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'Big Poppa' remains one of The Notorious B.I.G.'s most beloved songs to this day. One lyric in particular that has remained timeless was inspired by Big's love of Waffle House as a young person.

Published on November 19, 2022

Christopher Wallace started making money as a teenager selling crack on the streets of Brooklyn. He went on to become the world-famous rapper The Notorious B.I.G., known for hit songs like “Big Poppa” and “Juicy.” His days as a drug dealer later inspired some of his own song lyrics.

The Notorious B.I.G. lived in North Carolina as a drug dealer

Biggie first started selling drugs in his neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn when he was just 12 years old. At the time, the crack epidemic was ravaging New York in the late 1980s and early ’90s, and Biggie — like many other young Black men — saw dealing as a quick way to make lots of cash.

Eventually, Biggie sought to expand his business beyond Brooklyn. Crack sales were more lucrative down south, so he decided to split his time between Brooklyn and Raleigh, North Carolina.

The Notorious B.I.G.’s ‘Big Poppa’ lyric inspired by Waffle House and other breakfast restaurants

One of Biggie’s “roommates” in his North Carolina trap house was a man named Robert Cagle, also known as Zauqael. For most of their relationship, Zauqael didn’t know Biggie also rapped, though even Biggie himself wasn’t taking his music career seriously.

Zauqael reflected fondly on his days trapping with Biggie in a 2016 interview with Complex. He noted how one lyric in particular — “a T-bone steak, cheese eggs and Welch’s grape” from his future hit single “Big Poppa” — was inspired by the meals they spent together.

“We used to eat out a lot,” Zauqael said. “In North Carolina they got Shoney’s and Perkins… And you know the funny thing? Remember when he wrote that rhyme [in ‘Big Poppa’] about taking the girl to the hotel and eating ‘a T-bone steak, cheese eggs, and Welch’s grape?’ We used to go to this place called the Waffle House and they used to have the steak and eggs and all that. And then another thing, we used to go to the House of Pancakes that was located near NC State. And we used to get a carafe of grape juice with the cheese and eggs and the T-bone steak.”

‘Big Poppa’ remains one of his signature songs

After Biggie’s demo tape was discovered by Sean “Diddy” Combs, Diddy presented Biggie with a choice: either sign a record deal and go all-in on a music career or focus on selling drugs. Diddy looked back on the conversation he had with his friend in the 2021 documentary Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell. “I said [to Biggie], ‘There’s only one path for you as far as selling drugs, and that’s in jail or dead,’” he said. “I was just like, ‘If you want to do [music], I need you to commit to this. You can’t do both.’ And he was like, ‘Nah, I’m coming with you.’”

Biggie Smalls (who later changed his name to The Notorious B.I.G.) chose to pursue music, which ended up paying off in a big way. “Big Poppa” was the second single released from his 1994 debut album Ready to Die. The song reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his first top 10 hit on the chart, and was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 1996 Grammy Awards. To date, it’s been certified six-times platinum with over six million copies sold in the US.

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