BEATRIFULThe storySizzleC
album coverWho was Christopher Wallace?1972–1997 in ten chapters, every line with its source.Explore the history →

ST. JAMES PLACE

SizzleC · 10 songs · in production

Ten songs on the life of Christopher Wallace, the Brooklyn rapper known as The Notorious B.I.G., 1972 to 1997: born to Jamaican parents on St. James Place, an honor student, a roof full of secrets, nine months in a North Carolina jail, a demo tape, a debut, two coasts, a cane, a red light on Wilshire, and a corner named for him in the rain. Every song opens in a sound from his world and drops hard into rap riding tech house. Told in the third person from the public record, with sources; original voices, no samples.

Era sounds from his world (mento and reggae, 1970s soul, Brooklyn electro, gospel quartet, jazz and boom-bap, hip-hop soul, crime-film score, steel pan, gospel choir) dropping into rap riding tech house: dub house, disco tech house, dark, minimal, jazzy, garage, peak-time, afro and soulful deep house

Sources for every line →

all takes and alternates →

Cumberland covervideo in production

[Female Vocal]

[Intro]

Hush now, hush now, Brooklyn baby

Spring in the city, seventy-two

Two from Jamaica and a baby boy

Christopher, the whole world new

[Verse 1]

Cumberland Hospital, twenty-first of May

Mama teaches preschool, little ones all day

Papa is a welder, sparks across the steel

Three months short of three, the father's gone for real

[Pre-Chorus]

Two jobs, one key

One boy, one street

[Drop]

St. James, St. James, two jobs, one son

St. James, St. James, the day's begun

She raised him on her own, she raised him on her own

Two-two-six St. James, the boy is home

[Verse 2]

[Male Vocal]

[Rap]

Only child of two who came up from Jamaica

Brooklyn, seventy-two, a city on a razor

Clinton Hill, the edge where it runs into Bed-Stuy

Mama on a double shift, the boy at the window watching the sky

Island songs on Sunday on the kitchen radio

Mento and the reggae and the soul turned low

Two jobs and a lullaby, she does it on her own

One key on a string so the boy gets home

[Drop 2]

St. James, St. James, two jobs, one son

St. James, St. James, the day's begun

She raised him on her own, she raised him on her own

Two-two-six St. James, the boy is home

[Bridge]

[Female Vocal]

Hush now, hush now

Somebody's coming home

[Verse 3]

[Male Vocal]

[Rap]

A boy on a stoop where the brownstones lean

Biggest little shadow that the block has ever seen

Mama turns the corner when the streetlights come alive

St. James Place, Brooklyn, nineteen seventy-five

[Outro]

Hush now, Brooklyn baby

The boy is home

01 · Cumberland

Jamaican mento and roots reggae, acoustic banjo, rumba box bass, hand drums, melodica, a warm female lullaby vocal, → deep dub house at 120 bpm, rolling dub bassline, spring reverb echoes, four-on-the-floor kick, a clear tenor male rapper with crisp fast diction on the verses, a warm female soul singer on the hooks, genre switch at the one-minute mark: slow first minute then a hard beat drop into tech house, rap verses riding a tech house groove, story-driven concept album, a Brooklyn life story told in the third person

🎶 The Sizzle: Opens in Jamaican mento and roots reggae, banjo, rumba box and melodica under a lullaby, for the island his parents came from; then a hard drop into deep dub house, a rolling dub bassline and spring-reverb echoes, the hook a chant for one street.

🎬 The Story: Christopher George Latore Wallace was born at Cumberland Hospital in Brooklyn on May 21, 1972, the only child of Jamaican immigrant parents: his mother a preschool teacher, his father a welder. Three months before his third birthday his father left, and his mother raised him while working two jobs, in Clinton Hill near the border of Bedford-Stuyvesant, at 226 St. James Place.

Honor Student covervideo in production

[Female Vocal]

[Intro]

Soul on the stereo, strings down the hall

Funk on a Friday, disco by the fall

Five years old at the day-care door

Bigger than the others on the classroom floor

[Verse 1]

Parish school in a collar and a tie

Graduated eighty-two with his head held high

Queen of All Saints and the English class

Words come easy and the jokes come fast

[Pre-Chorus]

Jokes for the hard days

Words for the good

[Drop]

Honor student, honor student

Words come easy, jokes come fast

Honor student, honor student

Biggest kid in every class

[Verse 2]

[Male Vocal]

[Rap]

Open Door Day Care, Quincy and Lexington

Five years old and already bigger than the rest of them

Parish school diploma, nineteen eighty-two

Queen of All Saints and the English always coming through

Humor was the shield when the days got hard

He would turn it to a joke and keep the hurt behind the guard

Soul on the stereo and falsetto on the strings

Disco on the radio and a boy who knows things

[Drop 2]

Honor student, honor student

Words come easy, jokes come fast

Honor student, honor student

Biggest kid in every class

[Bridge]

[Female Vocal]

Top of the class

Top of the class

[Verse 3]

[Male Vocal]

[Rap]

Westinghouse High and the hallways getting loud

The corner calling louder than the teachers in the crowd

Sixteen and he walks with the honor roll behind

Fulton Street is waiting and it's working on his mind

[Outro]

Honor student

Biggest kid in every class

02 · Honor Student

1970s Philadelphia soul, lush string section, falsetto vocal group harmonies, electric piano, soft congas, → disco tech house at 122 bpm, choppy disco rhythm guitar, filtered string stabs, four-on-the-floor kick, a clear tenor male rapper with crisp fast diction on the verses, a warm female soul singer on the hooks, genre switch at the one-minute mark: slow first minute then a hard beat drop into tech house, rap verses riding a tech house groove, story-driven concept album, a Brooklyn life story told in the third person

🎶 The Sizzle: 1970s soul strings and falsetto harmonies, the music of the front rooms of his childhood, then a drop into disco-tinged tech house: choppy rhythm guitar, filtered string stabs, a chant made of a report card.

🎬 The Story: At five he was already bigger than most of the other children at the Quincy-Lexington Open Door Day Care Center. He graduated from his parish elementary school in 1982 and excelled in English at Queen of All Saints Middle School. Humor, he said, had been his way of coping with hardship since elementary school. Soul, funk and disco filled his early years.

The Roof covervideo in production

[Male Vocal]

[Intro]

[Spoken Word]

Fulton Street, the middle of the eighties

The corner has a job for anyone who wants one

A boy of twelve is listening

Upstairs his mother thinks the boy is doing homework

[Verse 1]

[Female Vocal]

Around the age of twelve a friend shows him the trade

Small bags on the corner, small money getting made

Fulton Street is teaching what the classroom never taught

The bottle and the dice, and the crack years getting caught

[Pre-Chorus]

Two hundred and one pounds

They call him Big

[Drop]

Money on the roof, Mama never knew

Honor roll by day and Fulton Street at two

Money on the roof, she's right below

Till he turns twenty she will never know

[Verse 2]

[Male Vocal]

[Rap]

Two-oh-one on the scale so the corner calls him Big

Westinghouse is just a building, Fulton Street is where he lives

Honor student, sixteen, and he walks out of the school

The money and the roof and the corner and its rules

Eighties in Brooklyn and the crack years hit the block

Every mother on the street is staring at the clock

Mama works two jobs and she trusts him with the key

Up on the tar roof there's a stash she'll never see

[Drop 2]

Money on the roof, Mama never knew

Honor roll by day and Fulton Street at two

Money on the roof, she's right below

Till he turns twenty she will never know

[Bridge]

[Female Vocal]

Mama, look up

Mama, look up

[Verse 3]

[Male Vocal]

[Rap]

The boy who had the best words in the English class

Is counting other numbers now and counting them fast

The roof keeps the secret and the stairwell keeps the score

Nineteen eighty-nine is knocking at the door

[Outro]

Money on the roof

Mama never knew

03 · The Roof

1980s Brooklyn electro, drum machine claps and cowbell, analog synth stabs, cassette-player crackle, → dark tech house at 124 bpm, rolling sub bass, tight hats, minor-key synth stabs, a clear tenor male rapper with crisp fast diction on the verses, a warm female soul singer on the hooks, genre switch at the one-minute mark: slow first minute then a hard beat drop into tech house, rap verses riding a tech house groove, story-driven concept album, a Brooklyn life story told in the third person

🎶 The Sizzle: 1980s Brooklyn electro, drum-machine claps and cowbell, then dark tech house with a rolling sub: the hook is the secret on the roof and the mother downstairs.

🎬 The Story: As a child he spent most of his time on Fulton Street, where he was introduced to drug dealing, alcoholism and gambling; around twelve a friend introduced him to buying and selling. He hid the money on the roof of his building; his mother had no idea until he was twenty. At 201 pounds the block called him Big. Despite being an honor student, he dropped out of school at sixteen, in the years of the crack epidemic.

Nine Months covervideo in production

[Male Vocal]

[Intro]

Count the days, Lord, count the days

Nine months down in Carolina, count the days

Somebody's mother is praying tonight

Somebody's son is out of sight

[Verse 1]

Eighty-nine in Brooklyn and a weapons charge

Five years of probation but the street is still in charge

Ninety, he's arrested for the probation that he broke

Ninety-one in Carolina and the cell door doesn't joke

[Pre-Chorus]

Nine months

Nine months

[Drop]

Nine months, nine months, Carolina

Nine months, counting every one

Nine months till they make the bail

Nine months, then the boy comes home

[Verse 2]

[Rap]

Ninety-one, they pick him up in North Carolina

Dealing crack, the charge says, and the walls are getting tighter

Nine months in a jail where nobody knows his name

Nobody laughing at the jokes, nobody playing the game

Every rhyme he ever made is running in his head all day

He never writes a word of it, he keeps it locked away

Nine months of thinking, nine months on the clock

Then the bail comes through and he walks back to the block

[Drop 2]

Nine months, nine months, Carolina

Nine months, counting every one

Nine months till they make the bail

Nine months, then the boy comes home

[Bridge]

Count the days, Lord

Count the days

[Verse 3]

[Rap]

Out on bail with a notebook that he never needs

He keeps it all in his head like a pocket full of seeds

Back up to St. James and the rooftop and the stairs

Nineteen ninety-one and the music's in the air

[Outro]

Count the days

Nine months, then home

04 · Nine Months

a cappella Southern gospel quartet, deep bass voice and close harmonies, hand claps and foot stomps, → minimal hypnotic tech house at 125 bpm, sparse clicking percussion, deep rubbery bassline, a lone chopped vocal, a clear tenor male rapper with crisp fast diction on the verses, a warm female soul singer on the hooks, genre switch at the one-minute mark: slow first minute then a hard beat drop into tech house, rap verses riding a tech house groove, story-driven concept album, a Brooklyn life story told in the third person

🎶 The Sizzle: An a cappella Southern gospel quartet counts the days, then a minimal, hypnotic tech house groove, sparse and rubbery, built for waiting.

🎬 The Story: In 1989 he was arrested in Brooklyn on weapons charges and sentenced to five years of probation. The following year he was arrested for violating that probation, and a year later he was arrested in North Carolina for dealing crack cocaine and spent nine months in jail before making bail.

Demo Tape covervideo in production

[Male Vocal]

[Intro]

[Spoken Word]

Press play

Brooklyn, nineteen ninety-one

A cassette with a voice on it

And nobody has heard it yet

[Verse 1]

[Female Vocal]

Three friends called the Techniques, a long time ago

A sax man from New Orleans had a studio at home

They made their first songs there beside the saxophone

Then the friends went their own ways and he went on alone

[Pre-Chorus]

Never wrote it down

It's all in his head

[Drop]

Press play, press play

A tape from Brooklyn on its way

Press play, press play

March of ninety-two, they print the name

[Verse 2]

[Male Vocal]

[Rap]

Ninety-one, a demo, with a DJ in the room

Little expectation, just a voice and a boom

A local DJ hears it and he carries it to town

Sends it to a magazine that's looking for the unsigned sound

March of ninety-two, the column for the unsigned

A young man from a label reads it and he makes up his mind

He never wrote a verse down, kept them in his head

Took a name from a nineteen seventy-five film instead

[Drop 2]

Press play, press play

A tape from Brooklyn on its way

Press play, press play

March of ninety-two, they print the name

[Bridge]

[Female Vocal]

Press play

Let it play

[Verse 3]

[Male Vocal]

[Rap]

The phone rings on St. James and the young man wants to meet

The kid with no notebook and the whole song on repeat

From a sax man's home studio to a column in the press

Brooklyn's got a cassette and it will not let it rest

[Outro]

Press play

Ninety-one

05 · Demo Tape

smoky jazz saxophone over a dusty boom-bap drum break, vinyl crackle, tape hiss, upright bass, → jazzy tech house at 125 bpm, saxophone stabs, shuffled hats, warm Rhodes chords, a clear tenor male rapper with crisp fast diction on the verses, a warm female soul singer on the hooks, genre switch at the one-minute mark: slow first minute then a hard beat drop into tech house, rap verses riding a tech house groove, story-driven concept album, a Brooklyn life story told in the third person

🎶 The Sizzle: Smoky jazz saxophone over a dusty boom-bap break and tape hiss, for the saxophonist's home studio where it began; then jazzy tech house with sax stabs and Rhodes, the hook a cassette button.

🎬 The Story: As a teenager he formed a trio, the Techniques, and recorded first songs at the home studio of New Orleans saxophonist Donald Harrison. After jail, in 1991, he made his first demo tape. Local DJ Mister Cee promoted it and sent it to The Source, which featured it in its Unsigned Hype column in March 1992; Sean Combs read it and arranged to meet him. He composed his lyrics in his head rather than writing them down.

Hit Factory covervideo in production

[Female Vocal]

[Intro]

Nineteen ninety-two

A baby on the way

A contract in the morning

And a whole new day

[Verse 1]

Signed in ninety-two to a label uptown

The next July the man who signed him is let go

August eighth, a daughter, and he promises her

Everything she wanted, everything, and more

[Pre-Chorus]

Everything she wanted

Everything she wanted

[Drop]

Hit Factory, Hit Factory

September thirteenth, ninety-four

Hit Factory, Hit Factory

Everything she wanted, and more

[Verse 2]

[Male Vocal]

[Rap]

A new label opens and he's the first one through the door

June of ninety-four, at a photo shoot he meets her, and he is sure

August fourth they marry and the summer's moving fast

Two years of Hit Factory sessions, built to last

Broke and depressed, that's how he said it felt

September thirteenth and the album's on the shelf

Number fifteen on the chart, fifty-seven thousand in a week

Handing out copies from his home to anyone who'll speak

[Drop 2]

Hit Factory, Hit Factory

September thirteenth, ninety-four

Hit Factory, Hit Factory

Everything she wanted, and more

[Bridge]

[Female Vocal]

Everything she wanted

Everything

[Verse 3]

[Male Vocal]

[Rap]

From a cassette on St. James to a factory of hits

A daughter and a wedding and an album in the mix

Ninety-four in Brooklyn and it's playing on the block

The boy from St. James and the whole world on the clock

[Outro]

Hit Factory

Ninety-four

06 · Hit Factory

1990s hip-hop soul, silky female R&B vocal, glossy Rhodes, slow swung drum break, → New York garage house at 124 bpm, soulful piano chords, organ bassline, female diva hook, a clear tenor male rapper with crisp fast diction on the verses, a warm female soul singer on the hooks, genre switch at the one-minute mark: slow first minute then a hard beat drop into tech house, rap verses riding a tech house groove, story-driven concept album, a Brooklyn life story told in the third person

🎶 The Sizzle: 1990s hip-hop soul, a silky R&B voice over a swung break, then New York garage house: soulful piano, organ bass, a diva hook carrying a promise to a daughter.

🎬 The Story: Signed to Uptown Records in March 1992, he lost his label home when Combs was fired in July 1993, a month before his daughter T'yanna was born on August 8, 1993; he promised her everything she wanted. He became the first artist signed to Combs's new label, Bad Boy Records. In June 1994 he met R&B singer Faith Evans at a photoshoot and married her on August 4, 1994. His debut, Ready to Die, recorded at the Hit Factory, was released on September 13, 1994, and reached No. 15 on the Billboard 200 with 57,000 copies in its first week; he said he felt 'broke and depressed' while making it.

Two Coasts covervideo in production

[Male Vocal]

[Intro]

[Spoken Word]

Ninety-five

Everybody wants a piece of Brooklyn

And everybody's talking

[Verse 1]

[Female Vocal]

August ninety-five, four awards in one night

By the end of the year the top seller in sight

October and he says the money hasn't come

Two million sold and nothing for the son

[Pre-Chorus]

East side, West side

Who tells it right

[Drop]

East and West, two friends

A rumor in between

East and West, two friends

Everybody picked a side

[Verse 2]

[Male Vocal]

[Rap]

Friends out in L.A., they would travel side by side

Then November ninety-four, a robbery, five bullets, he survives

April ninety-five, he's speaking from a cell

Says Big knew it was coming, and two label men as well

All three deny it, any part of it at all

Big says I had nothing to do with that, and he stands tall

The papers pick a coast and the rumor picks a fight

Two friends on two sides of the country and the night

[Drop 2]

East and West, two friends

A rumor in between

East and West, two friends

Everybody picked a side

[Bridge]

[Spoken Word]

September

Ninety-six

[Verse 3]

[Rap]

Las Vegas in September and the friend is shot and down

Six days later he is gone and the news goes round

His wife remembers Big called her crying that night

He spoke of his regret and the song lost its light

[Outro]

East and West

Two friends

07 · Two Coasts

1970s crime-film soundtrack, sweeping strings, wah-wah guitar, brass hits, → peak-time tech house at 127 bpm, driving bassline, big claps, tense risers, a clear tenor male rapper with crisp fast diction on the verses, a warm female soul singer on the hooks, genre switch at the one-minute mark: slow first minute then a hard beat drop into tech house, rap verses riding a tech house groove, story-driven concept album, a Brooklyn life story told in the third person

🎶 The Sizzle: A 1970s crime-film soundtrack, strings, wah guitar and brass, then peak-time tech house at 127: the hook sets two coasts and two friends side by side.

🎬 The Story: At The Source Awards in August 1995 he won Best New Artist, Lyricist of the Year and Live Performer of the Year, and his debut was named Album of the Year; by the end of the year he was the top-selling male solo artist and rapper on the U.S. pop and R&B charts, though in October he said he had not yet been paid for the album. He and Tupac Shakur had become friends in Los Angeles. In an April 1995 interview from prison, Shakur accused Andre Harrell, Combs and Wallace of prior knowledge of the November 30, 1994 robbery in which he was shot five times; they denied any involvement ('I had nothing to do with that'). Shakur was shot in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996 and died six days later; Faith Evans recalled that Wallace called her in tears that night, and he expressed regret over Shakur's death.

Peace of Mind covervideo in production

[Female Vocal]

[Intro]

Steel pan in the morning

A cane beside the door

Somebody's learning how to walk

A little slower than before

[Verse 1]

Ninety-six, the accident, his left leg broke

Months in a hospital, the wheelchair and the cane

He kept on working on the album from the bed

And the cane stays with him till the end

[Pre-Chorus]

Peace of mind

Peace of mind

[Drop]

Peace of mind, peace of mind

Family and friends

Peace of mind, peace of mind

That's what he said he wanted then

[Verse 2]

[Male Vocal]

[Rap]

October ninety-six, a son who wears his name

The cane in the studio, the music all the same

Eighteen months of sessions, New York, Trinidad, L.A.

Steel pan on the island and Brooklyn in the bass

Thirty pounds lighter, that's what his mother would say

January ninety-seven and the album's done, a March release day

He says what he wants now, plain as it can be

Peace of mind, his family and his friends, all three

[Drop 2]

Peace of mind, peace of mind

Family and friends

Peace of mind, peace of mind

That's what he said he wanted then

[Bridge]

[Female Vocal]

Steel pan

Slow down

[Verse 3]

[Male Vocal]

[Rap]

A daughter and a son and a cane against the wall

A second album waiting for the spring to make the call

February coming and the West is on the phone

Peace of mind on the way, and a long way from home

[Outro]

Peace of mind

Family and friends

08 · Peace of Mind

Trinidad steel pan and calypso guitar, soft hand percussion, → afro tech house at 125 bpm, steel pan riff, tribal percussion, deep warm bass, a clear tenor male rapper with crisp fast diction on the verses, a warm female soul singer on the hooks, genre switch at the one-minute mark: slow first minute then a hard beat drop into tech house, rap verses riding a tech house groove, story-driven concept album, a Brooklyn life story told in the third person

🎶 The Sizzle: Trinidad steel pan and calypso guitar, for the island where part of the second album was made, then afro tech house with a steel-pan riff and tribal percussion: the hook is the thing he said he wanted.

🎬 The Story: In 1996 an accident broke his left leg; he spent months in hospital, first in a wheelchair and then with a cane he used until his death, and kept working on the album. His son, Christopher 'C.J.' Wallace Jr., was born on October 29, 1996. Life After Death was made over eighteen months in New York City, Trinidad and Los Angeles and finished in January 1997; his mother said he lost about thirty pounds. He spoke of wanting to focus on his 'peace of mind' and his family and friends.

Wilshire and Fairfax covervideo in production

[Female Vocal]

[Intro]

California in February

Palm trees and a borrowed sun

Two weeks before the awards

A video to be done

[Verse 1]

Saturday the eighth of March, a party at a museum

The room is overcrowded and the fire marshals end it

Twelve forty-five and the street is full of people

Fifty yards away the light is turning red

[Pre-Chorus]

The light is red

The light is red

[Drop]

Wilshire and Fairfax

The light is red

One fifteen in the morning

Twenty-four years old

[Verse 2]

[Male Vocal]

[Rap]

Twelve forty-five and the party's letting out

Fifty yards from the door and the light is red, no doubt

Somebody fires from the dark and the night comes apart

They rush him to Cedars-Sinai and the doctors do their part

One fifteen in the morning and they say that he is gone

Twenty-four years old and Brooklyn's waiting on the phone

No one ever charged, the case is open to this day

Officially unsolved, that's what the files say

[Drop 2]

Wilshire and Fairfax

The light is red

One fifteen in the morning

Twenty-four years old

[Bridge]

[Break]

[Female Vocal]

Brooklyn, are you sleeping

Brooklyn, wake up

[Verse 3]

[Male Vocal]

[Rap]

He came to California for a single and a song

He leaves it in the morning and the morning feels wrong

The light turns green on Wilshire and the boulevard is still

Three thousand miles away the news comes to Clinton Hill

[Outro]

The light is red

Twenty-four

09 · Wilshire and Fairfax

sparse late-night strings, a lone soul organ, a slow heartbeat kick, → stripped hypnotic tech house at 124 bpm, deep sub bass, a long breakdown where everything falls away, a soul vocal that returns, a clear tenor male rapper with crisp fast diction on the verses, a warm female soul singer on the hooks, genre switch at the one-minute mark: slow first minute then a hard beat drop into tech house, rap verses riding a tech house groove, story-driven concept album, a Brooklyn life story told in the third person

🎶 The Sizzle: Sparse late-night strings and a lone organ over a heartbeat, then a stripped, hypnotic tech house groove with a long breakdown where everything falls away and the voice comes back.

🎬 The Story: He went to California in February 1997 to promote Life After Death and film a video. On March 8, after the Soul Train Music Awards, he attended a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum that was closed early for overcrowding. At about 12:45 a.m. on March 9 his group stopped at a red light at Wilshire Boulevard and South Fairfax Avenue, fifty yards away, and he was shot. He was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and pronounced dead at 1:15 a.m. He was twenty-four. No one was ever formally charged; the case remains officially unsolved.

Fulton and St. James covervideo in production

[Female Vocal]

[Intro]

Bring him home, bring him home

Through Clinton Hill, bring him home

Every stoop and every window

Bring him home

[Verse 1]

March eighteenth, a chapel in Manhattan

Then across the river to the streets that he knew

Clinton Hill comes out to see him pass one last time

Thousands on the sidewalks and the whole block too

[Pre-Chorus]

One last time

One last time

[Drop]

Fulton and St. James

His name up on the sign

Fulton and St. James

Twenty-two years, she never let it die

[Verse 2]

[Male Vocal]

[Rap]

Sixteen days later and the second album lands

Number one in the country with the borough in its hands

Twenty-nineteen, June, a Monday in the pouring rain

His mother at the corner when they put up his name

Twenty-twenty and the Hall of Fame calls him in

His son turns his music into house and the circle spins

Twenty twenty-five, in February, she is gone

She fought for him for years and her love carries on

[Drop 2]

Fulton and St. James

His name up on the sign

Fulton and St. James

Twenty-two years, she never let it die

[Bridge]

[Female Vocal]

Books instead of guns

Books instead of guns

[Verse 3]

[Male Vocal]

[Rap]

From Cumberland in May to a corner in the rain

Hush now, Brooklyn baby, St. James knows your name

Two jobs, one boy, and a city on its feet

Fulton and St. James and the boy's name on the street

[Outro]

Bring him home

St. James, the boy is home

10 · Fulton and St. James

a Black church gospel choir and nyabinghi hand drums, Hammond organ, brass, → soulful deep house at 122 bpm, rolling dub bassline, gospel piano chords, crowd chant hook, a clear tenor male rapper with crisp fast diction on the verses, a warm female soul singer on the hooks, genre switch at the one-minute mark: slow first minute then a hard beat drop into tech house, rap verses riding a tech house groove, story-driven concept album, a Brooklyn life story told in the third person

🎶 The Sizzle: A gospel choir with nyabinghi drums, Jamaica and Brooklyn church together, then soulful deep house that brings back the dub bassline of the first song: the album ends where it began, on St. James Place.

🎬 The Story: His funeral was held in Manhattan on March 18, 1997; the procession was driven through his old Clinton Hill neighborhood one last time, and thousands lined the streets. Life After Death was released sixteen days after his death and debuted at No. 1. In June 2019, in a downpour, the corner of Fulton Street and St. James Place was renamed in his honor; his mother, Voletta Wallace, said she had fought for it for 22 years. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020; that August his son released a house remix of one of his songs. His mother died on February 21, 2025. His memorial foundation's yearly event reads B.I.G. as 'Books Instead of Guns'.