Big Pun

Posted on 03.19.2000

Big Punisher
Real name: Christopher Lee Rios
The Bronx, New York
9 November 1971- February 7, 2000

Big Punisher was a Puerto Rican rapper who emerged from the underground rap scene in The Bronx in the late 1990s. He appeared on albums from Raekwon, the Beatnuts and Fat Joe, and eventually signed to Loud Records. Struggling with weight problems during his lifetime, Pun’s career was cut short in 2000 after a fatal heart attack. He was survived by a wife and three children.

Born in The Bronx during the early years of hip-hop, Christopher Rios grew up in an athletic tradition, enjoying basketball, boxing, and other sports. He met his now widowed wife Liza, in the eighth grade. At the age of five, he broke his leg in a Manhattan municipal park, which would later be settled by the city of New York. At the age of 15, Pun dropped out of Stevenson High School. Sometime during the ’80s, Rios began to write rap lyrics, forming the Full A Clips Crew with Triple Seis, Cuban Link, and Prospect. After meeting fellow Puerto Rican and Bronx rapper Fat Joe , in 1995, Pun became increasingly associated with him, making his commercial debut on Joe’s second album, Jealous Ones Envy (J.O.E.).

After an advertising blitz, "I’m Not a Player" (featuring an O’Jays sample) was an underground hit. The song’s remix, "Still Not a Player" (featuring Joe), became Pun’s first major mainstream hit. His full-length debut, Capital Punishment, followed in 1998, and was the first album by a Latino rapper (and a Latino solo artist) to go platinum. Around this time, Big Pun became a member of The Terror Squad , a New-York-based group of Latino rappers founded by Fat Joe, with most of the roster supplied by the now-defunct Full A Clips Crew.

His second album, Yeeeah Baby, was already scheduled to be released at the time of his death, and was issued in March 2000. A second posthumous album, Endangered Species, was released in 2001, a collection of "greatest hits," new material, guest appearances, and remixed "greatest verses."

Mostly Punisher likes to spend time at home with his family and listen to R&B. When asked about some of his favorites, names like Lou Rawles and Richard Marx came to mind as did Surface and Ready For The World. But, at the same time, Rakim and Run DMC were fully committed to memory, of course. Ultimately, whatever he was doing and listening to for the past ten years has helped him become one of the most outstanding hip-hop talents in years.

Big Pun’s supporters generally praise him for his complex rhyme schemes, intricate wordplay, ability to stay on-beat, and relentless flow and breath control.

Big Punisher Discography:

Big Pun Album
Endangered Species 2001
Yeeeah Baby 2000
Terror Squad 1999
Capital Punishment 1998

RIP Big Punisher
9 November 1971- February 7, 2000