Ноториус - Бигги Смолз

GIMME THE LOOT

Christopher Wallace, better known as the Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, lived a short life, murdered at the young age of 24. But Wallace lived those years hard and fast, experiencing an existence many could only imagine, with their only introduction to his world coming from the songs he wrote—rap lullabies that were as autobiographical as they were imaginative. Because of this, Wallace's music life started at birth, his first cry a chorus of sorts.

Christopher Wallace was born to Voletta Wallace, a single mother who worked multiple jobs to keep her small family from slipping into the hun¬ger and poverty that gripped so many of those around them. She first came to America from Jamaica after years of seeing pictures in issues of maga¬zines, and she envisioned a country where the blue skies shined down on the pretty, rich people in their well-decorated apartments, a country where opportunity fell with the rain. And at the young age of 19, Voletta Wallace was eager to find this new world.

After convincing the U.S. embassy in Kingston, Jamaica, that she was a designer traveling to the United States to preview fall collections, the petite Wallace moved to New York in 1968. She was 19 when she first saw the skyline of the city of which her son would one day be dubbed king.

She received a 14-day visa, one she extended before finally settling into her new American life. Although initially disappointed in New York and in America, she soon took to the city, making it her home. She took a high school equivalency test, and though she failed the first time around, she studied more and retook it, passing. Living in a rented room, she was soon able to afford a small studio on St Francis Place in Brooklyn, the

borough that would become her longtime home. Wallace studied nursing at Queens College, but quickly decided that vocation was not the one for her. Transferring to Queensborough Community College, she took classes in early childhood development, a school of study that seemed natural for the smart, compassionate young woman. It was during this time that she met Selwyn at a friend's party, one of the few social outings the homebody attended. The two hit it off instantly, and Letore almost immediately be¬came a regular fixture in her life.