Biggie is the first celebrity death in my memory. I was watching MTV and Kurt Loder’s solemn face came on with the news, and it actually made me pause and reflect because “Hypnotize” was all over the station at the time, and I was kinda into it. It took years for me to stop being 13, and finally listen to Ready to Die.

(Note to my future children reading my blog: before The Hype Machine, we used to find out when musicians died on MTV News, which was a legitimate thing at the time.)