 'cause the crowd thought it was part of the show and went crazy. There was somethin' about that show that let me know he was gonna be big.

Damion Butler: Tupac was in New York filming Above the Rim, and we would make sure that he was alright. We'd get on the train and go meet him at whatever hotel he was staying in. Tupac would let Biggie open up for him at shows and everything. This was while we were recording Ready to Die. Thinking back, you'd never imagine that the two of them would end up on such a sour note.

DJ Premier: [In the studio] he was very quick. When we did "Unbelievable," we had been in the studio for the longest time doing nothing but listening to the track. I was getting worried. We still smoking and drinking and he ain't writing nothing. Then he just said, "Okay, I'm ready." He went into the booth and just did it.

Damion Butler: Big never wrote a rhyme down in his life. That used to be my fun. Every time he had to do a song with a different artist, I would know that they were thinking Big was bullshitting. They'd give him a pen and a pad and Big would move the pen, pull out his weed and crush it up on the pad. He'd say, "Keep rewinding the beat and turn it up." When he died he had six songs done in his head. That's why I don't believe weed messes up your brain cells, 'cause that dude had a photographic memory like a muthafucker.

Puffy: He would talk about concepts and that was it. It was all in his head. I said [he should] do a song about a chick setting you up, and that became [1997's] "Niggas Bleed."

DJ Premier: We did a show in Virginia when Biggie just had "Party and Bullshit" out. It was me, Jeru [the Damaja]-who only had "Come Clean"-Damion, Cease, and Biggie. We were real hungry, and Big was sitting in his hotel with no clothes on and a bucket of chicken, clipping his toenails. Jeru said, "You need to stop eating that." Big said, "My name is Biggie, not Rakim."

Lance "Un" Rivera: Big was that nigga who wouldn't wear no drawers, no socks. He loved showin' his naked ass. He'd pull his ass out in a second, and his ass crack would be three feet long! He was that nigga who had food growing underneath his bed. This nigga had sweat rings in his mink coat. And don't think that changed when he got rich. He stayed exactly the same.

DJ Mister Cee: Before [Ready to Die] came out, he was traveling with me to do a party in Raleigh, N.C. We're drivin' down and [Big] starts to get real hungry. This boy literally damn near cried a boo-hoo cry because I wouldn't make a stop to get something to eat [because we were running late]. I finally stopped so he could chow down on some chicken, and I don't know, I guess it was like spinach to him. Everything just changed and he was happy again.

Dream hampton: Big was hilarious. He used to pay girls a Snapple to do the butterfly. Girls would walk by and he'd be like, "Yo, I got a dollar for anybody who can bogle." He was so excited when his daughter T'Yanna was born that he'd pay cats to clean his room so that he could wheel the bassinet next to his bed so she could sleep in there. His room was disgusting. It was this little, hot-ass yellow room in the back of his mother's railroad apartment. Everybody's been in there, like all of Junior M.A.F.I.A. would be tight in there listening to music and playing videos.

Faith Evans: (Faith and Biggie were married August 4, 1994, nine days after they met.) [Big] could walk into a roomful of people and get their attention. Nobody ever said that he was the GQ Man of the Year as far as appearance, but he had a sense of humor. He would just smile like, Hey, ma, what's up? I don't know, [he was] magnetic.

Damion Butler: I remember one time we were going to the Billboard Awards or something and we were gonna meet Michael Jackson. On the ride over Big kept sayin', "What can I do to Michael Jackson that's not bad, but will make him remember me?" So we got to the meeting and Mike stuck out his hand. Big grabbed his hand, pulled him into a close hug and then flung him back out, like Wassup? He roughed Mike up with a real, old-fashioned, ghetto love hug. Mike was fucked up by that one.

Lil' Cease: The first show we did was in L.A. at Glam Slam. It was our first promo stop, and just as we were about to go on stage Big was like, "Here, take this mike." I go, "What's up?" He says, "Just hold me down." He told me not to say the whole verse, just to rock. I was scared, but they was lovin' Big so much that they was lovin' me [too]. That's how [Biggie] made me feel.

1996­1997
"Sky's the limit..."

Biggie's debut, Ready to Die, went multiplatinum. As Biggie went to work on his second album, Life After Death, relations between him and Tupac became strained. After Tupac was shot five times at a Manhattan recording studio, he claimed he was set up and that Biggie knew about it and had failed to warn him (Biggie told VIBE in September 1996 that he had nothing to do with Tupac's shooting). Pac later got in an altercation with Big at the Soul Train Music Awards in March 1996. Sources claimed Tupac drew a gun on Biggie, but Biggie and members of Tupac's crew denied the charge. Two months later, Tupac released a song on Death Row Records called "Hit 'Em Up" on which he rapped: "That's why I fucked yo' bitch / You fat muthafucker," fueling rumors that Pac was seeing Biggie's wife, Faith Evans.

Charli Baltimore: We met after a concert in Philly. We talked for a minute and then he asked to take a picture of me. [I fell in love with him] because he was so sincere, friendly, and honest.

Lance "Un" Rivera: Big fell in love hard and quick. It wouldn't take more than five minutes for him to fall in love. And he meant it. I had to cover up and patch shit up for him a few times. Once he made [Lil'] Kim so mad that she wouldn't come to the studio. He called me and was like, "I fucked up and Kim's mad." I'd call her and say, "C'mon, you know he love you," and she'd be like, "So why he treat me like that?" And I'd have to smooth shit over.

Sybil Pennix: You know how Big was depicted in that video for "One More Chance"? Well, when girls were around Biggie that's how it was. They were rubbing his back or his neck, whatever. He was really Big Poppa like that.

Charli Baltimore: I cared about [him seeing] other girls, but he would lie and I believed him. I knew Faith was his wife, but he said they weren't together anymore. One time Big was on the radio and he said, "I don't mess with Lil' Kim, and I'm not with Faith. My girlfriend's name is Tiffany [Charli's real name], she's from Philly." And the next day, Faith was on the same radio station talking about, "Yeah, the Illy from Philly." That's how I got that label.

Faith Evans: I still cared about [Big] even after I knew the marriage wasn't going to work. It's like I gave up hope. I tried and tried and tried, acting like this or that didn't happen. But I never stopped doing for Big. He was my husband and he would still call on me when he needed something.

Charli Baltimore: One time we got into a fight and I pulled off this diamond ring he'd given me and threw it at him. So Big took the ring and put it in his mouth, swallowed it, and then started choking and grabbin' his chest. I got so scared and started freakin' out and cryin'. I screamed for Damion to help me, so he ran in and Big was on the floor. We were trying to get him to the hospital, but I guess D figured out that Big was playing. Big had the ring under his tongue the whole time. When I found out, I was mad as shit.

DJ Mister Cee: Biggie wasn't as angry on the second album as he was on the first. You can hear it in the vocal delivery, and it's not just a matter of him being older. When you're coming from the streets you got a lotta things to get off your chest. He did that on Ready to Die and he was a little bit more relaxed while recording Life After Death.

Dream hampton: Big said, "I wanted [Tupac] to hear [Life After Death]. I wanted him to see that there's nothing on here about him."

Damion Butler: Big never understood why [Tupac] was talkin' all the stuff that he did. And after Tupac was killed, Big was real mad. He was pissed off because [Tupac] didn't deserve that 'cause [Tupac] wasn't that type of person. Big always had love for Pac.

DJ Premier: "Ten Crack Commandments" was the last song we did for [Life After Death]. His son [Christopher Jr.] had just been born, and Charli Baltimore was there. He said, "I'ma be dancing around in videos and stuff." When he finished the song he said, "It's done, I'm the greatest." And that's the last time I ever saw him.

Biggie went to Los Angeles in February 1997 to film the video for his single "Hypnotize," to promote his new album, and to attend the March 7 Soul Train Music Awards.

Lil' Cease: Filming the video for "Hypnotize" [in Los Angeles in February] is my favorite memory. Just seein' that nigga smile. That was the first time I could say he was, like, happy happy. He was happy before to be livin' and doin' his thing, but this was the first time he let people see that side of him.

Damion Butler: We were shooting "Hypnotize" and [actor] Christopher Walken called Big's room and said, "This is Frank White." Big was like, "Yeah, right," and hung up the phone. Big thought he was playin' since Frank White was also his little nickname. And then [Walken] called back like, "No, I'm serious. I'm Christopher Walken and I'd like to come meet you." Big was so happy, but they never met.

Mark Mahoney: I did a Bible Psalm on his right forearm [that read: The Lord is my light and salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the truth of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even my enemies and foes, came upon me to bite my flesh, they stumbled and fell]. It was one week before his murder, his first and only tattoo, and it was a whole lotta work. It was probably as much writing as I ever did.

Lil' Cease: There was always so much shit goin' on. There was always a problem. We could be havin' fun, enjoyin' something and then bang, something would happen.

The night after the Soul Train Music Awards, Biggie attended a party at the Peterson Automotive Museum that was sponsored by Qwest Records, Tanqueray, and VIBE. He left the party sometime around 12:30 a.m. and got into the passenger's seat of a GMC Suburban. As the truck pulled away from the museum, a dark sedan pulled up alongside and a gunman fired six to 10 shots through the passenger's side door. Big was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead at 1:15 a.m. He was 24.

March 9, 1997­1999
"We'll always love Big Poppa..."

Mark Pitts: He was supposed to leave to go overseas the day before. He didn't want to go at the last minute, and I remember going back and forth about that, me trying to convince him and Puff trying to convince him. He didn't want to go.

Sybil Pennix: I sat on his lap for, like, an hour and a half at the [VIBE] party. He was telling me he was a little afraid about the new album and wasn't sure how things were gonna turn out. We hadn't talked for so long, but we caught up on everything. Last thing he said was, "We'll see you at the next party."

Puffy: We were on our way to Steve Stoute's party. Big said, "I can't wait to get this album out. I never get a chance to hang out with you. Let's go to this party." And then he...he was killed.

Damion Butler: Me and Cease were in the backseat when Biggie was shot. He didn't say one word. He was just lookin' at me with this real shocked look on his face, like he couldn't believe it. He didn't even say "Ouch." He didn't say "Oh shit," nothin'. All he was doin' was breathing hard. The situation at the hospital was crazy. Tons of people were there crying and not helping the situation. The phone got passed around [to call Ms. Wallace]. They gave the phone to Puff, Puff gave the phone to Mark [Pitts, Biggie's manager], and Mark gave the phone to me. I was like, "How am I gonna call this man's mom? I grew up with this kid." But I didn't even have to say anything. Once Ms. Wallace heard me crying, she dropped the phone. So that was it, I didn't even have to tell her. She caught the next flight out there.

Faith Evans: I was inside the hospital with Puffy and the doctors. I couldn't really tell what had happened, and Puffy was like, "I'm going to let the doctor talk to you." Then the doctor came and told me they couldn't do anything. I couldn't even see him.

Charli Baltimore: Around four in the morning, my phone rang, and I was asleep. But I saw the number on my caller ID and was like, Shit, I better call back, 'cause Big always got mad if I didn't pick up the phone. But Damion answered. He was crying and I could hear Cease in the background. All I heard was sobbing. It hurt so much. I just didn't believe it.

Lil' Kim: I loved him with all my heart, like I've never loved anyone in my life. I still feel his spirit with me, like right now he's sittin' right here. I could be on the toilet and I feel his spirit. I talk to him every night and I feel like he's telling me a lot more of the truth. I just feel blessed because Biggie has been with me every step of the way.

Lil' Cease: He never said, "Take this bag and go hustle it." He never said, "Go around the corner and shoot this nigga." Instead, it was always, "Get in this room, write these rhymes, get that pen and paper. I'm gonna make moves and when I come back you better have a rhyme." That's what Big did. There are nine niggas in Junior M.A.F.I.A. and there's Undeas-Big started everything. Big created a reason for the Charlis and the Lil' Kims to be here. It was all set off from Big. I'm gonna keep that shit with me for life. He did shit for me no one else ever would have.

Arty-B: What's so ironic is that the word "big" really goes a long way, because everything he did was big. His personality was big, his dreams were big, his caring was big-everything. He was a big-hearted person...his appetite was big too!

Lance "Un" Rivera: Right now he's in heaven, with big-ass white angel wings, eating something and surrounded by honies. Big might be gone, but in so many ways he's still here.