Ноториус - Бигги Смолз

HITTING THE STREETS

"When she would go to work or to school, I'd be all over the place," Wallace told Vibe reporter Cheo Hodari Coker. "I'd be outside . . . smok¬ing cigarettes and drinking Calvin Coolers. Just doing shit that I knew I wasn't supposed to do" (Coker, 2003, p. 21).
He spent most of his time on Fulton Avenue, just a block up from his house. There he was first introduced to the street from which his mother had tried so hard to shield him, the one filled with dealers, drunks, and men throwing dice. And even though he was smart, with a talent for drawing, this was the life to which he was most attracted. This was the existence he most sought.

Although Wallace made some money bagging groceries at the local Met Foods, he still didn't have what he wanted: new clothes, new shoes, jewelry, and all the things he saw down at the corner. Having to ask his mom for extra money didn't fit into the image he wanted so much to be his.

First enrolled at the private Queen of All Saints School, Christopher Wallace soon decided that the life of a Catholic school boy was no longer for him, and he demanded to be transferred to the public Westinghouse High School, a typical inner-city school where the students ran the class¬room, wars were fought on the playground, and police were more likely than the principle to discipline the students. There Wallace attended class alongside Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and Trevor "Busta Rhymes" Smith, two young men that would go on to be as big of stars as Wallace was meant to be.

Once in public school, Wallace was as good as gone, with his desire to be a part of the streets stronger than ever before. To him, drugs of¬fered more money and more opportunity than school ever would, along with the freedom he always wanted. Even the freedom he found at a pub¬lic school wasn't enough, and before long, he considered dropping out, choosing the education of the streets over that of a classroom. Wallace knew he could make the cash he wanted slinging crack, an option that became increasingly appealing.

THE RISE OF CRACK

Once considered a drug only for rich white people, cocaine found its popularity during the disco days of the 1970s, a trend that continued into the early 1980s. But many couldn't afford the drug, and as its market aged, it became less fashionable to do the pricey powder. Still, though, huge supplies flooded the Caribbean islands as dealers in countries such as Co¬lumbia continued to manufacture huge amounts of the drug. But with the supply far outweighing the demand, prices dropped by up to 80 percent in the United States.