In addition to the real nikka facts i layed down,my stance was never soley based on albums sales are even personal sales. Bone and pac were bigger.
However Biggie was overall bigger. for the following reasons
nikkas need to understand that biggie had one of the greatest singles/features runs ever for that time and anytime before him.
Every single from rtd was a classic with classic video to match.
Juicy's reign was more of a 94' thang.
But then came
Big poppa
Total's can't you see
Craig mack's flavor in your ear remix
Jr mafia's players anthem
One more chance remix
Warning
Jr mafia's get money
On top of that he was on Michael jackson's album
Did "runnin" with pac,stretch and dramacydal
Did Da b side with da brat (whom was huge coming off funkdafied and give it to you,first plat female solo rapper)
Also had dropped who shot ya.
nikka was on fire
That was more in a cultural sense and it also was overprocessed.
All because of where most pr outlets for music was located which was out east.
Plus those eastern based outlets were all cultural driven that spoke in rap favorably.
Tupac was still the larger artist and had a larger legacy draw and reach.
People in pr and because of big's cultural connection because of coast.
created a false amplification of big's permeation.
Yet he was never as large a draw as ruthless/priority or interscope based gangsta rap west coast locale artists.
It is just the truth the prison industrial model overswelled the grassroots draw of rap and its resulting sales.
Big was a more culturally accepted artist and his numbers during the original sales envelope of rtd, and the singles were smaller in sales and permeation than west coast ruthless and interscope artist.
The cultural connection big had because of locale aided him to draw and be given distinction to rival west coast acts as an alternative.
Yet big was never a higher draw than those ruthless or interscope artists.
Big was lower in cultural distinction than Wu.
Yet higher in cultural distinction than tupac or ruthless to interscooe gangsta rap groups.
Big had a higher draw than mobb deep but a lesser cultural connection than the qtip approved mobb deep.
Big had a higher draw in the mainstream but a lowr cultural draw and connection than jeru and nas.
As cultural connection, had nuffin to do with sales but the culture of hiphop.
Yet the culture of hiphop was smaller in number than the typical mainstream westcoast gangsta rap fan bases.
Meaning there were larger fans of bone, and Pac.
Than there were of the combined cultural driven fanbases of mobb deep, biggie, Wu, and nas.
People in the real world did not know who the culture based artist were at all.
Just like now, actually....
The culture was invisible till 96 to regular gateway mainstream gangsta rap fans or pop fans.
As gangsta rap is the gateway mainstream pop draw for rap music in that era.
Especially once NWA visited the white house after straight outta Compton the video debuted on 20\20.
Art Barr
