Frank White R.I.P.

I just learned that today marks the 10-year anniversary of the death of Notorious B.I.G.. I can't believe its already been a decade and being in LA right now, the site of his demise, seems poignant.

During college, nobody's music got the party started like Biggie did. I vividly remember UCLA in the mid-1990's with DJ Dave spinning his tunes at numerous apartment parties and everyone dancing and having a good time with "Hypnotize", "Big Poppa", or "Juicy" pumping through the speakers.

Later living in NY, it was clear to me what a popular figure Biggie was. 125th Street in Harlem was a block away from my apartment and street vendors would be selling Biggie pictures and t-shirts, even though this was about eights years after his passing. The hyperbole about Notorious B.I.G.'s impact (an Tupac's obviously) on hip-hop has been written about numerous times, but his tunes and arguably his passing mark the end of the Golden Age of hip-hop. I would assert that the Golden Age started around 1989 (give or take a year or two) and lasted until 1997, the year Christopher Wallace died. This era includes the entire Tribe Called Quest collection and the Native Tongues movement and the rise in number of great more independent-style artists (Del, Souls of Mischief, Pharcyde immediately come to mind). While this point can be argued (and has by both academics and pop culture critics alike), the loss of Biggie is tragic. If you've ever seen footage of Biggie's funeral in Brooklyn, the entire community came out and mourned his death like he was the President. Pretty moving stuff.

So on this weekend, since I will be with many of the people that I grooved with to his tunes, I will toast his honor whether its "in the back of the club, drinking Moet", or having a "t-bone steak, cheese eggs, and Welch's grape."