Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's Most Notorious Inductee

They say you never get the flowers while you can still smell them.  This is abundantly clear in 2020.  Perhaps one of the highest achievements for any artist will be bestowed upon one of hip hop's greatest, The Notorious B.I.G. (post mortem of course).  On November 7th, 2020 Christopher Wallace aka Biggie Smalls was inducted into Rock & Roll's Hall of Fame.  He will join only a few other rappers that were ever fortunate enough to hold the honor.  

B.I.G. hit the scene in 1994 with his debut album 'Ready To Die', which sold over 500,000 copies. Ready To Die was certified gold on November 16th, 1994.  This album included smash hits like 'Juicy' and 'One More Chance' which rocketed his career into orbit.  Biggie was the cornerstone of Bad Boy Records which was founded by Sean "Diddy" Combs in 1993.  Some of his label mates included The Lox, Mase, and Faith Evans who undoubtedly played a pivotal role in his demise.

Along with groups like the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, and N.W.A. the only other (solo) rapper to amass these types of accolades was Biggie's frenemy/rival Tupac Shakur.  Tupac was not only linked to Biggie's death, but also to his wife before passing.  Tupac's link to Faith Evans not only made a bad situation worse, it led to one of the most memorable hip hop diss tracks on record 'Hit Em Up.'  Tupac lost his life September 13th, 1996 in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Less than 6 months later, Biggie would suffer the same fate in the exact same manner.

Sadly we lost two of hip hop's greatest in less than a year.  At least now they can rest in greatness beside one another.  Check out the Class of 2020 here.