While The Notorious B.I.G. famously died at age 24 in a drive-by shooting amid highly publicized coastal tensions, he managed to make an indelible impact on hip-hop in his short time on Earth. Today, people widely acknowledge Biggie Smalls as one of the greatest rappers, if not the greatest rapper in history. But he knew he was bound for greatness before most people even knew his name…
No artist embodied the mean streets of Brooklyn in the ’90s more than Christopher George Latore Wallace, better known as The Notorious B.I.G. Born and bred in Bed-Stuy, Wallace started selling crack at age 12. He was quickly seduced by the money and the image the dubious endeavor afforded him, and his operation grew in size and scale until it eventually landed him a 9-month stint in prison in 1990 on drug and weapons charges.
Related: Biggie As Bebop: How Jazz Drum Solos Informed The Notorious B.I.G.’s Famous Flow [Watch]
During that time, The Notorious B.I.G. was all about his business—rapping was just a way to kill time, talk shit, and gain respect. His lyrical prowess was nevertheless undeniable even at a young age, imbued with the gangster bravado and smoothly unintimidated flow of his street upbringing.
The most notable relic of the Notorious B.I.G.’s teenage years—when he was beginning to earn a local reputation as a skilled battle rapper—is a grainy video of him freestyling on a Bedford-Stuyvesant corner that has circulated for years. In the clip, shot in 1989, Biggie lays down bar after bar of at-once hilarious and ferocious rhymes, shifting through cadences and sending the gathered crowd into fits of hysteria. But while the crowd goes crazy for Biggie, he stays cool, collected, and commanding—so much so that he almost seems disinterested. He can already tell he’s above anything people can hear on the sidewalk, and he knows he hasn’t even really started trying yet. Watch the clip below:
The Notorious B.I.G. – Street Corner Freestyle 1989
[Video: Ian Riley]
The famous freestyle clip was recreated and dramatized as a pivotal plot point in the 2009 Biggie biopic, Notorious. In addition to a cameo by rapper Birdman as the reigning champion that the young B.I.G. takes on, the clip pays homage to the video, recreating everything from Big’s bars to the bodega in the background to Biggie’s blue and white patterned shirt. Watch the dramatized recreation of teenage Biggie’s notorious corner freestyle below:
Corner Freestyle [Dramatized] – Notorious [2009]
[Video: Ludo Sanders]
…and as a birthday bonus, watch a rare freestyle session with The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur here.
[Originally published 5/21/17]