Re: Biggie Ready To Die Album Zip
Omaima Stern
The grim reality for Biggie Smalls is that while he found massive success (and controversy) in his lifetime, the only project he was able to see live, grow and influence pop culture was his 1994 debut Ready to Die.
His career would end soon after that interview, having lasted approximately half a decade. Biggie Smalls was two months shy of his 25th birthday when he was gunned down at the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles after leaving an industry party in the early morning hours of March 9, 1997. Two weeks later, his highly anticipated sophomore album Life After Death hit shelves. The double LP would eventually become the first hardcore rap album to achieve diamond status.
As Voletta Wallace raised a young son by herself in Brooklyn, her tactic to keep him off the streets was to shower him with clothes, video games and more. For a while, it worked, but it was never going to be a long-term solution. By the time he was 16, Christopher, once an honor roll student, was a high school dropout and on the corner full time.
The day Combs called Biggie Smalls to let him know the contracts were ready to be signed is the day he left North Carolina for good. Later that night, police raided the house he had been staying in. Music had to work now.
Months after Ready to Die dropped, Biggie Smalls was a star. The drug game was behind him. His videos were playing on MTV seemingly every hour on the hour. But that haunting sense of death continued to stalk him.
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