Remembering #Biggie (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997) + Big’s Close Friend & Writer, Dream Hampton Remembers Him

On March 9, 1997, Christopher George Latore Wallace, known as Biggie Smalls, Big Poppa, The Black Frank White and The Notorious B.I.G. was killed in Los Angeles in a drive-by shooting. He died at age 24 and 15 days after his death, his double-disc set Life After Death, hit #1 on the U.S. album charts and was certified Diamond in 2000. The Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation holds an annual black-tie dinner (“B.I.G. Night Out”) to raise funds for children’s school equipment and supplies and to honor the memory of the late rapper. For this particular event, because it is a children’s schools’ charity, “B.I.G.” is also said to stand for “Books Instead of Guns”.  Wallace’s murder remains unsolved and there are many theories regarding the identities and motives of the murderers.

Peep an excerpt of Dream Hampton, a writer and close friend of Big, recounting his death:

March 8th, 1997

“I was mad at [B.I.G.] about something, but I still took him the issue of Rap Pages. That Rap Pages cover is of course the iconic one — if I can say so myself — Barron Claiborne shot of him in the crown. I was mad at him; You know what it was? He made me do the article. He kept standing up my writer Darrell Dawsey; I didn’t want to do the Biggie piece. That ended up being a piece I had to write overnight. The magazine was the crown picture, which I fought with Puff over. Puff said it looked like Burger King, but Biggie liked it and I think [Biggie’s Manager] Mark Pitts liked it. I went over to his hotel in Westwood [California]. He had been kicked out of the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills for fighting with Charli [Baltimore]. I hadn’t even been to his room, but for some reason I had the information. I was on my way home to pick up my daughter from her sitter after work at Rap Pages, and I had the cover, and I slipped it under his door.

I knew that he was going to be at the Soul Train Awards. I wasn’t going; I had to interview the next day with Pedro [Zamora]‘s boyfriend, Sean in Atlanta. Remember Pedro from the ‘Real World’ on MTV? I had done a piece for Poz magazine, which is a magazine for HIV-positive men, well, mostly men. I had done an article about the Red Hot & Rap. I had reviewed that for them, and they had me go to profile Sean for my second article for that magazine, so I had an early morning flight to Atlanta. I didn’t feel like going out. L.A. is not like New York, where you just throw on some jeans and really fresh shoes and wear your hair however. L.A. is like, be dressed. I didn’t feel like all that s—, so I didn’t go.” Peep the full interview here.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V9Kv2GqN00[/youtube]