evidence: He recorded as The Notorious B.I.G. People knew him as Biggie Smalls, or Biggie. He was murdered when he was only 24 years old. Yet he's one of the most revered, emulated and biggest-selling rappers in the game. [...] Biggie started rapping with his friends Sam Hubert and Mike Bynum when they were 10 or 11 years old. Hubert met Biggie in day care, and he became Big's DJ. [...] Biggie so impressed his peers in the mid-1990s that almost every New York rapper has recorded a song that includes a shout-out to him. "Big influenced a generation. This whole generation took pieces and bits," AZ says. "Everybody took a piece out of Big that's on the charts right now. Everybody."