Born and raised in Brooklyn, Biggie Smalls was dealing drugs by the time he was
12 and was constantly in trouble with the police. But he developed a rap act to
perform on the streets, and his edgy, brutal rhymes and free-flowing delivery
came to define the genre, representing East Coast hip hop in its bitter feud
with its West Coast counterpart. Spotted by Sean "Puffy" Combs, he released his
debut album Ready To Die in 1994; a hardcore autobiographical record in which he
referred to himself as Frank White, a fictional drug baron in the 1990 movie
King Of New York. The name Biggie...