Look Through Never-Before-Seen Photos from The Notorious B.I.G.'s First Press Run

Today marks the 42nd birthday of the late, great Notorious B.I.G., and in celebration The FADER unveils a set of old Kodak photos their co-founder, Rob Stone, had stored away in his personal collection. Throughout the series of pictures you’ll see a young B.I.G. joined by the likes of Funkmaster Flex, Sway and Craig Mack. Browse through the photos above, and read what Rob Stone had to say about the images below.

Heading to a visit at LA’s Power 106, Big comes down from his room wearing a black T-shirt with a Ku Klux Klan member holding a KKK baby, and in bold type it says, “Future Police Officer.” Here’s where the pressure to deliver for Clive and Puff kicked in, and I start thinking the worst. What if this shirt pisses off some of the execs at radio? What if Big is asked to pose for trade photos and the entire network of white-owned hip-hop stations see the shirt and refuse to play his record? So I asked Big to walk with me away from everyone and said, “Big, you know we’re heading to radio stations to get your record played.” He shook his head in agreement. “Well, these are white-owned radio stations. The shirt might offend them and get in the way of us getting your record played.” He looked down at his shirt to see what I was talking about. He paused, then chuckled and said, “We’re good Rob Stone, we’re good.” Well, he didn’t change his shirt and needless to say, the record got played.