In the fall of 1996, The Notorious B.I.G. was involved in a near-fatal car accident that left him needing months of physical rehabilitation in a hospital bed. When the hit-making rapper felt good enough to go back into the studio, he arrived in a wheelchair — and knocked out his verse in one take.
The Notorious B.I.G.’s near-fatal car accident led to months of rehab
The Notorious B.I.G. was hard at work recording his highly-anticipated sophomore album Life After Death in the mid-1990s. In 1996, he was in a car on the New Jersey Turnpike being driven by his friend and Junior M.A.F.I.A. groupmate Lil’ Cease and his girlfriend at the time, rapper Charli Baltimore. They were using a loaner car with faulty brakes, and it soon became ugly.
Cease looked back on the accident in a 2015 interview with VladTV.
“We were turning around the corner [onto the expressway] and the s*** just spun out of control; we crossed to the other side of the road and hit the rail,” he recalled. “And that’s how [Biggie] f***ed up his leg.”
Biggie’s leg was broken in several places, and he would have to spend months in rehabilitation. He was able to start moving using a wheelchair.
Biggie recorded the ‘Life After Death’ song ‘Kick In the Door’ while in a wheelchair
Biggie’s recovery was going well and his condition began to improve in late 1996, able to move around with some help. He wasted no time in getting back to work on Life After Death.
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One night, hip-hop’s “Fashion King” Groovey Lew was at the studio when Biggie came in to record the track “Kick In the Door.” According to It Was All a Dream: Biggie and the World That Made Him, Lew watched Biggie listen to the beat of the song over and over until he was ready to go into the booth. When he was ready, Lil’ Cease wheeled him up to the microphone, and he knocked out his lyrics in one fell swoop.
“That man sat in that wheelchair and did that verse. In one take, [just] off the head! Genius s***!” said Lew. “I was like, Yo, you the illest. He was like, ‘Groove, get outta here, B!’ I was like ‘I’m good. I’m going home.’ I just left the studio. That was history.”
He continued to use a cane until he died
In early 1997, Biggie was continuing his preparation for the release of Life After Death in March. Throughout that time, he was still using a cane — something that he would have had to keep using for the rest of his life.
The cane ended up being an advantage to his image as he approached his second album. He filmed the music video for his future No. 1 single “Hypnotize” wearing a now-iconic suit, bolstered by a sophisticated-looking cane to complete the look (and help him stand).
Sadly, Biggie wouldn’t get to see the success of his hard work on Life After Death. The rap legend was gunned down in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997, just two weeks before the album’s release.
