The late legend Biggie Smalls is considered a legend and one of hip-hop’s true lyricists. As a staple of the 1990s, he and Nas ran New York during the early part of the decade. The Brooklyn native (real name Christopher Wallace) got discovered by Diddy after featuring Source magazine’s unsigned hype column, and from there, he exploded.
Wallace had a way of putting words together that was smooth and pleasant to the ear. Unlike some of the other artists out at the time, such as 2Pac and Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Biggie’s delivery wasn’t overly aggressive or erratic but instead very slick.
As the face of Bad Boy Entertainment, his lavish videos and suave raps turned him into somewhat of a sex symbol in the mid-90s, and he enjoyed vast amounts of success while under Diddy.
As all MCs do, Wallace considered himself the best, which is the default position of all artists. However, he had some rappers that he preferred over others and, unlike some timid rhymers, wasn’t afraid to vocalise who he thought was subpar.
In a 1995 interview with the Canadian magazine Peace, Wallace was asked to rate his competition. He happily gave his opinions, good and bad, on his hip-hop peers, some of whom had severe backlash.
The interviewer named some MCs, and Wallace gave his unfiltered thoughts. When asked about his opinion of Redman, Biggie replied, “The new Redman!?! Seven. I can’t diss him ’cause I know he got skills. He get busy on the lyrics, but I can’t feel his new shit, his new cosmic crazy shit. I’m used to the clean-cut blowout fly nigga. When I met the nigga he was a fly nigga, you know what I’m sayin’, now he on some different shit I really don’t like when a rapper come out, and they blow up the way they are, and they come out again on some changed up shit.”
After revealing that he liked the initial material of Redman, the interviewer questioned him about the Vallejo emcee and ‘Captain Save a Hoe’ artist E-40. Wallace simply responded, “No rating! Zero! I don’t fuck with dude at all. At all!” The two musicians were known to have an underlying beef at the time.
Even when the Ready To Die creator was questioned about his Bad Boy Entertainment counterpart Craig Mack, he responded, “I don’t really like him too much either, dog. I can’t give him a zero though ’cause he got some hot shit but like five…four, since he on some different shit, some shit I can’t relate to.”
However, when he asked about Spice 1, a rapper from Hayward, a town near the Bay Area, Wallace bluntly exclaimed, “Zero! I don’t like that guy at all.” It seems that Biggie had a significant issue with MCs from the Bay Area of Northern California, as he hated E-40, loathed Spice 1 and was in a feud with 2Pac. You can hear Spice 1’s most renowned song ‘Welcome To The Ghetto’ below and determine if it is worth zero.
