Big L

The story of Lamont Coleman started off one warm spring day in what is now referred to as the Danger Zone. On May 30th 1974, the last of three children was born to Gilda Terry in Harlem, New York. She would name him Lamont, but by the end he would come to be known as Big L, a name to go down in the hip-hop history books. Lamont was never physically Big as a child, his nickname was Little Lamont, and like most great emcees a lust for hip-hop flourished at an early age. Lamont was always known as a joker, from cracking corny puns to his aunts and uncles as a child to spitting slick lyrical verses.

Cameron Giles was among those who knew him best, “He was mad funny…that’s why when he rhymed, he had a lot of slick shit to say. I wanted him to be on my next album. He was never on that hatin’ shit. I’ll always have mad love for him.”

As an adolescent Lamont grew up listening to the talents of Run-DMC, Cold Crush Four, and Big Daddy Kane, eventually, he started to mimic his favourite rappers. For all his life Lamont lived on 139th Street and Lenox Avenue he would learn to rhyme in the park near his house at 104th West 139th Street; he would spend hours there trading rhymes with friends to pass the time. Eventually, while attending Julia Richmond High School he was given an alias; Big L, to spite his childhood nickname, he stood only five foot eight inches tall.

L describes his lyrical growth, “I started writing rhymes in 1990 and was in a group called Three The Hard Way, but they wasn't serious so I went solo. Then I started winning rap contests and battling everybody in my 'hood and roastin' em.”

In fact L would win more sanctioned freestyle contests than any other Harlem emcee in the 1990's. L kept perfecting his natural talent and by the time he was seventeen years old he was fast approaching the line that divides pastime and profession. His lyrics defined by the world around him gave insight into fabled Harlem shootouts and legendary Harlem street life.