Tiyanna and C.J. lost a father. Faith lost a lover. And Miss Wallace lost her only son. For that, it’s important to remember that while Biggie is one of the most celebrated musicians of all time, there are people out there who lost someone much, much more important than a rapper.

Still, Big’s greatest gift to the world was his music and those who took his life 15 years ago today silenced arguably the most effortless flow the rap world will ever know. There’s Ready To Die, there’s Life After Death and there’s Born Again. And then there’s also a slew of guest features we still bang to this day. That’s fine and all, but have you ever taken a moment to think about what songs Chris Wallace would have jumped on had he never lost his life on March 9, 1997?

If B.I.G. were still with us, there’s not a doubt in my mind he’d still be jumping on remixes, lobbing finely placed guest verses and, if we were lucky, more than two solo albums. Yet, one song I’ve always wanted to hear him bless was Freeway’s classic “What We Do.” Seeing Frank White hoodie’d and Timb’d out while sitting on the couches outside with Beans, Free and Jay? Man, listen. We were all cheating out of something unique, especially when pondering the type of verse he could have spit over this Just Blaze-production. Given the stories of he and Jay’s competitive bravado when in the studio together, the only outcome is that a timeless record could have held even more significance.

Everything’s all fantasy now because, unfortunately, that’s all we have to go on. While not as prolific as another rapper he is forever attached at the hip with, God bless Big for leaving us the music he did record. It’ll last forever in the same vein his large shadow over the rap game does. I have no problem sounding like a greedy fan saying this next statement. It just would’ve been dope if he had the opportunity to leave us with so much more.

R.I.P. Christopher Wallace