He had the catchy rhymes, Diddy-approved dance steps, and a style tailor-made for the Shiny Suit Era-the glitzy, Puffy-driven musical aesthetic that Biggie tempered before it became corny. Mase, however, seemed destined for stardom. If Biggie had lived, would No Way Out have been just a modestly successful one-off project for Puff Daddy, a way of testing the waters? Or would it have pushed Biggie further in the direction of the lyricist-slash-exec role he’d already flirted with in launching Junior M.A.F.I.A.? Even if Sean Combs went on to have a successful solo career with Big in the picture, it’s hard to fathom his star shining as brightly as it has. Still, by the time his 1999 follow-up Forever dropped, Bad Boy felt like a label in desperation- Double Up by Mase and Biggie’s posthumous Born Again were the only other LPs Bad Boy released that year. 1 pop tribute “ I’ll Be Missing You” made mourning Biggie through music both cathartic for fans and profitable for Puff. Setting aside the double-disc Life After Death, Puff’s maiden release was the immediate source of new Biggie material, helping push the album’s sales to 7 million units. The Brooklyn MC, who is credited as an executive producer of No Way Out, had already laid his parts for “ It’s All About The Benjamins (Remix),” “Been Around The World,” the Jay Z-featured “Young G’s,” and “Victory,” before his death (he also wrote Puff’s verses for the latter). Puffy’s own superstar ambitions were undeniably boosted by Biggie’s absence. After Big's murder, it became No Way Out.
The Bad Boy founder and producer was already transitioning into a recording career of his own-his debut album Hell Up In Harlem was pending. In order to keep the wheels turning, rising artists like the Lox rallied around Puff Daddy. To understand though, you have to start at the nucleus: his record label, Bad Boy Records.īiggie was Bad Boy’s franchise player-his death sent the label into crisis mode. His death was so far-reaching that it redirected the course of hip-hop. With each passing year, it becomes harder to track the ripple effects of Big’s passing. Nas once told Zane Lowe that he thought Biggie’s death marked “the end of rap.” Paired with Tupac Shakur’s also-unsolved murder six months earlier, Biggie Smalls’ demise set off a whirlwind that rerouted the course of music history. the Notorious B.I.G.-hip-hop’s biggest artist at the time and arguably the greatest rapper ever-was shot dead in the passenger seat of a green Chevrolet Suburban after leaving a Vibe magazine party in Los Angeles. On that day 20 years ago, just after midnight, Christopher Wallace, b.k.a. It wouldn't be hyperbolic to say that everything in rap changed on March 9, 1997.
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