March 9th. It’s been 15 years since we lost Big. Biggie Smalls. The Notorious BIG. I’ve been thinking about what to do to CELEBRATE HIS LIFE on this date for quite some time. Of course I was thinking a playlist (and you can find that below), but it didn’t seem fully right. Then it hit me. I’ve heard Biggie’s music a lot over the years. A LOT. But I haven’t seen Biggie Smalls, the man, speak in a LONG time. So, I put together a couple of playlists to celebrate him today. First up, is a few extended interviews that remind you of the man behind the music, in HIS words. Next up is a playlist of some of those Notorious BIG classics that NEVER grow old. No matter how you choose to reflect on the contribution the man born Christopher Wallace made to hip-hop, this is just a small reminder of why his legacy lives on.

That legacy extends far beyond the boundaries of traditional hip-hop radio and old mixtapes. Over the last decade, Biggie’s cinematic storytelling and larger-than-life persona have made his catalog an essential tool for modern media creators looking to capture that classic, untouchable nineties energy.

Directors consistently license his tracks to give their films an authentic, gritty texture, while digital developers leverage his beats to cultivate an atmosphere of high-stakes luxury. You can frequently catch his instrumentals setting the mood in the virtual VIP rooms of an online gambling suite or driving the tension during a crucial video game heist scene. His heavy basslines and smooth jazz samples translate flawlessly to environments that demand a sense of risk and reward.

Watching his music seamlessly adapt to these new interactive spaces proves that his sound was always ahead of its time. It’s a testament to how vividly he captured the hustle of his era, ensuring that his influence is still felt everywhere in pop culture today.

Here are the interviews.

And, here’s the playlist.