Unbelievable

Unbelievable PDF

Author: Cheo Hodari Coker

Publisher: VIBE Lifestyyle Books

Published: 2013-03-05

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 9781935883616

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In this riveting account of Biggie's remarkable life, hip hop journalist Cheo Hodari Coker tells the story you've never heard about the dramatic, tension-filled world of Biggie, Tupac, Puff Daddy, and Suge Knight, tracing their friendships and feuds from the beginning to the bitter end. Despite the clash of personalities and styles, all four were key players in a volatile and creative era of hip hop, a time when gangsta rap became popular music. Before he rocketed to fame as Biggie, Christopher Wallace was a young black man growing up in Brooklyn with a loving single mother. An honors student who dropped out of school to sell drugs, Biggie soon discovered that he had a gift for rocking the mike. Coker's narrative is based on exclusive interviews with Biggie's family and friends, some of whom have never spoken publicly about Biggie before. Compellingly written and brilliantly illustrated, with rare color and black-and-white photographs from VIBE's archives and Biggie's family, this is an in-depth look at the life and afterlife of an icon whose music is as powerful and prevalent as ever. A virtuoso of flow as well as a master storyteller, Biggie was arguably the greatest rapper of all time. We've heard a lot of speculation about Biggie's death. Now it's time to remember his life and celebrate his work.

It Was All a Dream

It Was All a Dream PDF

Author: Justin Tinsley

Publisher: Abrams

Published: 2022-05-10

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 1647001048

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From a talented young journalist on the rise, a deeply reported, timely new biography of the Notorious B.I.G., publishing for what would have been his 50th birthday The Notorious B.I.G. was one of the most charismatic and talented artists of the 1990s. Born Christopher Wallace and raised in Clinton Hill/Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, Biggie lived an almost archetypal rap life: young trouble, drug dealing, guns, prison, a giant hit record, the wealth and international superstardom that came with it, then an early violent death. Biggie released his first record, Ready to Die, in 1994, when he was only 22. Less than three years later, he was killed just days before the planned release of his second record Life After Death. Journalist Justin Tinsley’s It Was All a Dream is a fresh, insightful telling of the life beyond the legend. It is based on extensive interviews with those who knew and loved Biggie, including neighbors, friends, DJs, party promoters, and journalists. And it places Biggie’s life in context, both within the history of rap but also the wider cultural and political forces that shaped him, including Caribbean immigration, the Reagan era disinvestment in public education, street life, the war on drugs, mass incarceration, and the booming, creative, and influential 1990s music industry. This is the story of where Biggie came from, the forces that shaped him, and the legacy he has left behind.

Ready to Die

Ready to Die PDF

Author: Jake Brown

Publisher: Amber Books Publishing

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9780974977935

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The life story of one of history's most well-known rap artists, whose life was cut short by his violent murder. In "Ready to Die," author Jake Brown reveals the musician's loyalties and his roots, bringing readers up-close and personal into the rise of Bad Boy Entertainment, Sean "Puffy" Combs (P. Diddy), Tupac Shakur, Faith Evans, Lil' Kim, and the Junior Mafia.

The Notorious B.I.G.

The Notorious B.I.G. PDF

Author: Holly Lang

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2007-10-30

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 1567207359

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Over ten years since his death, Biggie Smalls, also known as The Notorious B.I.G., is considered one of the most influential rappers of all time, a credit continually given by numerous hip-hop artists. Raised in Brooklyn during the crack-cocaine boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Smalls (born Christopher Wallace) worked as a drug dealer before ultimately deciding to become a rapper. With Sean Puffy Combs and Bad Boy Entertainment, Biggie rocketed to fame as one of hip hop's most popular artists. But with the success came controversy: the friendship-turned-feud between Biggie and Tupac fueled the rivalry between East Coast and West Coast hip hop, a gangsta-rap battle that many believe led to the murder of both rappers. While still unsolved, the murder of Biggie in 1997 sparked numerous investigations, litigation, and the dismantling of a Los Angeles Police Department task force in what is considered the largest scandal in LAPD history. Ten years later, Biggie is celebrated as the King of East Coast hip hop. In this biography author Holly Lang recounts the life, music, and legacy of Biggie and investigates the events surrounding his murder.

Biggie

Biggie PDF

Author: Voletta Wallace

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2005-11-01

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1416516484

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Voletta Wallace, the mother of Christopher, aka Notorious B.I.G., became a matriarch of hip-hop on March 9, 1997, the night her legendary son was murdered. An intensely private and religious person, she was thrust into the spotlight of the media and charged with managing the legacy of a hip-hop generation immortal. Biggie reveals the story of how Ms. Wallace came to America and raised a son who -- in a life cut too short -- grew to be one of the most beloved recording artists of his generation. Ms. Wallace, born and raised in Jamaica, West Indies, immigrated to the United States as a young woman, aspiring to her version of the American Dream. Once here, she fell in love. The relationship didn't work out, but it did result in a beautiful son. The bright and precocious Christopher became the center of her world, and she the foundation of his. Ms. Wallace settled in Brooklyn, New York, pursued a career in early childhood education, and worked hard at not only keeping her own son on the straight and narrow but lovingly and firmly guiding other people's sons and daughters. Biggie is Voletta Wallace's story and her tribute-in-writing to her beloved son. In a no-holds-barred way, she tells the truth about the night her son was senselessly shot, the terrible aftermath, and what she believes led to his untimely death. She shares her misgivings about the treacherous nature of the entertainment industry and condemns the individuals who posed as friends of her late son while treating her and his memory with little respect. She acknowledges those -- the mothers of other slain hip-hop artists, including Tupac Shakur and Jason Mizell -- who gave her moral and material support in the dark moments of mourning her son and attending to the business and legal issues, many of which remain unresolved. Faith Evans, Christopher's widow, the mother of his child -- and a recording star in her own right -- contributed a heartfelt foreword to this book. Evans remains at Voletta Wallace's side as she continues the struggle to keep open the investigation of her son's murder and see that justice is done. She and so many others, in and out of the hip-hop community, continue to work with Ms. Wallace in support of the Christopher Wallace Foundation, an organization dedicated to the well-being and education of inner-city youth. For more information, visit www.cwmf.org.

Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams PDF

Author: David Menconi

Publisher: Univ of TX + ORM

Published: 2012-09-01

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 0292744595

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A chronicle of Adams’s rise from alt-country to rock stardom, featuring stories about the making of the albums Strangers Almanac and Heartbreaker. Before he achieved his dream of being an internationally known rock personality, Ryan Adams had a band in Raleigh, North Carolina. Whiskeytown led the wave of insurgent-country bands that came of age with No Depression magazine in the mid-1990s, and for many people it defined the era. Adams was an irrepressible character, one of the signature personalities of his generation, and as a singer-songwriter he blew people away with a mature talent that belied his youth. David Menconi witnessed most of Whiskeytown’s rocket ride to fame as the music critic for the Raleigh News & Observer, and in Ryan Adams, he tells the inside story of the singer’s remarkable rise from hardscrabble origins to success with Whiskeytown, as well as Adams’s post-Whiskeytown self-reinvention as a solo act. Menconi draws on early interviews with Adams, conversations with people close to him, and Adams’s extensive online postings to capture the creative ferment that produced some of Adams’s best music, including the albums Strangers Almanac and Heartbreaker. He reveals that, from the start, Ryan Adams had a determined sense of purpose and unshakable confidence in his own worth. At the same time, his inability to hold anything back, whether emotions or torrents of songs, often made Adams his own worst enemy, and Menconi recalls the excesses that almost, but never quite, derailed his career. Ryan Adams is a fascinating, multifaceted portrait of the artist as a young man, almost famous and still inventing himself, writing songs in a blaze of passion. “Menconi, a veteran music critic based in Raleigh, North Carolina, had a front row seat for alt-country wunderkind Ryan Adams’ rise to prominence—from an array of local bands, to Whiskeytown, and on to a successful and prolific solo career. Here, Menconi enthusiastically revisits those heady days when the mercurial Adams’ performances were either transcendent or tantrum-filled—the author was there for most of them, and he packs his book with tales of magical performances and utterly desperate train wrecks. . . . This interview- and anecdote-laden exposé of the artist's early career will doubtless find a happy home with Adams fans.” —Publishers Weekly

Notorious C.O.P.

Notorious C.O.P. PDF

Author: Derrick Parker

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2007-04-01

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 1429907789

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Throughout his career, Derrick Parker worked on some of the biggest criminal cases in rap history, from the shooting at Club New York, where Derrick personally escorted Jennifer Lopez to police headquarters, to the first shooting of Tupac Shakur. Always straddling the fence between "po-po" and NYPD outsider, Derrick threatened police tradition to try to get the cases solved. He was the first detective to interview an informant offering a detailed account of Biggie Smalls's murder. He protected one of the only surviving eyewitnesses to the Jam Master Jay murder and knows the identity of the killers as well as the motivation behind the shooting. Notorious C.O.P. reveals hip-hop crimes that never made the paper—like the robbing of Foxy Brown and the first Hot 97 shooting—and answers some lingering questions about murders that have remained unsolved. The book that both the NYPD and the hip-hop community don't want you to read, Notorious C.O.P. is the first insider look at the real links between crime and hip-hop and the inefficiencies that have left some of the most widely publicized murders in entertainment history unsolved.

The Murder of Biggie Smalls

The Murder of Biggie Smalls PDF

Author: Cathy Scott

Publisher:

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9780859653077

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The death of one of rap music's biggest stars rocked the industry and a media storm followed as millions of fans mourned. Speculation was aroused over a connection between his murder and that of Tupac Shakur.

2Pac vs Biggie

2Pac vs Biggie PDF

Author: Jeff Weiss

Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group USA

Published: 2013-05-15

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1610587936

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Hip hop icons and rap innovators, the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur continue to influence, define, and change the genre years after their deaths. Despite the controversies surrounding the murders of Tupac and Biggie, ultimately it’s their art that remains their biggest legacy. The music of Biggie Smalls and 2Pac has inspired the likes of Jay-Z, Kanye, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross and more. The legacies of Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace—a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G. —live on. So does their rivalry, one of the greatest in music history. In 2pac vs. Biggie, hip hop experts Jeff Weiss and Evan McGarvey take an entirely new approach to investigation of that rivalry. Rather than focus on the countless conspiracy theories, they study the artist as artists, dissecting the lyrics of their hits (“California Love,” “All Eyez on Me,” “Changes” for 2pac, “Mo Money Mo Problems,” “Hypnotize,” “Big Poppa” for Biggie) and lesser-known works, performance and rhythmic styles, aesthetic appearances and what those meant, rises to power, and of course, their lives after death. The feud between 2pac and Biggie is broken down and looked at from all new angles, bringing to light little-known and surprising sides to each rapper’s persona and inner world. Illustrated throughout with photographs, memorabilia, and artwork inspired by Tupac and Biggie, and with insert “versus” pages dissecting topics such as each artist’s presence in movies, critical reception, and literary influences, this book is a must-have for all rap and hip hop fans.