Twenty years ago today, Notorious B.I.G. was killed just two weeks before his second album, Life After Death, was released. He was only 24 when he was gunned down in Los Angeles by a still-unknown assailant. This happened less than a year after Tupac Shakur was assassinated in Las Vegas in another still-unsolved murder. While Biggie (real name Christopher Wallace) only got to release two albums before his untimely death, his influence as a rapper still lives on. Living Colour, Mindless Self Indulgence and A Plea For Purging have covered him over the year.
Living Colour’s cover of “Who Shot Ya,” which only came out last year, is the best of the three. The video features sobering gun death statistics, even showing the names of some more popular musicians that have been killed by gun violence, including Dimebag Darrell and Marvin Gaye. It’s a way to make one of Biggie’s most popular songs into a protest song of sorts.
Christian metalcore quartet A Plea for Purging did a cover of “Big Poppa” back in 2011 that was available as a free download for fans that purchased their “Notorious Plea” T-shirt featuring similarly large frontman Andy Atkins.
Mindless Self Indulgence have been doing their weirdo rave punk for a while now, and this is just as oddball as what might expect. from them.
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