After he became a world-famous rapper, The Notorious B.I.G. had big dreams to take his name beyond the world of music. Biggie was also a fashion designer, and even appeared on the hit comedy series Martin before his death. He even wanted to open his own restaurant, but never got to before his untimely death in March 1997. His daughter, however, was able to achieve his goal of having his own place to eat.
The Notorious B.I.G. wanted to open his own restaurant
Justin Tinsley’s 2022 book It Was All a Dream: Biggie and the World That Made Him outlines The Notorious B.I.G.’s life from his upbringing in Brooklyn to his death and afterlife as a hip-hop icon. Among Biggie’s dreams outside of the music world was to open his own restaurant called Big Poppa’s Chicken & Waffles.
Biggie was no stranger to the world of soul food like chicken and waffles. When he lived in North Carolina working as a drug dealer, he and his friends often went to restaurants like Waffle House. It was here where he was inspired to write about T-bone steaks, cheese eggs, and Welch’s grape juice on his breakout single”Juicy.”
His daughter T’yanna Wallace opened her own restaurant
In 2021, nearly 25 years after Biggie’s death, his daughter T’yanna Wallace was able to execute his dream of having a restaurant. Wallace teamed up with restaurateur and fashion designer Tyra Myricks, the daughter of the late Jam Master Jay of Run-D.M.C., to open a pizza shop in Los Angeles called Juicy Pizza. Myricks knew she had to get Biggie’s own daughter involved.
“The more I thought about how to bring that New York theme to Los Angeles, I felt, who represents New York more than Biggie Smalls?” Myricks said in an interview with Business Insider. “She loved it.”
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As someone who knows what it’s like to be the child of a famous rapper, Myricks knew that people profiting off of your late parent’s name happens often. Myricks got Wallace involved specifically to combat this and ensure she has a part in preserving and continuing her father’s legacy.
“I was like, ‘I don’t want you to invest anything,’” Myricks recalled telling Wallace of the venture. “‘Let’s just make money together. Let’s make moves.’”
Biggie and T’yanna both also started fashion lines
Wallace and Myricks also have something else in common: they’re both fashion designers. In 2013, Wallace launched her Notoriouss clothing line, and a few years later, Notoriouss opened its first brick-and-mortar shop — in Brooklyn, of course.
Before his death, The Notorious B.I.G. was able to start a fashion brand of his own. He created Brooklyn Mint in 1996 and had plans to make the brand huge, but he never lived to see his dreams lived out.
Wallace, for her part, says she inherited Biggie’s creative genes. “People don’t know that side of him; he could also draw,” she told Bushwick Daily in 2019. “I got the artistic side of him, not the music side.”
