You’ve seen it a thousand times. That tiny, afro-sporting baby sitting against a stark white background, looking innocent yet somehow carrying the weight of the world. Or maybe you think of the man himself, draped in a black Kane-style overcoat, standing next to a hearse in a foggy graveyard.
These aren't just pictures. They’re the visual DNA of Christopher Wallace, better known as The Notorious B.I.G.
The biggie smalls album cover for both Ready to Die and Life After Death did something most artists fail to do: they told the story before you even pressed play. But honestly, most of the "facts" people toss around about these covers are kinda wrong. No, that wasn’t Biggie as a baby. And no, the cemetery shoot wasn't just some random spooky choice.
There’s a lot of myth-making in hip-hop, but the reality behind these images is actually more interesting than the urban legends.
The Mystery Baby on Ready to Die
For nearly two decades, everyone just assumed the baby on the Ready to Die cover was Biggie. It made sense, right? The album follows a life cycle—from the birth intro to the "Suicidal Thoughts" finale. Having a mini-Biggie on the front felt like the ultimate autobiographical touch.
Except it wasn't him.
The baby was actually a kid named Keithroy Yearwood. Back in 1994, Bad Boy Records put out a casting call for a baby with an afro. They wanted someone who looked like Biggie, sure, but the records of who that kid actually was got lost in the chaotic shuffle of mid-90s record label paperwork.
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It wasn't until 2011 that the truth came out. Keithroy’s mom had kept the original contract and the baby pictures to prove it. For a two-hour shoot, he was paid a grand total of $150. That’s it. One of the most recognizable faces in music history, and he walked away with basically enough to buy a few pairs of sneakers back then.
Why the Afro Mattered
Sean "Puffy" Combs was the mastermind behind the aesthetic. He wanted a visual that represented "the breaks"—the struggle and the cycle of life in the inner city. The contrast of an innocent child with a title like Ready to Die was a gut punch. It suggested that in the environment Biggie was rapping about, you’re marked from day one.
Interestingly, Nas had released Illmatic just months earlier with a childhood photo on the cover. While some fans claimed Biggie "bit" the idea, the execution was totally different. While Nas used a real photo of himself to show his roots in Queensbridge, Biggie used a model to represent a concept. It was about the universal experience of a Black child born into a world that already has a casket waiting for him.
Life After Death: The Ominous Reality
If the first album was about the struggle to survive, the second was about the arrival of a king—and the shadow that follows him. The biggie smalls album cover for Life After Death is, in hindsight, incredibly eerie.
The shoot took place on January 24, 1997, at Cypress Hills Cemetery on the border of Brooklyn and Queens. Think about that for a second. This was less than two months before Biggie was killed in Los Angeles.
The photographer, Michael Lavine, has talked about how difficult that day was. Biggie had recently been in a serious car accident and was still using a cane. He was hobbling through the snow and mud of the graveyard. He wasn't in the best spirits, and the weather was biting cold.
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The Hearse and the License Plate
Puffy wanted drama. He told Lavine to find a "better graveyard" after rejecting the first few options. They eventually settled on a spot at the top of a hill in Cypress Hills.
- They brought in a real hearse.
- The license plate was custom: B.I.G.
- Biggie wore a custom-tailored suit that looked like something an undertaker would wear.
Lavine has noted that Puffy kept trying to jump into the shots. He wanted to be part of the "vibe." But the most powerful images—the ones that made the final cut—were the ones where Biggie stood alone. In those photos, he looks like he’s presiding over the souls in the cemetery. It’s a "powerful presence," as Lavine put it, almost like he knew he was stepping into a different realm.
When the album was released on March 25, 1997, Biggie had been dead for 16 days. The title and the cover went from being a "cool concept" to a prophetic, haunting reality.
The Cultural Ripple Effect
You can see the influence of the biggie smalls album cover everywhere today. It set a standard for how hip-hop used photography to create a "world."
- Lil Wayne used baby photos for the Tha Carter III and IV.
- Drake used a baby illustration for Nothing Was the Same.
- Kendrick Lamar utilized a polaroid-style family photo for good kid, m.A.A.d city.
But Biggie’s covers were different because they weren't just about him. They were about the dualities of life: innocence vs. violence, wealth vs. death, Brooklyn vs. the world.
The Life After Death shoot also featured Biggie in front of the New York World’s Fair Unisphere and standing with a cane in front of the Twin Towers. These images cemented him as the "King of New York." He wasn't just a rapper; he was a monument.
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What You Can Learn from the Visuals
If you’re a creator or just a fan of the culture, there’s a massive takeaway here. Biggie and the Bad Boy team understood that branding is storytelling. They didn't just put a "cool" photo on the front. They picked images that forced people to ask questions.
- Contrast is key: Putting a baby next to the word "Die" creates immediate tension.
- Location matters: A studio shoot wouldn't have had the same weight as Biggie actually standing in a Brooklyn cemetery.
- Legacy isn't accidental: Every detail, from the cane to the hearse, was curated to build a specific persona.
If you want to dive deeper into this history, I’d suggest looking up Michael Lavine’s original contact sheets. Seeing the outtakes from the cemetery shoot gives you a much more human look at Christopher Wallace. He wasn't just a larger-than-life figure; he was a guy in a suit, cold and tired, trying to finish a job for his friend.
The next time you look at that Ready to Die cover, remember Keithroy Yearwood. Remember that $150. It’s a reminder that sometimes the most iconic things in the world start with a simple, random moment that nobody thought would last.
To see these locations for yourself, you can actually visit Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, though they're pretty strict about photography these days. Just standing there, you get a sense of why that spot was chosen—it’s quiet, it’s vast, and it feels like history.
To truly appreciate the legacy of these covers, your next move is to listen to the Life After Death intro while looking at the album art. It changes the way you hear the music when you see the man standing among the tombstones he’d soon join.