Taken Out by Haters - The Notorious B.I.G. (5/21/72 - 3/9/07)

So, the Brown Girl is FINALLY pushing a new whip!! Whoo-hoo! I bought the car more out of necessity than anything else. Let me just share something: American cars are NOT the lick! I will never buy another American car if I can help it. Sorry, USA, but your cars SUCK! Anyway, as I was cleaning out the old Chevy in preparation for trading the damn thing in, I came across a few old CDs under my driver's seat. The one that I have been pumping NONSTOP ever since is Notorious B.I.G.'s "Life After Death" disc one. Oh my God, those songs bring back soooo many memories. You don't even know. And the beats are STILL hot and the lyrics are STILL dope - a decade later! How did this dude manage to stay relevant after all these years? Anyway, I still have so much love in my heart for B.I.G. While riding to work on the strength of "I've Got a Story to Tell" on repeat, I remembered this post that I wrote back in March of '07 and thought it would be a good idea to repost. (Plus, it buys me some time to crank out another - original - post for y'all...) Enjoy! And bless up to the Notorious One. You are sorely missed...

Christopher G.L. Wallace b.k.a. "Notorious B.I.G."
(May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997)

I was just 17 years old when Biggie died. March 9th was a Sunday and I was driving home from church… can't remember exactly what I was doing or where I was headed, but I remember the DJ saying that Biggie had been shot in L.A. and that he had died. I was dumbfounded. Just seven months earlier, Tupac had been shot and killed in Vegas and people were in such disbelief about it that there were rumors floating about that he wasn't really dead and was off in the Caribbean lounging on a beach. I liked Tupac. He was cool and all. And I found his music enjoyable. But, B.I.G. was "that dude" for me. And hearing that his life had ended so suddenly was shocking and sad.

When I do the math, I realize that B.I.G. was only 24 years old when he was murdered. At the time, I was a senior in high school and 24 seemed soooo old to me. Pac, B.I.G., Puff… they all seemed like adults. But today, as I look at pictures and watch video footage of B.I.G. in action, I see a kid. A BABY (no offense to those 18-25 year olds, but y'all are young!) who's life was cut short. Nobody really knows the motive behind his murder, but we can pretty much put money on the fact that it was over something stupid. Senseless murders (and to be real ALL murders are senseless) frustrate the HELL out of me. So many of our black men are killed over nonsense. So, I'm just gonna say it… beef, that's backed up with gunplay, is for suckas. If that's how you get down, you are WACK.

I remember my college roommate and I got into a really big fight over Biggie (petty, I know). She was a DIE-HARD Pac fan. I mean, this girl would wear all black every September 13 in observance of his death. Yeah, it was that serious for her. I, on the other hand, had always been down with B.I.G. My roommate and I were riding in the car on the 5th anniversary of Pac's death and a Biggie song came on the radio. I turned up the volume. She turned off the radio. I looked at her like she was crazy. She told me that she didn't want to hear music from Pac's rival on the day that he died. I challenged her on it and she got mad. Her retarded ass wanted to turn the Pac/Biggie beef into a me/her beef. I wasn't having any of it.

I know that B.I.G. had so much good music still left in him. His rhymes were so dope. I knew the words to every song on every album he ever recorded. Knew all the uhns and the baby-baaabys and the skits in between. And to this day, whenever I hear a B.I.G. track, I just gotta dance. There is no way around it. I was in a club here in DC during the MLK holiday and the DJ played "Hypnotize". I swear, it was like the late '90s all over again! People got so hyped when they played that song. And I got a shiver down my back when I remembered how young I was when that song came out. I wasn't even old enough to get into a club when Hypnotize was in heavy rotation. I remember when his deep voice said "Is Brooklyn in the house?" on "Get Money". Back then, I had never even been to Brooklyn, but there I was on the dance floor screaming "Without a doubt!!" just cause I was caught up in the moment. Good times, man. Good times…

I'll always respect Biggie because everything he spit became an instant classic. The minute I hear the first strains of "Big Poppa" or "Notorious Thugs", I am instantly transported back in time. All the memories associated with his songs are good ones. And, truthfully, there aren't many other artists from the late '90s whose songs you can play 10+ years later and people still jam like the song was released yesterday. In my mind Biggie is an icon. There will never be another like him. It is hurtful to know that his life came to such a tragic end. He deserved more than to be shot up by a "faceless" assailant. (I put "faceless" in quotes because one of those muhfuggas in the car with him saw the shooter's face. There is no doubt in my mind about that.) And a decade later, there have been no arrests, no trials, no prosecutions in connection with his murder. Talk about injustice…

B.I.G., you may be gone, but you are certainly not forgotten. Today, 10 years after your death, I am still a fan of the Notorious B.I.G.… probably now more than ever.

Rest in peace...