Unbelievable ─ The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G

In this riveting account of Biggie’s remarkable life, hip hop journalist Cheo Hodari Coker tells the story you’ve never heard about the dramatic, tension-filled world of Biggie, Tupac, Puff Daddy, and Suge Knight, tracing their friendships and feuds from the beginning to the bitter end. Despite the clash of personalities and styles, all four were key players in a volatile and creative era of hip hop, a time when gangsta rap became popular music.

Before he rocketed to fame as Biggie, Christopher Wallace was a young black man growing up in Brooklyn with a loving single mother. An honors student who dropped out of school to sell drugs, Biggie soon discovered that he had a gift for rocking the mike. Coker’s narrative is based on exclusive interviews with Biggie’s family and friends, some of whom have never spoken publicly about Biggie before.

Compellingly written and brilliantly illustrated, with rare color and black-and-white photographs from VIBE’s archives and Biggie’s family, this is an in-depth look at the life and afterlife of an icon whose music is as powerful and prevalent as ever. A virtuoso of flow as well as a master storyteller, Biggie was arguably the greatest rapper of all time. We’ve heard a lot of speculation about Biggie’s death. Now it’s time to remember his life and celebrate his work.

CHEO HODARI COKER: CHEO HODARI COKER, 28, is an award-winning music journalist and freelance screenwriter. Coker has written cover stories, major features, and reviews for VIBE, the Los Angeles Times, Premiere, Essence, Details, The Face, Spin, Rolling Stone, The Source, XXL, Rap Pages, and the Village Voice.

Coker began writing for The Source, VIBE, and Essence, while still enrolled at Stanford University, where he completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in English in January 1995. Soon afterward, he moved to Los Angeles to work as a writer/producer for the short-lived MTV News movie segment program "MTV Screening Room". He left MTV in May 1995 to pursue his freelance journalism career, soon finding a home at the Los Angeles Times by September of that year.

Over the next two years, Coker became the paper's resident expert on R&B and Hip Hop. In 1997, Coker was named Second Place Winner in the competition for Music Journalist of the Year at the Third Annual Music Journalism Awards.

1997 was also the year Coker wrote the VIBE cover story "Chronicle of a Death Foretold," published shortly after the murder of the Notorious B.I.G. This article contained excerpts the Notorious B.I.G.’s last full-length interview. Coker was a featured expert in the VH1 Behind the Music episode devoted to Biggie, as well as in episodes about NWA and other rap legends.

Coker also wrote the chapter on NWA in the VIBE History of Hip Hop.

Coker left the Times in September 1997 to co-write the hip-hop thriller "Flow" with Richard (Uptown Saturday Night) Wesley, which was purchased by New Line Cinema for John (Boyz N' The Hood) Singleton to produce and direct.

Other recent screenplays include "Living For The City: The Marion Barry Story" for HBO, "When I Get Free: The Life and Times of Tupac Amaru Shakur" for MTV and the feature film "Legend: A Bob Marley Story" for Warner Bros. Coker also wrote, executive produced and created the animated horror series "The Devil's Music" for www.urbanentertainment.com.