We'll always love B.I.G. Papa

Nine years ago today outside the Vibe Awards in Los Angeles, Christopher Wallace (aka the Notorious B.I.G) was gunned down, ending the promising and still budding career of yet another revered musician whose life ended before it really got a chance to get started. Still in his mid-20s, the chubby Brooklyn-born rapper had the rap industry in a chokehold, almost single-handedly reviving East Coast Rap and contributing to hip-hop's now international appeal.\nHis life was like lightening flashing across the dark sky: maddeningly short, but lighting up the music industry around him before his exit. He had everything going for him. He possessed an undeniable, uncompromising talent for storytelling, a technical ability to understand poetic meter and rhythm -- Wallace never wrote anything down, as he had the ability to construct complex verses in his head. Biggie's willingness to share his good, ambiguous and dark vices with the public.\nIn a music industry atmosphere where six packs, biceps, cleavage (male and female) and immaculate hair are all the rage, Wallace was able to do what most musicians can only dream of -- letting his music and his life do all the speaking for him. To be fair, he did not have too much of a choice as he had no gimmicks, limited dance moves and very few radio friendly songs or "nice things" to talk about.\nYet the 300 lb, 6 foot 2 inch musician with a lazy eye, a criminal background and a propensity for cursing was able to dominate a genre, gain worldwide popularity and, dare I say, become a sort of sex symbol. \nHe didn't want to preach, never looking to convert listeners into his musical cult. He had no idea how far his name would reach or how many lives he would touch, stating with shock in his song "Juicy" that "I never thought hip-hop would make it this far."\nHis confidence was unparalleled, his charisma drew everyone who would listen to him and his presence was larger than life. What made him so great was not his robust bravado, but his unbelievable propensity to be honest, to struggle and to be a man -- a fairly average one at that.\nMany do not understand his message and cannot see why it should be told at all. He often discussed murder and the rules of the drug game, as well as disrespected women. He was far from perfect and admitted it. \nHis popularity grew out of his ability to unapologetically tell his story and the story of many others who are overlooked in society. He rose his voice and the voices of others declaring that whether society liked it or not, he was a part of its world. For a minute in time he was able to talk, and the world stopped what it was doing to listen, hearing his tales of the highs and lows of life, crack, paranoia, women, success, failures, survival, the struggle to be a man and provide for his family -- trying to reconcile all of this with the rules and social norms of the world in which we live. There was no pie in his sky. His trip "from ashy to nasty to classy," as he put it, was one millions followed, fans and peers alike.\nI invite readers to examine Wallace's work as a whole rather than what they have heard on the radio or MTV and learn. Judging any musician's worth on a single is like judging Picasso on one painting, or Martin Luther King on his "I Have a Dream Speech." Biggie was not just a public figure, but also a complex individual who didn't have all the answers to life's questions but searched damn hard for them along life's path. It's true, Biggie's quest was brutally honest, filled with the highest of ups and the lowest of downs, contradictions, dark moral logic, wrong turns and ultimately death. But along the way he retained his right to live, to speak, to not have to have all the answers, to struggle, to succeed and to be listened too.\nWhat makes this rapper special is not just his godly musical and poetic ability, but capability to remain so deeply human.