How many number-one singles did Biggie Smalls have?
The Notorious BIG had become a hugely popular artist by the time he was murdered, but his death served to make him more so. It was only after his untimely passing, in fact, that Biggie achieved a particular commercial milestone for the first time—reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
Just five days before he was killed on March 9, 1997, aged only 24, Biggie released ‘Hypnotize’ as a single, the first to be lifted from his as-yet unreleased second album Life After Death. ‘Hypnotize’ was an instant hit upon its release, debuting on the singles chart at number two. By the following week, its maker was dead.
It’s impossible to say whether or not ‘Hypnotize’ would have climbed to number one anyway, but, in the event, it did so following Biggie’s murder. His greatest chart triumph occurred shortly after he died, meaning he never got to truly enjoy the fruits of his labour. The track stayed at number one for three weeks.
By releasing a number-one single after his own death, Biggie had joined the ranks of a macabre club. Not many artists find such success after they’ve died, with the Notorious BIG becoming only the fifth deceased artist to top the charts. The last to it was John Lennon, whose song ‘(Just Like) Starting Over’ also reached number one after he had been shot dead in December 1980.
Diddy had produced ‘Hypnotize,’ and core to the track’s appeal was the bassline that he sampled from the Herb Alpert song ‘Rise.’ One of that original song’s co-writers, Alpert’s nephew Randy “Badazz” Alpert, had initially been reluctant to allow the song to be sampled by hip-hop artists. Several big rappers had asked for permission, apparently, but Alpert had always said no.
That changed when he first heard “a rough version” of Biggie’s rapping over Diddy’s track. The younger Alpert understood instantly that ‘Hypnotize’ was going to be a hit when he first heard it. As it happened, it followed a similar path as ‘Rise’ had, in that it took some time for it to climb to number one in the charts.
“I was sent a cassette from Puffy,” Randy Alpert has been quoted as saying, “and when I cranked it up I not only immediately loved it, but my gut thought that this could be a number one record once again. The original ‘Rise’ record climbed the chart all summer and became number one around the end of October. Biggie’s version was released and charted its first week at number two and went to number one the second week.”
Having finally reached number one in the pop charts, albeit in tragic circumstances, Biggie did it again with the second single from Life After Death. ‘Mo Money Mo Problems’ came out in July, four months after his death, and it topped the charts for two weeks. It displaced Diddy and Faith Evans’ tribute song to Biggie, ‘I’ll Be Missing You.’
‘Mo Money Mo Problems’ set a bleak record, making the Notorious BIG the first artist to ever secure two posthumous number one singles on the Hot 100. It is considered to be one of the most popular hip-hop songs of all time, and it marked the last time Biggie’s music ever topped the American singles chart.