Back to the Essence: Notorious BIG Part 1!

Part 1 of VIBE's 1999 oral history on the life and death of The Notorious B.I.G.

Christopher Wallace was born on May 21, 1972 to Voletta Wallace, a single mother living in the Bed-ford-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.
1977-1989
“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 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. Ms. 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, ya’ll 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.