Biggie
About The Notorious B.I.G.
The Notorious B.I.G., born Christopher Wallace, is widely regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time. His storytelling combined cinematic detail with effortless flow, painting vivid pictures of Brooklyn street life, ambition, and paranoia. His two albums remain benchmarks of narrative craft in hip-hop.
Literary Elements & Structure
Biggie's verses are masterclasses in narrative pacing — he could compress an entire short story into sixteen bars. His flow shifted between laid-back smoothness and rapid-fire delivery, using enjambment across bar lines to create surprise. He employed concrete sensory details, dialogue, and shifting points of view to make his stories feel cinematic and immediate.
Themes
- Street Life — He chronicled hustling, violence, and survival with unflinching specificity.
- Ambition — The drive to escape poverty through talent and will runs through his entire catalog.
- Paranoia and Mortality — Success in his work is shadowed by the constant threat of death.
- Duality — He inhabited both the player and the introspective observer, often in the same song.
If You Match This Artist
You're a born storyteller — your poems probably have characters, scenes, and a sense of forward momentum. You know how to hold an audience's attention and drop a line that makes people rewind. Keep developing those narrative muscles; the ability to tell a story in verse is one of poetry's oldest and most powerful gifts.
Literary Terms in Their Work
- Imagery — His concrete details — brand names, street addresses, specific foods — ground his stories in lived reality.
- Enjambment — He ran sentences across bar lines, creating rhythmic surprise and conversational flow.
- Simile — His comparisons are vivid and unexpected, connecting street life to luxury with razor precision.
- Verisimilitude — His stories feel true because of their accumulated, authentic detail.
From the Power Poetry Archive
The original Biggie profile from the classic Power Poetry site.
Christopher George Latore Wallace AKA Biggie
Educational Backgroundand Location
George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, Roman Catholic Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School,New York City - Brooklyn, New York
Brief Personal Bio
Biggie excelled at English at Westinghouse High School but dropped out altogether in 1989 at age 17. He began selling drugs at 12, Biggie stepped up the drug dealing after quitting school and was soon in trouble with the law. After he got out of jail, he made a demo tape as Biggie Smalls and his career took up from there.
These are a Few of Their Favorite Things
Favorite Color--Black
Favorite Food--Brooklyn soul food
Common Literary Elements/Structure/Themes in their Work
Biggie uses a "transitional technique..he starts off with one rhyme word(place/grace/lace) and then finishes off with another word type...this transition is quite cool and smooth...the second couplet is made with the internal rhymes technique".
Link to Matching PP Guides/Glossary Terms
/actions/5-tips-using-rhythm-and-rap
/actions/7-steps-addressing-post-racial-myth
What does it mean if you were matched to this artist? Why is it important?
When matched to Biggie, you are matched to an artist who includes many of the similar techinques you put in your piece. For example, your piece may include varied wordtypes and structured rhymes as well as smooth transitions going from each one to the next. This may be an element of your poem (or main element). It is important to recognize the similarity you have to this artist because it helps you understand more of the style of your literary work. In this instance, your work would most likely contain techniques that are similar to Biggie's and recognizing this could help to further develop your style and approach at writing poems.
Literary Value
Biggie uses smooth transitions throughout his music and his lyrics start off with "one rhyme word and then finishes off with another word type".
List of Albums / Artist Spotify Link
Ready to Die, Life After Death
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5me0Irg2ANcsgc93uaYrpb
Social Handles (Links)
(none)
Poetic DNA
Biggie writes like a diarist who shouts in metaphor between shadow and light.
How we understand your poetry →
Explore Poems That Resonate with Biggie
Poems tagged with “identity” — a theme central to Biggie's work.