evidence: The Notorious B.I.G. was born in May 1972 and had a devastatingly short career, spending just a few years in the spotlight before being murdered. In 'Respect', from his 1994 debut masterpiece Ready To Die, Biggie talks about the struggles his mother faced with childbirth, and how close he came to dying as an infant. [...] He embraced the G-funk sound on this 1994 hit. It made some sense – Snoop's Doggystyle had only just come out, and Dr. Dre's The Chronic wasn't much earlier than that – but this wasn't necessarily expected from an east coast rapper.