March 9 is a day the hip hop world stops and remembers the life and legacy of Christopher Wallace, known to the world as The Notorious B.I.G. For years, Ernie Paniccioli helped document the growth of hip hop as it rose from a new genre in music, to the world’s biggest phenomenon. His photos through the years showcase legends such as LL Cool J, Public Enemy, DMX, Foxy Brown, Lil’ Kim, Nas, Jay-Z, 2Pac, and the list goes on.
The Mask of Doom
I first heard the rapper Daniel Dumile (pronounced doom-ee-lay) when I was fourteen and hip-hop was just beginning to bloom. The music was not so much “CNN for black people,” as Chuck D would later dub it, as a lingua franca. I came up awkward in West Baltimore—a tall black boy with no jumper, no gear, and no game. But my mastery of the arcane verses of X-Clan, my sense that the decoupling of EPMD was an irreparable tragedy, and my abiding hatred of Vanilla Ice ushered me into the scowling ranks of my generation.
Disco King Mario
By 1971, Disco King Mario was an eminent DJ in the Bronx.He was known for his superior sound system and his love for combining music and a good time. Mario came up during the era where you had to be tough enough to bring your equipment out, because of how prevalent gangs and violence were in the Bronx in the early 70s. But the Disco King was respected all over, from neighborhood mothers to the grimiest gangsters. He is a major part of the creation of Hip Hop.