You’ve seen it. Even if you weren’t alive in 1994, you know that baby. He’s sitting there, diaper-clad, looking off into the distance against a white backdrop that feels both empty and infinite. It’s the Notorious BIG album cover for Ready to Die, and honestly, it might be the most recognizable image in the history of rap.
It changed things.
Before Biggie Smalls dropped his debut, album art in hip-hop was often about looking tough on a street corner or showing off a fleet of cars. But Christopher Wallace went a different route. He went conceptual. He went personal. He went for something that felt like a life cycle captured in a square frame. The image of the infant—who, contrary to popular belief, is not Biggie himself—became a symbol of the vulnerability hidden beneath the "King of New York" persona.
Who Is the Kid on the Ready to Die Cover?
Let's clear this up right now because people still argue about it in barber shops. The baby on the Notorious BIG album cover is Keithroy Yearwood. For years, fans just assumed it was a baby photo of Biggie. It makes sense, right? The album is a semi-autobiographical journey from birth to a self-inflicted end.
But it wasn't Big.
The search for the "Biggie Baby" was a whole saga. Sean "Puffy" Combs and the team at Bad Boy Records used a casting agency to find a child who shared a resemblance to the rapper. Yearwood was only a few months old when the photo was taken. He got paid about $150 for the gig. Think about that. One of the most iconic images in music history, and the kid got enough for a nice dinner and some diapers. He didn’t even realize he was famous until he was a teenager.
"I remember my mom telling me, 'That’s you on the cover,'" Yearwood said in an interview years later. Imagine finding out you're the face of the greatest rap album of all time while you're doing your homework.
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The stark white background was a deliberate choice by photographer Butch Belair. It strips away the "hood" context. It forces you to look at the innocence of the child. This is a baby who has no idea he's "ready to die." The contrast between that soft, fleshy infant and the gritty, violent lyrics inside the jacket is where the genius lies. Biggie wasn't just selling records; he was selling a tragedy.
Life After Death: The Weight of the Suit
Fast forward to 1997. The vibe changed. If Ready to Die was the beginning, Life After Death was the eerie, prophetic aftermath.
The Notorious BIG album cover for his sophomore effort is heavy. Literally. Biggie is standing next to a hearse. He’s wearing a massive, expensive coat and a fedora, looking like a mob boss at a funeral—which, as it turns out, he basically was. The photo was taken by Barron Claiborne, the same guy who took the "King of New York" crown photo.
They went to a cemetery in Cemetery Hill, Brooklyn. It was cold.
The irony is thick enough to choke on. The album was titled Life After Death before Biggie was murdered in Los Angeles. He was playing with the themes of mortality, but he didn't know he was writing his own epitaph. When the album finally hit shelves just weeks after his death, that cover didn't look like a cool concept anymore. It looked like a crime scene photo from the future.
The Hearse and the Gothic Aesthetic
The hearse on the cover is a 1995 Cadillac Fleetwood. It wasn't just a prop; it was a statement. By 1997, Biggie Smalls was no longer the hungry kid from St. James Place. He was a global superstar. The luxury funeral aesthetic represented the "G" in "G-Unit" before that was even a thing. It was about the cost of success.
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Look at his face on that cover. He isn't smiling. He isn't even looking at the camera most of the time. He’s looking past us.
- The Location: Cypress Hills Cemetery.
- The Fit: Custom-made silk and wool.
- The Vibe: Somber, cinematic, and incredibly expensive.
Why These Covers Rank So High in Pop Culture
Why do we still care? Because these covers tell a story that the music completes. Most rappers today miss this. They throw a high-res photo of themselves on a background and call it a day. Biggie’s team treated the Notorious BIG album cover like a film poster.
When you look at Ready to Die, you see the potential of a life. When you look at Life After Death, you see the weight of that life.
There's a reason Nas did the "baby on the cover" thing with Illmatic around the same time. There’s a reason Lil Wayne did it with Tha Carter III. Drake did it with Nothing Was the Same. The "innocent child vs. the world" trope started with Biggie. It’s a visual shorthand for: "I was once this pure, and look what the streets did to me."
The Technical Artistry Behind the Lens
We have to give flowers to the photographers. Butch Belair and Barron Claiborne weren't just guys with cameras. They were stylists. They were directors.
Claiborne has spoken at length about how he wanted to portray Biggie as a "West African king" or a "Saint" in his other shoots. On the Life After Death cover, he captured the "Don" persona. The lighting is moody. The colors are muted—lots of blacks, greys, and deep greens. It feels like a rainy day in Brooklyn even if the sun was out.
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The Conspiracy Theories and the "Illuminati" Nonsense
You can't talk about the Notorious BIG album cover without the weirdos coming out of the woodwork. Because of the titles and the funeral imagery, some people claim Biggie knew he was going to die. Or worse, that it was all scripted.
Let's be real. Biggie was a student of the game. He saw what was happening with 2Pac. He saw the violence escalating. He used his album art to reflect his reality. He wasn't a psychic; he was an observer. The fact that he died before the second album dropped is a haunting coincidence, not a grand conspiracy. It just made the art more powerful.
How to Appreciate the Art Today
If you’re a collector, the original vinyl pressings are where the real detail is. You can see the texture of the coat on Life After Death. You can see the grain in the film on Ready to Die. Digital streaming thumbnails don't do these justice. They were designed for 12-inch cardboard sleeves.
If you want to understand the impact of the Notorious BIG album cover, you have to look at it while listening to the intro of the albums.
- Start "Intro" on Ready to Die.
- Stare at the baby.
- Listen to the sounds of birth and the progression of the 70s and 80s.
- It clicks.
The image becomes a mirror. You start to see the child in the man and the man in the child.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Creators
If you are a musician or a designer, there are lessons to be learned from the Biggie era:
- Contrast is King: Putting a baby on a "death" themed album is a masterclass in irony. Use visuals that contradict the title to create tension.
- Consistency Matters: The transition from the white void of the first album to the dark, crowded atmosphere of the second tells a chronological story.
- Don't Be Afraid of Simplicity: The Ready to Die cover is basically nothing but a baby. It works because it’s bold. You don't need 100 Photoshop layers to make something iconic.
- Location Scouting: The cemetery choice for the second cover wasn't just "cool." It was thematic. Match your environment to your message.
The legacy of the Notorious BIG album cover isn't just about nostalgia. It's a blueprint for how to build a visual brand that outlives the creator. Christopher Wallace has been gone for nearly three decades, but Keithroy Yearwood is still that baby, and Biggie is still that man by the hearse, forever frozen in the prime of his complicated, brilliant life.
To truly honor this history, look for high-quality anniversary reissues of these albums. Many of them include expanded liner notes and high-resolution photography from the original sessions that never made it to the final cut. Seeing the "outtakes" from the Life After Death shoot provides even more context into the mindset of a man who was, at the time, the biggest star in the world.