Big Punisher Biography
Christopher Rios, 9 November 1971, Bronx, New York City, USA, d. 7 February 2000, White Plains, New York City, New York, USA. This rapper of Puerto Rican descent, who looked set to take over the mantle of the Notorious B.I.G. before his untimely death, grew up in the Bronx. After leaving school at the age of 15, Rios balanced raising a young family with his nascent rapping career. He was originally known as Big Moon Dog before adopting the stage name Big Pun, an abbreviated version of Big Punisher. His astonishing breath control and rhyming ability started to attract attention following features on albums by Raekwon, the Beatnuts, Funkmaster Flex, and his mentor, Fat Joe. Buoyed by the underground success of his single "I'm Not A Player", a deal with Loud Records was not long in following. The acclaimed Capital Punishment was recorded with several leading producers, including Trackmasters, RZA and the Beatnuts, and released in spring 1998. The album climbed into the US Top 5 while the single "Still Not A Player" reached the US Top 30. It was less commercial material, such as the verbal joust with Black Thought of Roots on "Super Lyrical", that raised many jaded critics expectations. The following year Big Pun teamed up with Fat Joe and the young rappers Cuban Link, Armageddon, Triple Seis and Prospect to form the Latino rap "supergroup", the Terror Squad. The crew's self-titled album for Atlantic Records enjoyed strong sales and polite reviews. Big Punisher continued his seemingly inexorable rise with strong contributions to singles by Fat Joe, Noreaga, and Jennifer Lopez, while continuing to work on his eagerly awaited sophomore album. Beset by chronic weight problems, however, he succumbed to a heart attack in February 2000. The quality of the material on the posthumous Yeeeah Baby, which appeared barely two months later, made the loss seem even more tragic.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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