Friends and family of late rapper Notorious B.I.G. came to honor his memory at what would have been his 50th birthday at the 2nd Annual B.I.G. Dinner Gala at Guastavino’s in New York City on Friday.
The event was hosted by Lil Kim, who told PEOPLE she believes the legend would still be “funny, fun, handsome, fly crazy” at age 50.
“It’s always important to honor the king. He’s the king. The king lives on,” Kim, 47, added. “He’s just an amazing person, amazing artist … his legacy. It’s just great. Like, I mean, look at the catalog. Look at everything that he’s accomplished, even at such a young age.”
Biggie’s son C.J. Wallace, who was also among the guest, said that “it speaks volumes” to see all the people who came out to keep his father’s legacy alive.
“You know how deep the legacy lives on, and you know how important it is to the family at the end of the day,” he said. “He has more than just his bloodline, he has a real distinct family of people that go beyond the grave.”
“He was more than just a rapper more than an artist. He was an educator, he was a poet, obviously a writer. He was a prophet. He was here to do more than just make some songs or record a couple of albums, which is, at the end of the day, that’s what he did. And he did way more than that in his spare time,” Wallace, 25, continued.
The Notorious B.I.G. died in a Los Angeles after being fatally struck in a drive-by shooting at age 24 in 1997, his son was just 5 months old.
