The Notorious B.I.G. Drew a Clear Distinction Between Biggie Smalls and Christopher Wallace
The Notorious B.I.G. was a legendary rapper whose legacy has long outlived his time on earth. Behind the scenes, however, Christopher Wallace — the person behind Biggie Smalls — was notably more subdued than his Notorious B.I.G. persona.
Christopher Wallace was a shy person
Although The Notorious B.I.G. was known for popularizing gangsta rap in the New York hip-hop scene in the 1990s, Christopher Wallace had a very different demeanor behind the scenes. He was a father to two children: his daughter T’yanna, the child of Biggie and his high school girlfriend Jan, and his son C.J., or Christopher Jr., the child of Biggie and his wife, singer Faith Evans.
The 2021 Netflix documentary Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell gave an inside look at who The Notorious B.I.G. — and Christopher Wallace — really was in his daily life. In a clip from Biggie’s final interview with KYLD 107.7 in March 1997, just four days before his death, he admitted that he wasn’t as intimidating in real life as his lyrics suggested. When asked if he was shy as a child, he replied, “I’m still shy.”
“I’m a quiet dude, man,” he continued. “I kind of get the voice for certain things I want to say in my music.” As a child, he was a straight-A student in school.
Christopher was laidback, but he still knew how to have fun, often pranking friends for laughs.
The Notorious B.I.G. drew a line between Biggie and Christopher
Still, even though Christopher Wallace was a soft-spoken person, The Notorious B.I.G. was one of the most looming figures in hip-hop in the 1990s. But despite the dichotomy of the two people, Biggie never combined them into one, and kept a distinction between the two.
Justin Tinsley’s 2022 book It Was All a Dream: Biggie and the World That Made Him delves into Biggie’s life from before he was born until after his death in 1997 at age 24. “There was a man behind the man. And there was a clear distinction between the two,” Tinsley wrote.
In an interview given before his death, Biggie spoke about the line that he draws to separate his two personas. “Biggie is an entertainer. He makes music and he makes videos,” he said. “That’s Biggie Smalls, but Christopher Wallace is the person. That’s the one that has to take care of the family. The daughter, the wife — all of that. That’s Christopher. That’s the real person. I leave all that Biggie stuff alone. We don’t blend too much.”
His family continues to support his legacy
The Notorious B.I.G. died in March 1997, just two weeks before the release of his smash album Life After Death. In the quarter century since his death, Biggie’s legacy has been kept alive by those who were closest to him, and his spirit lives on in hip-hop today.
Over the years, Biggie’s life has been commemorated with documentaries, books, a biopic, an NFT collection, and more. People like his mother Voletta Wallace and his best friend Sean “Diddy” Combs have been instrumental in carrying on his legacy decades later.
