The Heartbreaking Way Faith Evans Discovered Biggie Was Dating Upcoming Rapper, Charli Baltimore
Most people are aware of the messy love triangle between Biggie Smalls, Faith Evans and Lil’ Kim. Evans and Kim have both spoken about it over the years, with Evans speaking about it more recently on an episode of Lifetime’s docuseries Hopelessly In Love. Evans also talked about another love interest in Biggie’s life. At the time of his death, Biggie was dating upcoming rapper, Charli Baltimore.
Faith Evans and Biggie Smalls’ marriage was filled with good and bad times, including infidelity
Evans and Biggie met at a promotional photoshoot for Bad Bad artists. Biggie didn’t drive so she gave him and his crew a ride back to Brooklyn. She later discovered that Biggie snuck her number from her contact card that was at the shoot.
They married within a month of dating and embarked on a whirlwind relationship. Though they loved one another immensely, Biggie was always involved with other women, including groupies and his rap protégée Lil’ Kim.
The constant infidelity and hurt proved too much to bear and they were on and off for much of their relationship. Evans found it difficult to try and maintain a home while both of their careers rose.
Faith Evans explains how she found out Biggie Smalls was dating Charli Baltimore
Evans and Biggie separated for good when she discovered he was dealing with Kim. She moved out of their Brooklyn home and into her own place and distanced herself from the Bad Boy family to avoid run-ins with her estranged husband. When Biggie went on a promotional tour to promote his new single, he met Charli Baltimore.
Baltimore says she met Biggie when he performed at a concert in her hometown of Philadelphia. After the performance, she asked the rapper for a photo. He asked her if he could take pictures of her and they spent the next hour or so outside of the venue taking photographs of one another. Their romance blossomed from there and she went on the road with him and he eventually helped her with music and helped develop her rap skills.
“He had the best sense of humor and best personality so it was a natural progression into a relationship,” Baltimore recalled. “He was definitely different from any dude I’d ever dated up until that point. Maybe about four or five months in, he was saying he loved me.”
Biggie’s business partner, Lance “Un” Rivera, said that Biggie claimed Baltimore from the start and introduced her into the already messy love triangle that involved him, Evans and Kim.
Though Evans was far from the Bad Boy family, that didn’t stop friends reporting Biggie’s relationship with Baltimore back to her.
“I just remember hearing that he would be out and around at places with her,” Evans recalled. “And I’m like wow he’s dating someone like that because he [Biggie] sure wouldn’t be cool if I was doing that, that would not be okay. I was still his wife and I was hurt about it.”
Biggie Smalls confirms his relationship with Charli Baltimore by putting her in a video as a diss to Faith Evans
Despite being separated, Biggie had Rivera call Evans one day and asked her to be his leading lady in a video for his single “Get Money”. Evans declined. As a way of getting revenge, he put Baltimore in the video. The issue was that the concept of the video centered around his issues with Evans. The songs included many subliminal disses towards his wife.
“He said I need a look-a-like faith that I can kick out of my house…I want Charli Baltimore in the video,” Rivera recalls. To make matters more complicated, Kim was featured on the song and Rivera knew it was messy to include all of Biggie’s love interests in the same video. He says he warned Biggie that it wasn’t a good idea but he moved forward with the concept anyways.
Baltimore was unaware that she was being used as a pawn at the time. “I had never done a video before so I wasn’t expecting the events that followed with people thought I was impersonating Faith,” she claimed.
The word spread about the video and industry insiders waited in anticipation of the video release. Despite the labels attempt to spin the narrative to the press that the intention wasn’t to mock Evans, everyone knew otherwise.
Both Kim and Evans were hurt by the video. Baltimore was Biggie’s new girlfriend who he was extremely public with, unlike Kim who he’d had a long term relationship with that he never shared with the public. Kim felt she was being replaced and Evans felt disrespected. It was a sign to Evans that Biggie was serious about Baltimore.
Evans and Biggie reconciled briefly and their son, Christopher Wallace Jr., was conceived. Biggie was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1997.
