Puffy’s own superstar ambitions were undeniably boosted by Biggie’s absence.

After Big's murder, it became No Way Out. The Bad Boy founder and producer was already transitioning into a recording career of his own-his debut album Hell Up In Harlem was pending. In order to keep the wheels turning, rising artists like the Lox rallied around Puff Daddy. To understand though, you have to start at the nucleus: his record label, Bad Boy Records.īiggie was Bad Boy’s franchise player-his death sent the label into crisis mode. His death was so far-reaching that it redirected the course of hip-hop. With each passing year, it becomes harder to track the ripple effects of Big’s passing. Nas once told Zane Lowe that he thought Biggie’s death marked “the end of rap.” Paired with Tupac Shakur’s also-unsolved murder six months earlier, Biggie Smalls’ demise set off a whirlwind that rerouted the course of music history.

the Notorious B.I.G.-hip-hop’s biggest artist at the time and arguably the greatest rapper ever-was shot dead in the passenger seat of a green Chevrolet Suburban after leaving a Vibe magazine party in Los Angeles. On that day 20 years ago, just after midnight, Christopher Wallace, b.k.a. It wouldn't be hyperbolic to say that everything in rap changed on March 9, 1997.

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