Christopher George Latore Wallace^[6] was born at the Cumberland Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, on May 21, 1972.^[7] Wallace was the only child of Jamaican immigrant parents;^[8][9] his mother, Voletta Wallace, was a preschool teacher,^[10][11]while his father, Selwyn George Latore, was a welder and politician.^[12][13] At two months and five months old, Wallace started nursery school, and by the age of five, he was attending preschool at Quincy-Lexington Open Door Day Care Center, where he was already bigger than most of the other children.^[14] Three months before Wallace's third birthday, his father left the family, leaving his mother to raise him while working two jobs.^[15] Wallace grew up at 226 St. James Place in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill,^[16] near the border of Bedford-Stuyvesant.^[17] As a child, Wallace spent most of his time in Fulton Avenue, where he was introduced to drug dealing, alcholics, and gambling.^[18] Raised as a Jehovah's Witness,^[19] Wallace attended St. Peter Claver Church in Brooklyn, graduating from the college in 1982.^[20] He excelled in English at Queen of All Saints Middle School.^[21] He later transferred to Westinghouse High School, a public school that was also attended by several future celebrities, including Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes.^[22][23]

While attending Westinghouse High School, Wallace weighed 91 kilograms (201 lb),^[22] which earned him the nickname "Big".^[24] During this period, his interest in drug dealing intensified, being influenced by the crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s.^[25] A friend of his introduced him to buying and selling marijuana when he has around the age of twelve. Having grown up in a strict household, Wallace concealed the money he earned on the roof of his apartment.^[25][26] At the time, his mother had no idea about this; she only discovered it when he was twenty years old.^[26]Despite being an honor student, Wallace dropped out of school at the age of sixteen during his junior year due to his growing interest in drug dealing.^[27] In 1989, he was arrested in Brooklyn on weapons charges and sentenced to five years of probation. The following year, he was arrested for violating that probation.^[28][29] A year later, Wallace was arrested in North Carolina for dealing crack cocaine. He spent nine months in jail before making bail.^[26]

Growing up, Wallace listened to artists like Stevie Wonder(left) and Marvin Gaye (right).

In his early life, Wallace was influenced by black artists like the Dramatics, Blue Magic, Teddy Pendergrass, Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye. He was also well-acquainted with the vibrant performances of Parliament-Funkadelic, Earth, Wind & Fire, Kool & the Gang, and Chic. During visits to his parents' homeland of Jamaica, he was influenced by its prominent native genres, including jazz, reggae, soul, and mento.^[30] As Wallace entered adolescence, he started listening to artists like Run-DMC and LL Cool J.^[31] Wallace adopted with the stage name CWest and, along with two of his friends, Michael Bynum and Hubert Sams, he formed the Techniques. Wallace met Donald Harrison, a saxophonist from New Orleans. At Harrison's home studio, the Techniques worked on their first songs together.^[32] As the trio grew older, their interests shifted; Sams became focused on high school football, while Bynum lost interest in the music industry.^[33]Wallace adopted his second stage name, Biggie Smalls, from Calvin Lockhart's character in the 1975 film Let's Do It Again.^[34]

After his release from jail, with a disc jockeynamed 50 Grand, Wallace produced his first demo tape in 1991 called "Microphone Murderer".^[35][36]Although Wallace reportedly had little ambition for the tape, local disc jockey Mister Cee, known for his work with Big Daddy Kane and the Juice Crew, discovered and promoted it.^[37] Mister Cee sent the tape to Matteo Capoluongo, an editor at The Source magazine, who featured the track in the "Unsigned Hype" section in March 1992, a chart dedicated to showcasing promising rappers, including Wallace.^[38][39] That year, Wallace started gaining exposure; after reading the "Unsigned Hype" section, Sean "Puffy" Combsreached out to and arranged to meet him.^[40][41]Combs quickly connected Wallace to rhyme on the remix of Mary J. Blige's hit "Real Love".^[42]

In 1992, Wallace's girlfriend, Jan Jackson,^[43]became pregnant, and he was signed to Uptown Records in March by Combs.^[44][45] Wallace's first chance to record a solo track for Uptown Records, rather than featuring on another artist's remix, came in 1993 when Combs was creating a song for the soundtrack of the hip hop comedy Who's the Man?. The song was "Party and Bullshit", produced by the Brooklyn-based Easy Mo Bee.^[46] The song was heavily inspired by "Niggers Are Scared of Revolution" by the Last Poets, which uses sarcasm, frustration, and humor to critique young Black people's lack of seriousness in the struggle for equality. In the track, vocalist Umar Bin Hassan delivers lines like "niggas will party and bullshit, and party and bullshit".^[47]Development on Wallace's first album began at Capoluongo's apartment in late 1992.^[48] Wallace appeared on Heavy D & the Boyz's 1992 album Blue Funk, on the track "A Buncha Niggas".^[49]

In July 1993—a month before Wallace's first child was born—Combs was fired from Uptown Records by his mentor Andre Harrell, resulting in the loss of access to the songs recorded at that time. Jan gave birth to T'yanna Dream Wallace on August 8, 1993.^[50][51] Wallace promised his daughter "everything she wanted," believing that if he had experienced the same support in his own childhood, he would have graduated at the top of his class.^[52] Soon after he was fired, Combs started his own record, Bad Boy Records, and took Wallace with him.^[53] Although Wallace continued dealing drugs, Combs discovered this and insisted he stop. When Wallace had found out the name Biggie Smalls was already taken, he adopted a new moniker, settling on the Notorious B.I.G. permanently.^[54] Wallace explained that the acronym "B.I.G." stood for "Business Instead of Game".^[55] Combs and Clive Davis, then CEO of Arista Records, reached an agreement in which Davis provided Combs with a US$1.5 million advance and full creative control. Combs promptly used the money to repurchase the tracks recorded for Wallace's album from Harrell.^[48]

The "Real Love" remix single was followed by another remix of a Mary J. Blige song, "What's the 411?".^[56] Wallace's success continued, though to a lesser extent, with remixes of Neneh Cherry's "Buddy X" and reggae artist Super Cat's "Dolly My Baby" in 1993.^[57] In July 1994, Wallace appeared alongside LL Cool J and Busta Rhymeson a remix of his labelmate Craig Mack's track "Flava in Ya Ear", which reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[58] "Flava in Ya Ear" reached No. 1 on the rap chart for three consecutive weeks.^[59]