Big Pun

The Puerto-Rican rapper, Big Pun, short for Big Punisher, was born with the name Christopher Lee Rios in the Bronx.  Pun lived his early childhood with his mother and stepfather who both attempted to raise him in a military fashion (41). 

At age nineteen, Pun was awarded an estimated half-million dollars from a settlement over a leg he broke at a municipal park when he was five.  He eventually started rapping under the name Big Moon Dog in 1989, allying himself with Triple Seis, Cuban Link, and Prospect.  The three forged the group, Full A Clips Crew, but in 1995 Pun was noticed by Fat Joe, and was signed solo on Loud Records.  His first album, Capital Punishment, went platinum after a few months upon its release, making Big Pun the first Latino solo rapper to achieve platinum status (42). 

Big Pun’s success eventually brought about his excessive consumption of food.  Although Fat Joe convinced Pun to check into a weight clinic, he eventually quit the program before actually finishing it and died on February 7, 2000 of a heart attack and respiratory failure (43).