The Notorious B.I.G. - легенда рэпа Бигги Смолз

Almost as soon as Combs heard Wallace's rhymes, he sent word that he wanted to meet the rapper. Along with Mister Cee, Wallace went to Combs's office at Uptown Records, where Combs worked as an A&R rep¬resentative. Started by Andre Harrell in the late 1980s, Uptown had on its roster Heavy D, a rapper whose rhymes were more commercial than they were hardcore, as well as singer Mary J. Blige and quartet Jodeci. Having first started in music as half of the rap duo Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, Har-rell worked as an assistant to his friend Russell Simmons, who, with Rick Rubin, started Def Jam Records, the first huge hip-hop label. Def Jam brought Beastie Boys and LL Cool J to national audiences, and the suc¬cess of those two albums helped the label secure a distribution deal with Columbia/CBS Records. From there the label went on to sign some of the biggest hip-hop heavies, bringing to the mainstream a sound most people had never heard before, a sound that represented the streets of New York and its boroughs.

But Harrell envisioned a different sound, one he sometimes described as sexy while also classic. Although traditional R&B no longer held the strong appeal it once had, Harrell—along with those he employed— helped bring to the mainstream a sound that was new to many: a grittier, more hip-hop version with R&B stylings.

Combs fit well into this image and was only 20 when he first took an internship at the label, one secured by Heavy D. The two had grown up in the same hometown—Mount Vernon—and Heavy introduced Combs to Harrell, who offered Combs an unpaid position. A student at Howard University in Washington, D.C., Combs boarded a train each morning

at 5 A.M. to arrive in New York at 10 A.M., where he promptly reported to work.
To Combs, this job represented his future, and always ambitious, he did all he could to impress his new boss. Eventually, he moved in with Harrell, renting a room in the record executive's spacious New Jersey house. There he met many of the industry's leaders and made many of the connections that helped him become the mogul he is today. Harrell became his mentor and helped the young man through several situations, including a 1991 concert he promoted that soon proved deadly.