By nishtha toshniwal | March 7, 2014 0 Comments

Net Worth: $5 million

Career/Profession: Rapper

Christopher Lee Rios, popularly known all over the world with his stage name Big Punisher or Big Pun in another short form. Big pun was another eminent member of the hip-hop community and was a famous American rap-artist. He was in demand due to his amazing skills as a rapping artist.

His short tempered attitude in his childhood:

Big Pun belongs to Bronx, New York and took birth on November 10^th, 1971. His early years passed in the Southern part of the city and it was a very tough time for him as he was brought up by his mother and stepfather. His mother had a drug addiction and his relationship with his stepfather was very hard. Pun in his childhood was very short-tempered and used to show his anger by punching holes in the walls of his house. He actively attended his school and took part in athletes every time. But at the age of 15 he left his home and also dropped out of his high school because of his misdeeds.

Full of stress:

After dropping his high school he showed his full interest in rapping and break dance. It was a very hard time for him as he was homeless and one more responsibility took over him. He became a father of a child at a very young age after getting into a relationship with his school friend Liza. To overcome this stress he tends to eat more and became over weight. The couple got married in 1990 and had two more children after their marriage

His relationship with Fat Joe:

In 1989, Pun was known to be a Big Moon Dog. He formed a group Full-A-Clips Crew along with his friends Triple Seis and Cuban Link. He used to write lyrics for the songs of this group. Rios came into contact with Fat Joe and Puerto Rican and started working with them on his second album Jealous One’s Envy. He appeared on his song ‘Watch out’. Their strong friendship was the result of the two overgrowing talents.

Music career:

• Capital Punishment:

In 1997, he came up with his first hit I’m not a player. This hit rose up his chart and ranked him on the top in the list of the rapping artist. This success continued with the album Capital Punishment in 1998 and took his name in the R&B Hip-Hop Chart. This album featured famous rappers such as Wyclef Jean and Busta Rhymes. This album got platinum certified and sold about 2 million copies.

• Yeeeah Baby:

Then he came up with Yeeeah Baby, his second album. It was not as successful as the first one, but then too produced two solid hits of that time i.e. It’s so Hard and 100%. Due to this it attained a gold certification from the hip-hop community.

• Terror Squad:

Pun for more wealth and fame decided to join the New York based group Terror Squad, which consists of rappers and was established by Fat Joe. They released their first album ‘The Album’ in 1999. This album did not hit the box office, but it sure sets up a future for all the other rappers to establish their own solo projects. He also made some of the guest appearances on various records which were directed by Jennifer Lopez and Noreaga. This list includes a hit Feeling So Good by Fat Joe too.

Weight increased with success:

Eating more and more was the Pun’s most effective way to overcome his stress. At the time of the release of his second album his weight was 400 pounds. People used to say that his weight increased with his success. He also joined a diet program with Duke University in 1999 in North Carolina because of the force of his friend Fat Joe. But its effect remained for a short period of time and he again regained his weight.

Extra works that featured Pun:

In 2001, Endangered Species came into the scene. It was a compilation album which featured some of his greatest hits and some of its unreleased material. This album also topped the Billboard chart, but only left a slight impression on viewer’s mind. The Final Chapter, another album featured Fat Joe and Big Pun. His track ‘Get your grind on’ had a bang start and that is with Pun’s radio interview. In 2001, Bronx city planned to rename some portion of Rogers Place in the honor of Pun. In 1999, he appeared as a lead role in Urban Menace and WhiteBoyz.

Big Pun: The Legacy

Big Pun: The Legacy was a short documentary movie released in September 2009. It included interviews and views of various actors, actresses, artist, rapper etc. That we’ll be in touch with him. It also featured some of his live and stage performances. It was directed by Vlad Yudin. The soundtrack of this was released through Sony Music.

Famous Quotes:

• I don’t want to be considered ‘the Latino rapper.’
• I wanna cover more ground, get a bigger fan base.
• I’m mostly concentrating now on continuing to make history in Hip-Hop, making everybody proud of me, I’m not just a rapper now, I’m in history now.
• The first album was 99 percent hard core to show you I was the best rhymer in the world.
• Let me do five of those, and then some slower ones for those kids that can’t understand what I’m saying.