Today in Hip-Hop — November 10: Big Pun Would’ve Turned 55, and the RZA Beat Built From Wu, Mobb Deep and Rakim

November 10, 1971. Christopher Lee Rios was born in the South Bronx to Puerto Rican parents. He came up in Soundview, ran with an underground crew called Full-A-Clips under the name Big Moon Dawg, and became Big Punisher. Today he would have turned 55. The first jewel sits in the credits of his only lifetime album. On “Twinz (Deep Cover ’98),” the producer credit doesn’t read Dre. It reads Big Punisher and Fat Joe. Joe pitched the idea: take Dre’s 1992 Deep Cover instrumental and make one record that hit both coasts. Writer credits for Andre Young, Calvin Broadus and bassist Colin Wolfe ride along, and Snoop himself turned up in the video.

Capital Punishment: The Platinum Line

Fat Joe found him. Pun’s commercial debut came on Joe’s 1995 album Jealous One’s Envy, then a run of guest spots, including the Beatnuts’ “Off the Books.” In 1997 he signed to Terror Squad and Loud. Loud A&R Sean C played him beats from his partner Knobody, and Pun hired Knobody to rework “I’m Not a Player.” The original was built on the O’Jays’ “Darlin’ Darlin’ Baby,” which is why Gamble and Huff sit in the writer credits. The remix with Joe became “Still Not a Player,” and it climbed to No. 24 on the Hot 100.

Capital Punishment landed April 28, 1998. It peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200, topped the R&B/Hip-Hop albums chart, drew a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album, and went Platinum. No Latino solo rapper had done that before. The Bronx noticed. In 2021 the corner of East Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse became Big Pun Plaza.

Tres Leches: RZA on the Boards

Dig deeper into the tracklist and you hit track 21, “Tres Leches (Triboro Trilogy).” Pun trades verses with Prodigy and Inspectah Deck over a RZA beat, with the late Roc Raida on the cuts. The writer credits give the samples away: Eric Barrier and William Griffin are in there, because RZA lifted from Eric B. & Rakim’s “I Ain’t No Joke.” The track also pulls from Wu-Tang’s own “Method Man,” Raekwon’s “Guillotine (Swordz)” and Mobb Deep’s “The Start of Your Ending (41st Side).” That’s a whole era of New York stitched into one posse cut, on a Bronx debut.

Wear It

“The Start of Your Ending” opens The Infamous, and Prodigy brought that same cold Queensbridge energy to “Tres Leches.” We made a The Infamous tee for heads who still run the 41st Side intro before anything else on the record.

Also Today in Hip-Hop

• 1970: Warren G is born (56 today). The Long Beach connector who introduced Snoop to Dre, then took “Regulate” with Nate Dogg to No. 2 on the Hot 100. The full run is in our Warren G songs breakdown.
• 1992: UGK’s Too Hard to Swallow (34 years). Pimp C and Bun B’s debut came out on Jive and brought Port Arthur to the majors with “Pocket Full of Stones.” The bonus track is “Something Good,” remixed by Pimp C himself.
• 1978: Eve is born (48 today). Ruff Ryders’ First Lady. Her 1999 debut Let There Be Eve went straight to No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
• 2014: Big K.R.I.T.’s Cadillactica (12 years). Mississippi soul on Def Jam. It debuted at No. 5 with 44,000 copies, and K.R.I.T. stayed hands-on behind the boards.

Stay creative — The Custom Creative Team

Jon Jones