Tupac and Biggie facts...
Tupac's given name was Lesane Crooks. He was the son of Afeni Shakur (government name Alice Fay Walker) who was one of the defendants at the Panther 21 trial.
Tupac studied drama at Baltimore's School For The Arts, where he rapped under the name MC New York.
At the Baltimore School of the arts, Tupac met Jada Pinkett, who would become a close friend of his
Tupac was planned to act in the movies Cool Runnings, Higher Learning, Menace II Society and How To Be A Player.
As a young man, Tupac also studied ballet and dance.
Tupac Amaru Shakur was named after an Inca Indian chief, "Tupac Amaru" means "Shining serpent" and "Shakur" means "thankful to god" in Arabic.
When Tupac was 12 years old, his mother enrolled him in Harlems 127thSt Ensemble. He played Travis in "A Raisin in The Sun" in his first acting role.
While he was with Digital Underground, someone once shoved a 12 gauge shotgun in Tupac's face because of a dispute over a woman at a Martin Luther King Jr festival.
Tupac said the individual letters in his THUG LIFE tattoo stood for "The Hate U Give Little Infants F-ck Everybody"
Tupac said that because of his moms ties with the Black Panthers, the FBI was always after him and his family.
Tupac wrote his hit song "Dear Mama" while in prison.
Tupac's first appearance ever was on Digital Underground's Same Song where he raps wearing West African war clothes in the video.
Kidada Jones, daughter of Quincy Jones and fianc? of Tupac, has a tattoo of Tupac on her arm.
Tupac was a big fan of Jim Carrey
Porn Star Spontaneous XXXStacy has a tattoo on her arm with Tupacs name and the title of the song "Keep Ya Head Up."
Naughty by Nature, also known as Treach, has a tattoo of Tupac on his left arm.
Tupac has a huge cross on his back that says Exodus 18:11 a reference to where the bible says "Now I know That the Lord is Greater Than All Gods because he delivered the people from the hands of the Egyptians when they dealt with them arrogantly."
Tupac started his career on Tommy Boy Records with Digital Underground.
Tupac was first inspired to rap when a friend of his was killed while he was playing with a gun. His first rap was about gun control.
When he first moved to California, Tupac was homeless for 2 years.
In the movie Juice, Tupac plays Bishop and said the now famous line "Yeah I'm crazy, but you know what? I don't give a f-ck."
Tupac wanted to name his first child Star if it was a daughter Michaelangelo if it was a boy.
B.I.G. FACTS
> Why did Biggie referred to himself as "Frank White"?
Well here is the low down grass hopers. There is a movie entitled
"King Of New York" starring Christopher Walken who plays
the role of "Frank White," a drug lord who's just been released
from a long stint in prison. Frank has become determined to give
something back to the city, and he hatches a scheme to build a
multimillion-dollar public hospital in one of Brooklyn's worst ghetto
neighborhoods. Needing the assistance of his fellow criminals to
pull it off, Frank encounters a wall of resistance from every faction.
Frank's do-gooder efforts ultimately result in a Mob war and in a
bloody showdown between the city's various ethnic criminal actions.
This is where B.I.G. obtained the alias "Frank White" and referred to
him as the "Black Frank White".
> Notorious B.I.G. had the ability to write songs in his head and then
freestyle them to make tracks right on the spot. Biggie used this ability especially on his first debut album "Ready to Die. > It's a strong fact that Biggie died
with five songs in his head which
time never gave him the opportunity
to drop them for the world to hear.
> Did you know that '95 Biggie debuted
at number five in the pop singles chart
with the single "One More Chance",
tying Michael Jackson's "Scream"
as the highest-debuting single of all
time? (The previous record holders
at the time were "The Beatles" > Biggie was asked to work with king
of pop Michael Jackson on his album
"History - Past Present & Future Book 1"
on the infamous track "This Time Around".
Mike even cursed on the track!
> BiG was asked to appear in a movie with Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken and the concept of the movie was to play a role as a NYC drug lord. BIG never got the chance...
> B.I.G.'s first DJ was 50 Grand back from his old neighborhood in BK and his other Dj was Mr. Cee who was Ol' skool rapper Big Daddy Kane's Dj.
> Biggie was going to open a fast food chain called "Big Poppa's" which would serve soul food and would be open 24 hrs a day to serve the community in which he lived in.
> The Notorious B.I.G.'s album "Life After Death" is certified Diamond. Meaning it sold more than 10 million copies. First hardcore rap album to hit Diamond and first East Coast rapper to hit Diamond as well.
> Biggie was one of the first MC's ever to successfully bridge the gap between commercial and underground success.
> Here's a very rare fact most people might not know, Biggie, Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes attended the same high school in downtown Brooklyn.
> Did you know that in '94 when Biggie dropped his classic debut album "Ready To Die", he brought back the focus on New York and the east coast domination in the rap industry?
> B.I.G. made an appearance on the top
rated urban show "New York Undercover"
playing as himself on a talk show next to
rapper M.C. Lyte and Sticky Fingaz. > Biggie appeared in the top rated T.V.
show "Martin", playing as himself as an
old friend of Martins looking for a backup
singer for his tour.
> Notorious B.I.G. first signed to Uptown Records which was his first recording deal in 1993.
> Did you know that Biggie Smalls has his
own clothing line which he started in '96
called "Brooklyn Mint, Inc."? Biggie wanted
to start a clothing line that would cater to
"Big" men like himself, seeing as though it
was hard to find the quality of clothing he
admired in hissize and style. To this day,
the company is still up in B.I.G.'s memory.
For more information on Brooklyn Mint,
visit them online at: BrooklynMint.com > B.I.G. is an acronym that stands
for "Books Instead of Guns." The
acronym itself used to stand for
"Business Instead of Game" but
since his death, his foundation gave
it a new meaning which now helps
benefit the CWMF, Inc., a foundation
in memory of B.I.G. which helps
bring in books & computers for
impoverished schools NY & Atlanta.
> Did you know that Biggie had two children including one daughter and one son? The first child was a girl from his girlfriend Jan in his old neighborhood. The second child was a boy who was born thru B.I.G.'s wife & label mate Faith Evans.
> A lot of people don't know that Biggie Smalls was of Jamaican decent and was raised in a single parent home by his loving mother, Voletta Wallace.
> Biggie was an "A" student before his run-in's with the street. There's was also talk that Biggie himself wanted to become an inspiring dentist and graphic artist. Biggie had the grades to get there.
> Biggie first gained attention on the appearance to the remix of Mary J Blige's hit single "Real Love".
> Where did the alias "Biggie Smalls" come from?
1975 there's was a movie released entitled "Let's Do It Again" starring Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby who while their characters are trying to hypnotize a boxer named Bootney Farnsworth (played by Jimmy Walker) into thinking he's a champ by winning fights. This attracts the attention of a group of gangsters lead by Biggie Smalls (played by Calvin Lockhart) who wants a piece of the action. This is where the alias "Biggie Smalls" originated which B.I.G. made famous
* Later on in Biggie's neighborhood, his peers would give him this name seeing as though he was Bigger in "height" and "size" than most his constituents.
> Biggie was first known to the world of hip hop
when he appeared on the "Unsigned Hype"
section of The Source magazine. This
magazine is the largest hip hop distributed
magazine since the early 90's.
Later, QD.
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