| Big Pun | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Christopher Lee Rios |
| Also known as | Big Punisher, Big Moon Dawg |
| Genres | Hip Hop |
| Years active | 1995- 2000 |
| Labels | Loud |
| Associated acts | Terror Squad, Fat Joe, Inspectah Deck, Prodigy, Cam'ron, Chastain Apocalypz, N.O.R.E. |
Christopher Lee Rios[1] (November 10, 1971 – February 7, 2000), better known by his stage name Big Pun (short for Big Punisher), was an American rapper who emerged from the underground rap scene in The Bronx in the late 1990s. He first appeared on albums from The Beatnuts, on the track "Off the Books" in 1997, and on Fat Joe's second album Jealous One's Envy in 1995, on the track "Watch Out", prior to signing to Loud Records as a solo artist. Pun's lyrics are notable for technical efficiency, having minimal pauses to take a breath, heavy use of alliteration as well as internal and multi-syllabic rhyming schemes. Big Pun died of a heart attack at age 28. About.com ranked him #25 on its list of the 50 Greatest MCs of Our Time (1987 - 2007).[2]
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Big Pun grew up in New York City's South Bronx neighborhood.[3] At the age of 5 young Rios broke his leg while playing in a New York park, which would later lead to a large settlement from the city. [4] By all accounts from Pun's family, his early years were very difficult, including witnessing his mother's drug abuse, his father's death,[5] and a stepfather who was very hard on Pun. According to his grandmother, Pun would become angry and self-destructive, punching holes in the walls of his family's apartment. Rios dropped out of high school and for some time was homeless staying in abandoned buildings or at friends' homes.[6]
Sometime during the '80s, he began to write rap lyrics, forming the Full-A-Clips crew with Triple Seis, and Cuban Link who was at the time named "Lyrical Assassin". At this point Big Pun was operating under the alias Big Moon Dawg. Rios met fellow Puerto Rican and Bronx rapper Fat Joe in 1995 and made his commercial debut on Joe's second album, Jealous One's Envy, in addition to appearing on a b-side to Joe's "Envy" single, "Fire Water."
Later, "I'm Not a Player" (featuring an O'Jays sample) was supported by a significant advertising campaign and became an underground hit.
In 1997, producer Knobody's production partner Sean C took advantage of his new role as A&R at Loud Records to play Knobody's tracks to Big Pun.[7] Suitably impressed the rapper hired Knobody to remix "I'm Not a Player".[7] The remixed song, featuring Joe and titled "Still Not a Player," became Big Pun's first major mainstream hit and major breakthrough for Knobody.[7] The full-length debut Capital Punishment followed in 1998, and became the first album by a solo Latino rapper to go platinum,[8] peaking at #5 on the Billboard 200. Capital Punishment was also nominated for a Grammy, but lost out on the award to Jay-Z's Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life.
Big Pun became a member of Terror Squad, a New York-based group of rappers founded by Fat Joe, with most of the roster supplied by the now-defunct Full a Clips Crew who released their debut album The Album in 1999. The album didn't fare well commercially but it was well received critically and the album was meant to start the foundation for all other terror squad members to release their solo projects.
Excluding his adolescence, Big Pun struggled with his weight for most of his life; his weight fluctuated in the early 1990s between obese and morbidly obese. Big Pun partook in a weight-loss program in North Carolina, in which he lost 80 pounds (36 kg), but he eventually quit the program before completing it, returning to New York and gaining back the weight he had lost.[3] On February 7, 2000, Big Pun suffered a fatal heart attack and respiratory failure while temporarily staying with family at a Crowne Plaza Hotel in White Plains, New York during a home renovation. Pun was pronounced dead at the hospital after paramedics could not revive him. Big Pun was at his highest weight at the time of his death, being 780 pounds.[9] He was cremated a few days later. His second album, Yeeeah Baby, was released two months later.
In 2000, Vh1 voted Big Pun as the best rapper of the 90's.
An authorized documentary "Big Pun: The Legacy" was released on September 15, 2009. The film contains multiple interviews with artists, actors, close friends and others whose lives were touched by Big Pun, as well as rare exclusive performances and scene interviews with Big Pun himself. The film also features appearances by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Snoop Dogg, DMX, Method Man, U-God, Liza Rios, Xzibit, Cuban Link, Swizz Beatz, DJ Skribble, Chino XL and many more. The film was directed by Vlad Yudin and was distributed through Vivendi/Universal. [10]
A different version of the DVD "Big Pun: The Legacy," was released called "Big Pun: The Legacy (Special Collector's Edition)" a little over a year later on September 28, 2010 through EMI Label Group. This film includes never-before-seen footage and the “Lost Files” archive. [11]
The soundtrack to the film, "The Legacy: The Best of Big Pun" was released through Legacy/Columbia Records/Sony Music on September 15, 2009. [12]
Big Pun met his wife Liza in the eighth grade. They had three children together. The youngest one is carrying on his father's legacy under the alias Chris Rivers (formerly Baby Pun) who started to write rhymes after his father's death. Rivers' debut album Black Rose is yet to be released.
In 2002, Pun's widow, Liza Rios, released a documentary about her late husband, Still Not a Player. The film features commentary from many of Pun's close friends and family members, details the struggles with his weight, and also reveals how at times, Pun would become physically abusive with his wife - in one scene, he is caught on camera while pistol whipping her. The release of the documentary and its content caused a falling out between Fat Joe and Rios, as Rios repeatedly claimed to have not received any royalties from the sales of Endangered Species, which was where the proceeds from that album's sales were designed to go.
In 2009, the E! network released a feature called 'The secret lives of women in hip-hop'. Big Pun's wife and children stated on the show that she was a victim of physical abuse. The show contained video of Big Pun pistol whipping his wife at home. Big Pun's wife stated:
The day that [Big Pun] died it was the best and the worst day of my life, the worst day because I lost a part of me. I lost my husband. I lost my friend. I lost my kids’ father. I lost everything, but then it was a best day of my life because all the abuse, all the pain, all the crying, it was over. That was it. It was done.”
On September 8, 1998, Fat Joe and Big Pun were arrested on assault charges for hitting a man with a baseball bat and stealing the man's gold chain on June 14 that year.[13]
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