“It was all a dream!” are just a few words to describe Christopher Wallace (Biggie Smalls) becoming the king of East coast rap music when he released his first album “Ready to Die”. The lyrics “It was all a dream!” are from the albums number one hit single called “Juicy” in which Biggie depicted life growing up in the rough streets of Brooklyn, New York. Biggie smalls rose to fame as a rapper in the 90’s causing an increase in rap popularity, division (rivalry) between East and West coast rap music, and the style of gangsta rap on the East coast. Biggie Smalls caused an increase in the popularity of rap music in the 1990’s and beyond. Biggie’s debut album “Ready to Die” was released on september 13th, 1994. Ready to Die reached number 13 on the Billboard 200 Chart and was the best selling rap album of the year. Ready to Die was eventually certified 4x Platinum (4 Million Albums were sold) and Biggie was named the “Rap King of New York” as he went on to win New Artist of the Year, Live Performer of the Year, Lyricist of the Year, and Album of the Year at Source Magazine's 2nd annual hip hop awards ceremony (Marcovitz, 2007, Pg 26). Biggie’s second album “Life After Death” was released on March 25th, 1997, and just 16 days after, Biggie smalls was shot and killed after an award ceremony in Los Angeles, California. Life After Death is currently the 3rd best selling rap music album of all time according to The Source Magazine (Centeno, 2013) . Life After Death later went on to sell 10x platinum or “Diamond” status (Marcovitz, 2007). Only a handful of rappers have a Diamond status album including Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, Eminem, and Outkast. Not only were Biggies record sales amazing, but he also influenced a generatio... ... middle of paper ... ...e style of Gangsta rap on the East coast. Works Cited 1. Centeno, Anthony. “ 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time” Thesource.com. 3 December 2013 2. Kelley, Frannie.”Biggie Smalls: The voice that influenced a generation.”NPR.web. 02 August 2010. 3. Kj4sb.”Rap music, How would the rap industry be different if Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. were still alive?” Dr. Nielson’s Fys 100 blog. 03 December 2012. 4. Lang, Holly.”The Notorious B.I.G. A Biography.”Greenwood Biographies,2007. 5. Marcovitz, Hal.”Hip-Hop Notorious B.I.G.”Mason Crest Publishers Inc, 2007. 6. Ross, Erik.”The 50 Best Selling Rap Albums of All Time” Complexmusic.com. 18 May 2013. 7. Weinstein, Max. “Why the Notorious B.I.G. is the Most Influential Rapper of All Time” theboombox.com. 9 March 2014 8. “Biggie and Tupac [Documentary] 2002 *Full length*” youtube.com. 2002.
The movie was about racial discrimination and violence with teens. The movie was placed in Harlem and showed how teens struggled with the police, gang violence and family related issues. He also starred in the movie “Poetic Justice” with Janet Jackson and played a character named Lucky. While starring in this movie, Tupac began to be more recognized as both a rapper and an actor. After the movies were produced, Tupac released 2 more albums, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z... and Thug Life Volume: 1. In his album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z... he portrays his political and social views of the black community; in this album the song, “Keep Ya Head Up” became a gold certified single.The album Thug life: Volume 1 was by the group Thug Life which was started by Tupac and included Big Syke, Mopreme. The Rated R and Macadoshis. Due to controversial rap, the album had to be modified and re-recorded. The song “How Long Will They Mourn Me?” was later played in 1998 from 2Pac’s Greatest Hits Album. After these albums were released, many artists and record companies were reaching out to Tupac asking for advice and tips. Artists then began to follow Tupac and his ideas and he was named The Father of Rap. Rap artists began to rap about poverty, the police and other real life problems. At this time the police started to have a big impact in the songs. During his career rap became more and
Watkins, S. Craig. 2005. Hip hop matters: politics, pop culture, and the struggle for the soul of a movement. Boston: Beacon Press.
The album sold 700,000 hard copies and was number one on the Billboard 200 within a week’s time. He didn’t live to put the final touches on the album however, the album was the last thing left before Biggie’s death and perfected every single aspect that rappers go through. “Life After Death” has been acclaimed by many music writers in the industry as “one of the seminal mafioso” rap albums. The album was ranked number 476 on Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003. Most of the tracks on the album were written during the feud with Tupac and the album had a wide variety of songs and a lot of diversity in it. “Life After Death” set the record for the quickest and largest jump in the history of Billboard
"Tupac Amaur Shakur left a distinct impact on American culture that is still being shown
Shakur, Tupac. "Hit 'Em Up." Rec. May 1996. Greatest Hits. Death Row Records/Interscope Records, 1998. CD.
"After some time Tupac released his own album "2Pacalypse Now", which was a success. His career skyrocketed; he became tight with main pawns in the rapping industry. Tupac signed to Deathrow Labels and released songs and albums with them."
Rap is about giving voice to a black community otherwise underrepresented, if not silent, in the mass media. It has always been and remains … directly connected to the streets from which it came. (144)
Recently rap has surpassed many genres of music. In the year 2017, eight of the 10 most listened to artist were rap artist. Artist like Lil Uzi Vert, Future, and Cardi B have many songs listed as the top 10 best selling tracks. What do all these rap artists have in common? They have the the three keys that make up the structure of a great rap album.
Negus, Keith. "The Business of Rap: Between the Street and the Executive Suite." Rpt. in That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Ed. Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. 525-540. Print.
Rhodes, Henry A. “The Evolution of Rap Music in the United States.” Yale. Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. 2014. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Rap is becoming more popular than ever, soon most of the world will have some type of knowledge of rap music. Rachel Sullivan from the University of Connecticut stated “White respondents in this survey had difficulty naming three rap artists, which indicated that they did not have a high level of commitment to the music.” This statement was produced in 2003, also seemed to be very one dimensional. Recently, rap music has been surging through the masses no matter the race. Furthermore, rap is becoming very prevalent especially in the youth of this era. Many trends, commercials, social media, etc. are revolving around rap music.
During this decade artist such as Tupac, Biggie Smalls, Shawn Carter (Jay-Z), Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog. Those are some of artist that revolutionized the rap industry, each artist made an impact to hip hop music. “Jay-Z has built a career on combining nimble, braggadocious and largely autobiographical rhymes with adventurous production that incorporates everything from snatches of classic R&B to Broadway show tunes and Eighties electropop.” (Rolling stone Magazine). Jay-Z has made himself a pioneer of the hip-hop world by show casing himself in his music. He created his own signature by using all kinds of musical influences in the production of his
"The 10 Best Songs Produced By Kanye West." Rap Dose RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
It is known that his fame is compared to Notorious B.I.G’s fame. But, the most astounding status on the album charts that Biggie at any point accomplished while alive was #13 on the main 200 album charts, and #3 on the Rap and RnB
Hip- hop is a standout amongst the most compelling musical sorts on the globe. There are rappers everywhere that know what amount of an impact their music can have. Some entertainers attempt to utilize that force of impact to do great (Ruiz INT).