26 years ago, on this date, Christopher Rios, aka Big Punisher, put out his first LP, Capital Punishment, on Loud Records.
Released by Fat Joe and the Terror Squad on Loud Records, Pun’s highly anticipated album showcased Pun’s unequaled lyrical ability, comedic punchlines, and ever-evolving style that his son Chris Rivers has inherited from his pops.
Album highlights include joints like “You Ain’t A Killer,” “Super Lyrical,” featuring The Roots’ Black Thought, and the platinum-selling album that propelled the album to a million sales, “Still Not A Player.”
Salute to Fat Joe, the Rios family, the Terror Squad, and the entire Loud staff for this classic!
On this day in 2000, the first posthumous L.P. to be released by the first “Latin to go platinum” entitled Yeeeah Baby was released on the Loud/Terror Squad imprint.
Christopher “Big Pun” Rios passed away just shy of two months before his sophomore L.P.’s release and anticipated success, which came on the heels of his debut album, Capital Punishment. With appearances from the entire Terror Squad and executive production by the T.S. general Fat Joe, the 16-track album showed Pun’s acute diversity in his lyricism and approach to song-making, which yielded some of the most memorable songs of his career. The album took longer to record because of Pun’s extreme obesity since his breathing problems couldn’t permit him to spit his custom, rapid-fire flow freely.
Some of the L.P.’s favorites are the Puerto Rican anthem “100%” with Terror Squad crooner Tony Sunshine on the hook, “New York Giants” featuring M.O.P., “Ms. Martin,” an ode to his protege Remy Ma and the touching single “It’s So Hard” featuring Donnell Jones.
Salute to Big Pun, Pun Jr., and the entire Terror Squad for this remarkable piece of Hip Hop History!
On this date in 2000, the Hip Hop community was shocked and saddened by the untimely death of lyrical giant Christopher “Big Pun” Rios. As the premiere artist for Fat Joe’s Terror Squad, Pun became the first Latino Hip Hop artist to go platinum and discovered TS’ First Lady, Remy Ma.
Pun is regarded as one of the game’s best lyricists ever to do it, or as he is aptly described, one of the best “dead or alive.” His only two full-length releases, Capital Punishment and Yeeahhh Baby, are considered classic albums among true Hip Hop aficionados and continue to get radio play on his smash singles “I’m Not A Player” and the posthumous “It’s So Hard.”
Rest In Peace to Pun, and sincere condolences to the Rios family from the entire Mind Squad.
Born on this day in 1971 in Bronx, NY, Terror Squad lieutenant Christopher ‘Big Pun” Rios grew from an exceptional emcee that stood side to side by Fat Joe during his Jealous One’s Still Envy heyday to morphing into one of the game’s greatest lyricists of all time.
Big Punisher initially entered the rap game in the mid-80s as a member and founder of underground hip-hop collective Full-A-Clips and at the time, went under the moniker Big Moon Dawg, which was drawn from a famed pro wrestler with the same name. Recordings from the collective have been concealed and remain unreleased, but are known to be the earliest recordings of the late Puerto Rican emcee.
After Pun received a Grammy for “I’m Not A Player”, the full-length, double-disc version of his debut Capital Punishment was released the following year,. The album went platinum causing Pun to make history as the first Hip Hop solo act of Latino descent to achieve the mark.
On February 7th, 2000 during a momentary stay at Crowne Plaza Hotel in White Plains, New York, Pun faced a fatal heart attack and respiratory failure. He weighed 698 pounds at the time of his death, the highest weight in his lifetime. He withdrew from a Saturday Night Live performance two days prior where he was scheduled to perform with Fat Joe and Jennifer Lopez.
A quarter of a century ago, Christopher Rios, aka Big Punisher, put out his first LP, Capital Punishment, on Loud Records.
Released by Fat Joe and the Terror Squad on Loud Records, Pun’s highly anticipated album showcased Pun’s unequaled lyrical ability, comedic punchlines, and ever-evolving style that his son Chris Rivers has inherited from his pops.
Album highlights include joints like “You Ain’t A Killer,” “Super Lyrical,” featuring The Roots’ Black Thought, and the platinum-selling album that propelled the album to a million sales, “Still Not A Player.”
Salute to Fat Joe, the Rios family, the Terror Squad, and the entire Loud staff for this classic!
Wack 100 found himself in another controversy. This time, it’s surrounding Fat Joe’s long-standing issues with Big Pun’s widow, Liza Rios. During a recent Instagram video post, the West Coast executive detailed that he worked things out with Rios to help her family. However, he seemingly called out Fat Joe over allegations that he withheld Pun’s royalties from the late rapper’s family. In 2016, Joe and Rios settled their suit for an undisclosed amount, though some industry experts said Pun was owed closer to $2 million.
Wack took to Instagram where he clarified the things that he said during the call, including his stance with Fat Joe. “I never had a conversation with Fat Joe about Big Pun or business with Big Pun,” he said to begin with. However, Wack said that his most recent interaction with Joe was pleasant. “Last time I seen Fat Joe, we was at Prime 112, 25 deep, and he covered the whole bill. That’s Game’s friend. He been my friend,” he said in an attempt to clarify their suspected issues.
Wack explained that he wasn’t entirely knowledgeable about the issues between Fat Joe and Liza Rios before meeting with her. “Big Pun’s wife came to see me, Liza. Told me she was looking for a situation that would be healthy for her,” he said. “Big Pun, I feel like is part of the culture, like, that’s Big Pun. His story needs to be told. What I did do is line up a situation that was healthy for her,” he added. Wack said that he reached out to his team to push a series on Big Pun, which he said is now on the way.
Ultimately, Wack 100 didn’t want anyone, including Fat Joe, to think there were any actual issues. He said that he and Fat Joe have never had a conversation surrounding Big Pun in the past. “As far as I’m concerned, he wanna see Pun win and his family win. The Fat Joe I know,” he said. “Let’s kill that narrative. Fat Joe’s a friend of mine… Let’s kill the narrative that Wack stood up to Fat Joe,” he said. Check out the full clip above.
On this day in 2000, the first posthumous L.P. to be released by the first “Latin to go platinum” entitled Yeeeah Baby was released on the Loud/Terror Squad imprint.
Christopher “Big Pun” Rios passed away just shy of two months before his sophomore L.P.’s release and anticipated success, which came on the heels of his debut album, Capital Punishment. With appearances from the entire Terror Squad and executive production by the T.S. general Fat Joe, the 16-track album showed Pun’s acute diversity in his lyricism and approach to song-making, which yielded some of the most memorable songs of his career. The album took longer to record because of Pun’s extreme obesity since his breathing problems couldn’t permit him to spit his custom, rapid-fire flow freely.
Some of the L.P.’s favorites are the Puerto Rican anthem “100%” with Terror Squad crooner Tony Sunshine on the hook, “New York Giants” featuring M.O.P., “Ms. Martin,” an ode to his protege Remy Ma and the touching single “It’s So Hard” featuring Donnell Jones.
Salute to Big Pun, Pun Jr., and the entire Terror Squad for this remarkable piece of Hip Hop History!
On this date in 2000, the Hip Hop community was both shocked and saddened by the untimely death of lyrical giant Christopher “Big Pun” Rios. As the premiere artist for Fat Joe’s Terror Squad, Pun became the first Latino Hip Hop artist to go platinum and discovered TS’ First Lady, Remy Ma.
Pun is regarded as one of the game’s best lyricists to ever do it, or as he is aptly described, one of the best “dead or alive”. His only two full-length releases, Capital Punishment and Yeeahhh Baby, are considered classic albums among true Hip Hop aficionados and continue to get radio play on his smash singles “I’m Not A Player” and the posthumous “It’s So Hard”.
Rest In Peace to Pun and sincere condolences to the Rios family from the entire Mind Squad.
Born on this date in 1975, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson is undoubtedly one of the most influential forces in the game today. From music to movies to successful business ventures, Fif has always stayed on top of his game ever since he made his unconventional entrance at the end of the last millennium.
What has always kept 50’s name in the people’s mouths is the fact that he always had someone else’s name in his! Not to be confused with the common studio gangster, 50 has not only survived, but remained triumphant and relevant after all of his beefs.
Here’s a short list of some of Fif’s most mentioned beefs in and out of the studio:
1. Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff
This beef between street soldier and kingpin became a story reminiscent of David and Goliath, with 50 Cent battling the most feared gangster in his Jamaica, Queens hometown. This riff was depicted in 50’s blockbuster film Get Rich Or Die Tryin’. The real ending? Fif is a successful businessman and Supreme is currently in a federal supermax correctional facility for life. According to recent reports, however, an appeals court has now forced a federal judge to reconsider Supreme’s appeal for a sentence reduction.
2. Big Pun
On 50’s first widely recognized track “How To Rob” featuring The Madd Rapper, he creatively spits scenarios about him catching several of your favorite rappers and R&B singers slipping. One of them happened to be the Terror Squad top recruit, the late Big Pun, who didn’t take it very lightly. On Pun’s Yeeeaah Baby! album, he tells Fif on one of the tracks, “I’m gonna make a song called ‘How I beat your fuckin ass’…”. Nothing never happened off wax with this beef and Pun passed suddenly on February 7, 2000.
3. The Game
With the G-Unit at the top of the rap tier at the turn of the 21st Century, if you weren’t with them, you and your crew were definitely getting rolled over. The Game, who happened to be the only recruit on the Guerrilla Unit squad that wasn’t from the East Coast, made the mistake by believing that his career would remain afloat without 50. With no help against the barrage of battle records from G-Unit to the unsuccessful “Boycott G-Unit” campaign, it’s safe to say that Fif come out on top of this one.
4. Rick Ross
The Bawse seemed to be the only artist that has even been able to maintain his relevance after beef with Mr. Jackson. Ironically, this beef started over an alleged wrong look at the BET Awards towards Ross. These two traded bars until Fif came out with the “Officer Ricky” track, in which 50 promised told Rozay “Ima fuck your life up for fun’. At the 2012 BET Hip Hop Awards in ATL, Gunplay from Ross’ Maybach Music Group allegedly had his chain snatched and Fif was seen wearing the chain days later.
5. Ja Rule
His battle with 50 Cent should’ve been a warning to the rest of the artist who came after him with a problem with the Queens MC. These two were from the same hood, which made the beef that much more personal. While 50 claims that Rule hid behind the protection of “Supreme” McGriff, who was suspected of facilitating the unsuccessful hit on Jackson, Rule maintained a successful career until the continuous physical confrontations and vicious shots proved to be too much for certified platinum Murder Inc. artist. Last year, these two bumped heads on a flight, but time must have healed old wounds because the two just greeted each other with a “what’s up” as they flew together.
Undoubtedly, Big Pun was one of the most lyrically feared emcees to ever touch the mic. His mentor, Fat Joe, talked about Big Punisher with Angie Martinez the week of the Puerto Rican Day Parade in an interview, reminiscing about how hard it was to get certain rappers to jump on a track with the late Terror Squad lieutenant.
Back in 1998, Joe Crack dropped “John Blaze”, which featured some of the illest lyricist in the game at that time, including Jadakiss, Raekwon The Chef and Nas. “In the most respectful way it’s kinda like I set up Nas on that record,” Joe remembered. “Because Pun really wanted to get on a record with Nas…Nas did the record one million percent but there was artists, not Nas, but there was artists that was really scared to jump on records with Pun. So we almost had to like gas guys like, ‘Yo it’s my record’ and then throw Pun on it. The story is you know he waited for Cannabis about 30 to 100 sessions and he never walked in the door to do the song with Pun.”
Watch the entire interview with Angie Martinez below.
