'He shared something with me early on, and it really made me sad. It was a little cartoonish at times, his misogyny - as was so much of the music at the time. I would have hoped that he would have outgrown some of that. I absolutely challenged him, in the studio and in our friendship, on some of the sexism.

So I had that literary, kind of love of books in common with Biggie,' she says. Because his mom was an English teacher, he really liked to read - things like Charles Dickens. 'I remember reading Ntozake Shange with Biggie. They became friends, him reading her work and sometimes going to class with her. Their paths crossed shortly after hampton voted for the rapper to be included in The Source magazine's Unsigned Hype column, then the launching pad for some of hip-hop's greatest musicians.

(his first choice for nom de plume - Biggie Smalls - had already been taken by another rapper, but his friends and fans continue to call him Biggie).

Christopher Wallace was shopping a demo tape that he'd made under the name The Notorious B.I.G.

In the early '90s, dream hampton was a student at NYU and a writer. Saturday marks two decades since Bad Boy Records released Ready to Die, the album that introduced the charismatic, exceptionally talented, gone too soon rapper Biggie Smalls to the world, and made him a star. performing at the Meadowlands in New Jersey in 1995.

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