Last year the short-lived Tupac Shakur musical, Holler If You Hear Me, graced the Broadway stage. It took years for them to develop that show and now it seems it might take years to get a musical about Notorious B.I.G., AKA Biggie Smalls, AKA Biggie, AKA Big Poppa, AKA Christopher Wallace. However, Biggie deserves it. His mass appeal and musical genius still knocks and rocks heads around the world. Also, it gives us more hope to have a hip hop musical hit.
Today, March 9th marks the anniversary of the rapper’s death and everyone is choosing to celebrate his influence on their lives a little bit differently. Here at Broadway Black, we will be honoring him by putting out into the universe that we want a Biggie musical. If you really think about it, it could be just as big as a Lin-Manuel production. Biggie had a way with words and rhymes but it was most often the beats that accompanied his bars that got us hype and that is the beginning of a good musical.
Wallace was raised in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. When he released his debut album Ready to Die in 1994, he became a central figure in the East Coast hip hop scene and increased New York’s visibility in the genre at a time whenWest Coast hip hop was dominant in the mainstream. The following year, Wallace led his childhood friends to chart success through his protégé group, Junior M.A.F.I.A. While recording his second album, Wallace was heavily involved in the growing East Coast/West Coast hip hop feud.
On March 9, 1997, Wallace was killed by an unknown assailant in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. His double-disc set Life After Death, released 16 days later, rose to No. 1 on the U.S. album charts and was certified Diamond in 2000, one of the few hip hop albums to receive this certification. Wallace was noted for his “loose, easy flow”, dark semi-autobiographical lyrics and storytelling abilities. Two more albums have been released since his death. He has certified sales of 17 million units in the United States.
We could see this musical planned out many different ways. In the same way, Holler wasn’t about Tupac, Life After Death: The Biggie Musical could be a story that just uses Biggie’s music to propel it. It even could be a jukebox musical and we know the whole crowd would be on their feet with all the words on the tip of their tongues.
Ok. Getting really excited writing this.
But anyway…
What do you think? What songs would you want to see? What would you want the story to be? Tell us your version of Life After Death: The Biggie Musical!! R.I.P
***There is NO official word or even speculation about this show. Until now. You read it here first***