Hip Hop History

Biography & Profile

On March 9, 1997, Christopher Wallace, known as The Notorious B.I.G. and Biggie Smalls, died from gunshot wounds after a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. In the immediate after...

music genres

Hip hop music emerged in the early 1970s within Black and Latino neighborhoods in New York City, notably the Bronx. It grew from block party culture where DJs isolated breaks fo...

relationship

Tupac Shakur and Jada Pinkett Smith are often mentioned together because they shared formative years in Baltimore and moved in overlapping music and film circles. Jada Pinkett S...

hip-hop-culture

The relationship between Tupac Shakur and Sean Combs, widely known as Diddy, represents one of the most consequential and closely watched dynamics in hip-hop history. Both artis...

Celebrity Profiles

The death of Biggie Smalls, widely known as The Notorious B.I.G., occurred on March 9, 1997, in Los Angeles, California, following a drive-by shooting after a post‑Academy Awa...

relationship

Sean Combs and The Notorious B.I.G. represent one of the most consequential partnerships in hip-hop history. This explainer describes how their relationship functioned, the cont...

people-culture

On September 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur was shot in a Las Vegas drive-by following a Mike Tyson fight. He died six days later on September 13, 1996, at age 25. No one has been defini...

music

Mike D, born Michael Louis Diamond, is a co-founder and frontman of the Beastie Boys, one of the most influential hip-hop groups in history. This profile focuses on his role in...

hip-hop-industry

50 Cent beefs list reflects long-running tensions in hip-hop more more than a catalog of public fallings-out. This evergreen explainer focuses on verifiable conflicts involving...

music-artists

Flavor Flav, widely known as Flava Flav, emerged as a defining voice in hip hop through his work with Public Enemy, where his rapid-fire, stream-of-consciousness rapping and pla...