Christopher Lee Rios was born on the 10th November 1971 in The Bronx, New York, USA, of Puerto Rican and American ancestry, and died from obesity-related heart failure on the 7th February 2000. He wass known to the world for being an American hip hop artist, who is best known for his debut album entitled “Capital Punishment”, which hit No. 1 on the hip hop charts. He was an active member of the music industry from 1990 to 2000, when he passed away.
Have you ever wondered how rich Big Pun was? According to the sources, it is estimated by sources that the overall amount of Big Pun’s net worth was over $5 million, which was earned through his career in the music industry.
Big Pun Net Worth $5 Million
Big Pun had a very hard childhood, because his father deceased when he was a baby, while his mother was addicted to drugs; he had a stepfather, who was very abusive. Thus, his grandmother looked after him. Under the bad influence of his family, Pun started having problems, so he was kicked out of high school, so was raised on the streets of the big city. His career began in 1990s, when he started writing lyrics, and eventually formed a rap group, consisting of the rappers Lyrical Assassin, Toom and Joker Jamz. However, he couldn’t break into the rap scene until 1995, when he had a guest appearance on the Fat Joe’s second album called “Jealous One’s Envy”, under the name Big Punisher.
The next year, he changed his alias to Big Pun and began to record music for his first album. He soon met producers Knobody and his colleague Sean C, who were hired to mix the song “I’m Not A Player”, which previously became a hit, performed by the singer Joe, and the new song was entitled “Still Not A Player”, and was recorded as a duet with its original singer. The song became a huge hit, and immediately launched Pun into the rap scene and contributed significantly to his net worth.
In 1998, Big Pun’s debut album was finally released, entitled “Capital Punishment”, and proved to be a tremendous accomplishment by the rapper, as it eventually reached platinum certification, and also 5th place on the Billboards top 200 chart, increasing his net worth by a large margin. After the release, Big Pun joined the Terror Squad, which was previously formed on the initiation of the rapper Fat Joe. Terror Squad released their only album in 1999, entitled “The Album”, but it was a complete bust.
Unfortunately, Pun’s career came to an abrupt stop, as he suffered a heart attack related to obesity on the 7th February 2000, which proved to be fatal for him.
However, two more albums were released after his death. His second album came out in April of 2000, entitled “Yeeeah Baby”, which was certified gold only three weeks after its release. In 2001, a compilation album was released, which consisted of some of his greatest hits, as well as previously unreleased material, and some of his guest appearances.
Besides albums, after his death, in September of 2009 the documentary movie about him called “Big Pun: The Legacy”, directed by Vlad Yudin, was released, which contains interviews with celebrities and others who knew him. Many famous musicians from the American scene appeared in the movie, such as Snoop Dogg, DJ Skribble, Xzibit and others.
Thanks to his accomplishment in the music industry, Big Pun was named No. 25 on the 50 Greatest MCs of All Time list by website About.com. He was also ranked No. 11 on the list of the 22 Greatest MCs, by MTV2.
Regarding his personal life, Big Pun was married to Eliza Rios. He left her behind with their three children when he deceased at the age of just 28. Their youngest child, son Chris Rivers has since followed his father’s footsteps and become a musician.
