Many consider the late Notorious B.I.G. the king of New York for his short yet ground-breaking run in the music industry. The Brooklyn rapper put a borough and a whole coast back on the map with his first album, Ready to Die, and his untimely death 16 days before the release of his sophomore effort, Life After Death, left a hole in the city that people can still feel.
Despite the universal acclaim, not everyone can give Biggie Smalls the title of king of New York, such as the founding member of the legendary Diggin’ in the Crates Crew Diamond D. During a recent conversation with B High, D explained why it’s unfair to other rappers from the Big Apple to call Biggie the king of New York.
“It’s hard to say only for the fact that Big gave us like two albums, some might say one and a half, you know, so how can someone be the best ever after only one and a half albums,” he said. “That’s not fair to a lot of artists. Big was a shooting star, he touched a lot of people, and a lot of people loved him…but the best ever, that’s debatable for me.”
Diamond D went on to explain he goes by era to determine who’s the best in NYC and in the rap game as a whole. At the time, Biggie was in competition with several legendary New York rappers such as Nas, AZ, Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep and more.
“You gotta go by era,” he added. “There are things JAY-Z stands for, and there are some things Melly Mel stands for, who was one of his influences, but someone 22 may be like, ‘Melly who?’ That’s why I say you have to go by eras.”
Wherever anyone places him, Biggie Smalls’s name will always be in the conversation, and it looks like his legacy is crossing over into the metaverse as well. In May, the late rapper’s mother, Voletta Wallace, announced her son would be entering the Web3 community on Instagram.
Voletta Wallace Introduces Notorious B.I.G. To The Metaverse
“I’m humbled and very excited to share what we’ve been working on for 2 years, which is now ready for Biggie fans new and old to enjoy. Today we bring my son Christopher’s Hyperrealistic avatar in The Brook metaverse to the world.. I believe you will love it as much as I do..,” she wrote.
ITS TOUGH TO FIND A WACK BIGGIE SONG OR EVEN A WACK VERSE. HIS FREESTYLES AND B-SIDES ARE ALSO UNTOUCHABLE.
“you look so good, I’d suck on your daddy’s d…” – Big. Also one of the worst lines in HH history. Love BIG but Jay and Nas lapped him – who knows what would have happened if he was alive. Pac is a whole nother beast that will never be touched in what he did while he was alive. But although Pac hailed from the East, we will always associate him as the Cali goat.
There can NEVER be any article about BIG without someone mentioning Pac. We’re not talking about fucking Tupac here so stfu
Fuck Diddy. He killed both Biggie and Pac.
Different eras. NY has had many kings. Biggie, Jay Z, 50 Cent, 6ix9ine have all held the title.
No, SnitchNine is the Rat King. There’s a difference.
Facts everybody Repping Ny like please born and raised shit is in you blood where ever you go… When you talk people here that Ny shit.. Please people sit down and contemplate what king means!!!!
Nas is the current King of NY. No question.Biggie was the King of NY during his era but that has passed.
teriyaki “gave” himself the title, didnt even come close to earning it. I never heard any one over the age of 12 actually call him that. More like the court jester.
Actually 50 cent claimed he was the King of NY right before the start of the Snitch-9 era started.
Right now rats are the kings of NYC. Those mfs are huge and tearing up the city. They look like full size small dogs.
As someone who grew up in that era and still knows that biggie is the best please name one rapper from that era that called themselves Frank White
Big L and Big Pun were better.
i get his point.. but “one and a half” albums? if anything, Life After Death is a full on double LP, so that should count as two, not a half. so thats 3 albums worth of material. unless he’s implying Life After Death aint all that great
He’s talking about Life After Death was released when he had passed away
that dont make sense. LAD was already completed before he was killed, and came out later that same month. So how is it a “half” an album? You can call Born Again a half an album, since it was pieced together with leftovers and unreleased vocals/songs.. but not LAD. My only guess here is that Diamond D maybe forgot about Life After Death, and is referring to Born Again as the “half” album in question.
Big was real nice, but all day long Nas was probably NYC King of that era. Not sure where he go 1.5 albums from, really Big had 3 bangers. All time King of NYC I gotta say Rakim Allah!
LIFE AFTER DEATH WAS DROPPING REGARDLESS. HE WAS MURDERED LITERALLY WEEKS BEFORE IT DROPPED. CD’S AND CASSETTES WERE PROB ALREADY SHIPPED BY THAT TIME. DIAMOND D BUGGIN.
MY BAD ZUBU THAT WASNT FOR YOU
well queen beyonce…
I disagree with you you are you to speak for them they respect The Notorious Big. You have no right to say that it was the people’s choice anyways. Don’t disrespect him no more rest peaceful B.IG.
It was an opinion. Who are you to tell someone they can’t have an opinion.
I will be real open with this.. I know Jay Z has many years in the rap game. However how do you rep a borough you came out of and has done doodle for.. That’s where I am with all this everybody wanna rep NYC however very few gives back. Like all this talk about how hard it was for them growing up and seeing there mother struggling and blah blah blah.. Then how do you give back to the projects for the next generation.. Maybe a boys and girls club a library a after school place young kids can go to instead of running the streets getting into trouble. If there were more big brother’s and big sister’s that can come and give back then Yes you should and yes they deserve to have a key or a name in The big apple. If you ask me I wish pop smoke was still around because he was killing the game … Money changes people. I understand when you rich lots of the things you normally did and the way you use to live changes.. However never forget where you came from Especially when you repping your home town!!!!
That’s just your opinion, you have to walk in those shoes before you say what you will or won’t do for your old hood
King of New York is a damn movie! Frank White is the main character! The King of New York moniker had nothing to do with fuk’n rap!!!
BIGs presence and flow on that mic will always outshine anything Jay z ever could have hoped to do. Jay openly said he dumbed his shit down to double his dollars so he an overrated mediocre artist. DMX made Jay look like an opener.
Big has been a staple on the radio nonstop ever since he came out, he died and since there hasn’t been a single day on the radio that doesn’t play biggie songs, that’s almost 30 yrs later, quite the feat for anyone to stay relevant that long off their old shit. And biggie had more like 3.5 legit albums cause that junior mafia album was mostly written by biggie and plus he was on about half the album, why not add that correction on the article after quoting
You’re reaching, no debating it either… We’re talking solo albums, two albums at most, not 3.5. That Junior Mafia joint is a group project, that don’t count.
As far as musical feats of his songs being played for 30 years… That’s a given from anyone back in the day from Jay, Nas, Dmx, Pun, Ll Cool J, Wu Tang, and so forth… All those guys accomplished what Big did. You’re overcompensating trying to give way to much credit to Biggie. Truth be told, Diamond D pointed out the obvious, so much so that it’s hard for Biggie fans to swallow.
Teachers teach, and do the world good. Kings just rule, and most are never understood. -KRS One
There is not a person on earth who does live hip hop, better than Chris Parker. Dead or alive. It’s not even close.
Kane ran circles around him a couple of months ago
I agree wit diamond d. Big was def ill as fuck. That is clearly not debatable. But duke got like 40 songs thru his 2 albums “1 double disc notwithstanding” king of N.Y like forever? I cant go there. Others have to he there as well. Nas, Jay, Prodigy & Ghostface killah have to be considered just on they catalogs alone. Personally though as much as i love Biggie and i do without a doubt. But to me, lyrically bar for bar Big Pun is as dope or Better and its a better comparison for me as they both only did 2 albums and had very short albeit brilliant careers. Damn half my lineup deceased too. Big, Pun and Prodigy all R.I.P
Big L belongs alongside Biggie and Big Pun as well IMO. All three had short careers, but had the potential to be ranked among the greatest.
Bro…he called himself Frank White AKA The King of New York from the movie smh. It wasn’t until he passed that it became some imaginary title for hiphop supremacy in the city. Has Jay or Nas ever referred to themselves as King of NY directly anyway, cuz I don’t remember it…
Yes
Rakim changed the rap game,then Big,then Hot boys,then Drake. Everyone else were fillers but dope nonetheless
Lmfao!! Gtfoh… Hot Boys, Biggie, and Drake? Yeah ok, you’re trolling right? Only name you got right was Rakim.
Well I thought jay-z was from East Trenton, NJ. So why? Then during his career he branched off and went to NY.
Lololololol
I dislike how big pun is never brought up as one of the best. Biggie gets the title often because he had pop radio appeal. Same with Jay. Nas just gets it for his lyricism and OG hiphop style. But I think Pun, based off his two albums, easily had more raw talent than any of them.
Big Pun was for sure a more talented rapper than Biggie. Better yet, Pun was more skilled with the pen than a good 98% of all rappers that has or ever will exist. Any one that actually knows rap knows this. Pun was a godly rhymer with fast paced sub machine like spitting. His lyricism, delivery and flow were always the strongest facets of his game. From a skill perspective Pun was always more technically advanced than Biggie but he still lacked mass appeal, hit-making ability and quotable lyrics outside of the dead in the middle of little Italy. line. His first alone verse in Beware is full of them (that Freddy Kruger reference was amazing) but most people don’t know about it cause he’s still underrated asf.
I mean, I’d personally give the overall crown to MC New York… only true hiphop heads would even know who I’m referring to. Born n raised in NY, moved west and ripped the west.
When he was “MC New York” no one knew who he was. When he moved to the West, he became one of the biggest rappers. So no. He can be King of the West though.
If I had to say a King of New York or Kings of New York, Biggie ran it from ‘94-‘97, Nas ran it too (‘94-until now), Jay-Z ran it too (‘96-until now), DMX ran it too (‘98-‘00), Big Pun was dope but I only see him running 1999, Cam’ron ran it too (2002-06), AZ (‘95-‘98), Fabolous (2001-2009), Big L was dope but he didn’t run nothing but 1998 or maybe 1998 and ‘99, Prodigy (‘95-‘06), and Rakim (1987-92)
I agree with his statements… And there is no way he is in front of Nas or Jay. Dudes has a lot of body of work whether you like all their albums or not. At the end, Nas and Jay stayed alive and won the war! I crown them both!!!
New York Mount Rushmore is Nas, Jay, Prodigy, & Fab. They all had albums that impacted the culture. They probably had more albums to release and the most guest appearances on other people records. Last, you can talk about Mobb Deep or Fabolous in a conversation and people instantly know who you talking about. Pun was dope but the new generation don’t know about him.
What album did Fabolous have that impacted the culture? Lol.
Loso’s Way and many more!
Loso’s Way
Loso’s Way and Real Talk
Replying three times isn’t gonna change the fact that Fab’s albums have been known to be inconsistent. None of his albums are certified classics and they damn sure haven’t impacted the hip hop culture in any way. Don’t mix listing your favorite albums with albums being impactful. You tried writing off Pun in your original comment but Capital Punishment has way more impact than anything in Fab’s catalog.
1st off Jay Z style was garbage compared to biggie’s 2nd off let a Dead Horse sleep in peace you bunch of candy eyesses this is what is wrong with our culture if you want to be better then do better
Its fair long as we get da order ryt. Big first, then Jay and now King Tekashi.
Can someone pls explain how this guy arrives at the conclusion Biggie gave us 1.5 albums? Going off of what Big released with the double cd, you can argue thats 3 albums……Anyway, I came here to mention that Biggie is responsible for Lil Kim’s debut album, along with Junior Mafias album. He wrote both of them. So, my math adds up to FIVE albums Big could be credited for.
R. I. P. to the King of NY, BIG
You’re clearly trying to compensate for your favorite rappers short career span. If we’re talking solo albums, then Big only had two at best. The double album is still considered one. Junior Mafia was a group project and Lil Kim’s album was a Lil Kim album, NOT a BIG album. Your math is all wrong. His reign on the top was short like leprechauns.
No. A double disk album is not “two albums”. Tupacs All Eyez On Me is ONE album. It’s just a long album. Lil Kim’s albums don’t count as biggie albums. That’s like saying Dr Dre albums count as other peoples because they wrote his lyrics for him. Your mistaking biggie working with other artists to help make them big with literal biggie albums. I’m a firm believer that I’d Biggie survived, he would’ve gone completely pop and been hated on similar to P Diddy is today.
Biggie wrote the whole junior mafia album. 75% of Kim’s album was written by big also. How y’all say that’s not a biggie album? It was written by him, the man made them who they are and since his passing those artist was nothing. The Puff daddy and the family album was also a biggie album. He wrote half of it, the songs he did on that album made it a album. Biggie is also the executive producer of the album and not to mention… That album was cut with life after death while they was in the Bahamas. What did diddy do after that album? Nothing! He bombed!
Diamond D was around back then released classic records as good as anybody else at the time. Biggie was a great Mc. But the whole king of NY thing was just to hype up the gangsta aspect. Everything is hustling backwards in rap. They love big because they can use him to drag bright kids into gang and drug situations
“You know my ni99az gotta to fvcking kidnap kids, fvck them in the a$$, throw them over the bridge”
Is this y’allz King?
Y’all pathetic!
Boooooo!
I like Diamond D’s idea. It isn’t fair to current artists. Such lists extend through a spectrum of industries. You can’t vote what’s the best video game console of all time for example. One has to subject it to the era it was part of. I believe this reasoning would better formulate and not be biased against say those that are current, vs the past.
Yes it might be not fair for rappers who made it after the age of 25 to 30 years with many albums and felled to shine in times of Big & 2pac . In my own opinion Big he deserves to be a King of New York, he shook the game just with singles and an album which has taken other rappers to be compared to what he did to have done many albums or songs. Just imagine that Big & 2pac if would have lived long as other rappers who are now in late 40s some in early 50s now how the Hip hop game would have been ……
shut up with the clown sht fucking idiot. you don’t know a fucking thing either way bitch
He deserves the King of New York title because of his short career span with only two albums? You guys keep trying to make it seem like he left this mythical presence of music when in reality all he did was make two albums of the same content and everyone felt bad for him because he died. If that’s the case we should really put Big l and Big Pun ahead of him since they also had two albums too.