(May 21, 1972 - Mar. 09, 1997) Christopher Wallace, also known as Biggie Smalls (after a stylish gangster in 1975's Let's Do it Again) and Frank White (from King of New York), but best known as The Notorious B.I.G (Business Instead of Game and, since his death, Books Instead of Guns), was a popular Brooklyn-born rapper of the mid-1990s. Following his untimely death in 1997, he has been immortalized as a hip hop legend.