Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997) was an American rapper. He was popularly known as Biggie Smalls (after a character in the 1975 film Let's Do It Again) or simply Biggie, Frank White (after the main character of the 1990 film King of New York),[1] and by his primary stage name The Notorious B.I.G.. Raised in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, Wallace grew up during the peak years of the 1980s United States crack epidemic; he started dealing drugs at an early age.