The Notorious B.I.G.

He was better known as Biggie Smalls, the name he used until he signed his record deal and learned that another rapper was using the Biggie moniker.

He really was big - about 6' 3" and 300 pounds - and had the booming voice to match. His style was slow and controlled, annunciating the lyrics so they were easy to understand. He prided himself on his writing, leaving improvisational freestyling to other rappers.

The Notorious B.I.G. was a flagship artist on Bad Boy Records, the label set up by Sean "Puffy Daddy" Combs in 1993. Puffy was working at Uptown Records when he found out about Biggie thanks to the March 1992 issue of Source magazine, which got a hold of his demo tape and mentioned him in their Unsigned Hype column.