Biggie still reigns as a hip-hop icon
Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie) had a Bob Marley-like connection with people that makes him culturally immortal.
He was, of course, talking about his rags to riches climb from zero to hero in the hip-hop world, a familiar tale told by many rappers who suddenly felt fame after a life on the streets. Biggie, who was probably manifesting this, had the confidence to know his dreams of a flash lifestyle would come true, as he reflected on the days growing up with his mom in a one-room shack.
Years later, we can reflect on the lyrics in other ways too.
Biggie, like his former pal Tupac, paid the ultimate price when hip-hop culture took things too far a few years later, and both of them were shot dead at the end of an increasingly tense period of escalating beef. It’s fair to say the two rappers were pawns in the game in this so-called east coast west coast beef, but their deaths also marked a turning point for the genre which is celebrating 50 years this year.
After these deaths, hip-hop took stock, and the moguls behind the music, like Puffy and Suge and even Dr Dre, turned their energy into stacking dough more than stacking bodies.
Sure, there’s been needless assassinations and stupid beefs since, but hip-hop since 1997 has been pretty much “all about the benjamins baby”, to quote another famous track on which Biggie guested. It was a Puff Daddy track, released in the aftermath of Biggie’s death, and a tune which helped soundtrack Puffy’s own philosophy with regard to building a financially successful music and business empire.
In 2023 it seems normal that rap is huge and that rappers are billionaires who have multiple brands and opportunities outside rap. But this was where it all began really. Even the commercially successful acts of the late ’80s and ’90s didn’t do it on the level that Bad Boy and Death Row instigated, and paths to glory for Drake, 50 Cent and a thousand other rappers was laid back in this era. In 2023, Biggie and Tupac are like Bob Marley and AC/DC and Nirvana and the Doors and the Ramones. They are ubiquitous on t-shirts sold in shops such as H&M and Bershka and they are huge mainstream brands in a way we could never have imagined back then.
They have transcended the genre in such a way that middle-aged rap fans mourning the golden age will sometimes question the authenticity of some of these kids wearing the logo as a fashion accessory. The kind of guys who ask teenagers to name five Ramones songs when they see them in the street. Many more from this era will complain that it’s Biggie and Tupac on shirts rather than Rakim and Big Daddy Kane but, ultimately, this misses the point.
All of these great rappers made incredible music that still stands strong 30 years on but Biggie and Tupac had that Bob Marley-like connection with people that makes them culturally immortal regardless of their hip-hop rank. I’d still have Biggie in my all-time top five and Pac wouldn’t be far off either, but whether they are actually better than others is irrelevant here. Culturally, they connected. Aaliyah did it too. The t-shirts will sell forever. Someone will keep getting paid.
Biggie, who also rapped “your reign on the top was short like leprachauns” at Nas, has enjoyed a 30 plus year reign as a hip-hop icon. Nas has just released another acclaimed album and remains one of rap’s living legends. He was recently on tour with Wu Tang Clan, other peers of Biggie, and his reign will also survive changes in music tastes and live forever. For a few short years Biggie and Pac helped blow rap up in an era where Snoop, Nas, Tribe, Wu Tang and many more were delivering. Many are still surviving a notoriously fickle hip-hop world. And those who have died will remain immortal.
