Unbelievable : The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G.

Rating:
Summary: A Fascintating Read
Review: A must read for anyone interested in the history of hip hop. Before I read it, I had only heard of the Notorious B.I.G. Now I feel as though I know him - personally.

During the 90's, when gansta rap and the East coast vs. West coast fight broke out, I was too busy working on my Bachelor's and Master's degrees to pay much attention to anything else.
I had also heard of Suge Knight and Sean Combs, but only from newspaper reports. Reading this book really filled in a lot of the details for me. Suge Knight is portrayed in a postive light as really caring for his artists and seeing to it that they were treated right. He became violent only when he thought that those artists were being taken advantage of, and that they (as well as he) were losing part of the money they were entitled to. I had always wondered what had prompted this violent streak of his. I remember the newspapers would only report the latest incidents, never try to explain them. The book also explains what it is, in fact, that Sean Combs does. I had always wondered: Is he a rapper? A producer? An executive? And, how did he amass so much money? Combs had always been a mystery to me. To some extent, he still is, but the book goes a long way toward solving this riddle too.

This book explores many interesting puzzles like these and shows how intricate relationships within the hip hop community had become, even by the 90's. Biggie Smalls is portrayed as a flawed yet sympathetic character. At first, he's a child attending Catholic school in uniform, who feels different from all the others hanging out on the corner. His mother is a teacher, he's fatherless, and while not rich, he's by no means poor. His mother gets all the latest gear for him so he doesn't go out and get in trouble. As he grows older, however, the lure of quick profits grows stronger, so that by the time he's 16, he's dropped out of school and become a full-time crack dealer. The book wants us to believe this is so he can buy even more of the latest gear, and that he's never statisfied with what he's got. I'm not sure that that's the whole story, but surely his life was never as bleak as what he depicted later in some of his songs. One gets the feeling that somewhere along the line, something just isn't right - either with the world, or with Biggie. Then, once Biggie becomes a rap star, he says in the book that he never expected to, that rapping was just a hobby and that the profession he had actually chosen was that of the crack dealer. So, we're expected to believe that this rap star thing just happened as a fluke, and came just as much as a surprise to him as to the rest of the world. Maybe all this is so, but if it isn't, the book makes no alternative explanations, nor even attempts to. All we're left with, instead, is an incomplete portrayal of the man who would later become known as the Notorious BIG. All in all, despite the inadequacies in the portrayal, one is still able to admire and respect the genius and charisma of this man. This is both a tribute to the man and to the author. It makes us aware that even legends have character pitfalls, yet we're still able to remember and love them for who they were.

Rating:
Summary: very compelling Book
Review: Biggie was something else as a Artist&as a Brother trying to make His Mark in the World.he got caught up in alot of unwanted tension&whatnot.this Book does a Great job at breaking Down his Music&Creativity,His Inner circle&everything else that made Him click.vry Compelling Book that covers Him really well from start to finish.

Rating:
Summary: And Unbelievable Is What He Is!!!
Review: I am so glad that I read this book. This book glorified Biggie as a everyday fella not a superstar. How good of a person he was and what he did for others including the ones that hated on him, which were many.

This book gave a first account on how he went for "ashy to classy" and how hard he tried to keep it once he found out that he really had talent for music rather than talent for selling crack.

What I didn't know, but really didn't surprise me was how much of a playa Biggie was. He had his wife Faith, Lil' Kim and Charlie Baltimore and I am going to say that it was more than that. It bugged me out him and Faith never even spoke to each other when the saw each other on the night he died. I guess it is true that you never know that last time you may see someone for good.

I love the loyalty of his true friends from St. James, mainly Lil' Cease. This book also showed you how grimey Lil' Kim really is. What devastated me that most was how his relationship between him and Tupac just crumbled over bullsh--, straight bullsh--. If you ask me my opinion and this is just my opinion, I think Tupac what just in the wrong place at the wrong place, just like the rest of his situations. Now, don't get me wrong that's my boy too, he just makes bad judgements, just like Biggie staying out in Cali, like everything was cool.

Overall, this book was the best biography I ever read. It was straight up real, it made you feel as if Biggie was telling you the story of his life himself.

Later!!!

Rating:
Summary: BIGGIE SMALLS IS THE ILLEST !
Review: The greatest rapper of all time is one "Frank White".
Cheo Hadari Coker broke down The Life, Death and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G as we (the fans) wanted it. The book illustrates Biggie's life in greater detail than what other writers (who didn't even personally know him or even listened to rap) have written.
When Christopher Wallace stepped into the rap game,he saved the East Coast. He put balling to another level and he made dirty thugs wanna look classy and yet he maintained his street cred and represented Brooklyn to the fullest.
This is the book that will hopefully convert the Biggie haters - you know, the staunch Tupac supporters who think fake ass Tupac was the better rapper. Hopefully it will answer the questions that need to be answered about Who Biggie is, what made him and what kind of a person he was to his friends, family and his neighborhood.
Plenty respect goes to the author for this magnificent story - The Story of The Greatest Rapper.

Rating:
Summary: BIGGIE SMALLS IS THE ILLEST !
Review: The greatest rapper of all time is one "Frank White".
Cheo Hadari Coker broke down The Life, Death and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G as we (the fans) wanted it. The book illustrates Biggie's life in greater detail than what other writers (who didn't even personally know him or even listened to rap) have written.
When Christopher Wallace stepped into the rap game,he saved the East Coast. He put balling to another level and he made dirty thugs wanna look classy and yet he maintained his street cred and represented Brooklyn to the fullest.
This is the book that will hopefully convert the Biggie haters - you know, the staunch Tupac supporters who think fake ass Tupac was the better rapper. Hopefully it will answer the questions that need to be answered about Who Biggie is, what made him and what kind of a person he was to his friends, family and his neighborhood.
Plenty respect goes to the author for this magnificent story - The Story of The Greatest Rapper.

Rating:
Summary: CHRISTOPHER WALLACE A.K.A. THE REALEST
Review: This book is Big as biggie smallz, i always respected Biggie smallz and i always wanted to know who really was Christopher wallace and when you read it you just fell pain for his mother, cause christopher was the son every mother want to have, this nigga could have done everything to see the people around him happy, when you read this you see how Biggie would never done nothing whrong to 2pac ,every hip hop fan have to buy this cause we all know many things about 2pac life but finally we don't know nothing about Biggie smalls , before reading this i was taking Big as the best flow hip hop will never had, after reading this book i thing that this fella was the realest hip hop will never have , i want to tell all the 2pac fan who take Biggie as the so called greatest to never forgot that 2pac has 6 lps before his death and Biggie got 2 only, this nigga was at the begining of his career and he was on his way to be the mike anyone jordan , jackson of hip hop!at the reading of this book you see that the 2 dearly legend of hip hop was two friend with nothing in common but with everything complementary, so enjoy cause this may not be the best biography i've read it's arleady one of the best ... it's 25 years full of love, pain, drugs,sex, guns , talent,women and many more!