Throughout the last decade, Christopher Wallace has come up in plenty of discussions on AllHipHop.com. Here’s some of the best, most memorable quotes on the late, great veteran, from people who knew him, and a few who didn’t.
On Biggie’s character and legacy:
“Well as far as my son is concerned, I taught my son to love, to care, respect, to put his heart into whatever he did and do it with great honesty. And as a mother, that’s how I feel. I don’t know if it’s a contribution to him, or if it’s a contribution to me, but every word from that pen that my son put down, I am proud of his work. I don’t care if he defamed women, defamed an idea or a culture, you know, the fact that half a million people bought his album made me proud. That makes me very, very proud.” – Violetta Wallace
On Biggie inspiring a legend to do another album:
“For a while, I saw what Biggie was doing and decided to do it again. I saw Biggie making it cool to spit that player s**t, making it cool to come on stage in gators [shoes] and s**t.” – Big Daddy Kane
On Biggie’s influence and work ethic:
“I learned a lot from him, in and outside of the studio. He taught me about style, how to be melodic and how to make records. He taught me that you don’t have to be saying the illest s**t, but know how to drop a good record.” – Lil’ Cease
On Biggie in the studio:
“Biggie, just like Jay-Z, didn’t really write down too much either. A lot of times, he went into the booth. You’ll see him sitting there for the last hour, 45 minutes, an hour and 10 minutes, just mumbling to himself, nodding his head. He ain’t writing nothing down. Then, he’d just jump up, “Aiight Mo, I’m ready.” He’d go in there and nail every verse down. As far as I’m concerned, that’s improvising. It’s recorded, but recorded in the minute.” – Easy Mo Bee
On Biggie with women:
“Biggie came out to the studio, and he had his own little chick in the bathroom with him. Next thing you know, he’s walking out the bathroom, and water is pouring out of the toilet. Condoms are overflowing. He f**ked both the toilet and the plumbing up while boning the chick. – R.A. The Rugged Man
On Biggie’s creativity on “Suicidal Thoughts”
“That was what Big was thinking about, man. When he heard the beat it just hit him like a light bulb. He just said, “I need this beat.” So I sent him the beat, and I played some other s**t for him. But he was just stuck on that. “I gotta have that.” I couldn’t see where he was gonna go with it. Never in a million years.” – Lord Finesse
On Biggie’s shift in production:
“You’re talking about a good friend, somebody who I really truly respected and who truly respected me. Biggie said to the world, “If you wanna f**k with me, you’ve gotta get past D-Dot, Stevie J and Nashiem first.” That’s why when you look at Life After Death, Clark Kent only had one. As much as B.I.G loved Clark, Clark only had one beat on there. Premo had two because B.I.G loved Premo. And we had the rest. Kaygee had one, RZA had one, Havoc had one. D-Dot, had four or five, Nasheem has four or five, Stevie J had four or five. B.I.G told the world, “I’ve got my squad. They’re custom for me.” That’s why to this day, we only put out one more album, because B.I.G didn’t have a lot of rhymes sittin’. ??B.I.G heard the beat, he wrote to the beat. It wasn’t like he would just write and write and write like Tupac, just having rhymes put to any beat. So when he died, it was like taking a sewing machine from a seamstress or a drill from a carpenter. It was one of my tools taken away, that I also used to express myself. It’s really hard to find artists out there that have that drive and that creativity that B.I.G had. God Bless the dead. I really miss him.” – D. Dot
On using Biggie’s association to advance:
“The funny thing about that is that I look at all of the people who were around Big when he was alive, and how they used it to advance themselves… it’s crazy. I believe my talent speaks for itself, so I don’t ever mention Big. And I always felt like with me knowing Big the way I do, it would be disrespectful to even mention his name. It’s fine to pay your respects, but I never felt like I had to say his name every time I rhyme. So yes, I wish that people would focus less on that and I think they’ve stopped. Now when I was on Untertainment, I felt associating me with B.I.G. would help my career. So in the beginning, it was hard not to be associated with Biggie, but I personally never wanted to do it that way.” – Charli Baltimore
On Biggie’s reign:
“Big ran New York.” – Cormega
On Biggie’s influence in the South:
“When Biggie came out, I felt that…you gonna feel that.” – Project Pat
If B.I.G. were alive:
“I mean if Big was here I think a lot of things probably wouldn’t have ended up going down the way they went down And if he was here, even if they – let’s say they would’ve gone down anyway, Big is a very inspirational person in my life. Big could say anything. But I know one thing Big would’ve rolled out with me to the end, whatever. I think by now Big is proud of me. I think he’s proud of me and in some senses or some way he may mad at me for being too be worried in certain situations or just being that nice or not being myself, not really saying what I really saying what I really want to say at certain moments. But that’s all kind of changed.” – Lil’ Kim