Big Frank

   

Big Frank
Photo of Big Frank in 2004
Background information
Birth name	Franklin Washington Duval
Born	September 2nd, 1972 Fort Travis, Kings, Sierra
Died	January 29th, 2006 (aged 33) Little Gibraltar, Channel Islands, Sierra
Genres	Hip-hop · Gangsta rap · West Coast rap · Political hip-hop
Instruments	Guitar · Vocals
Years active	1994 – 2006
Labels	Big Frank in da House · West Coast train · Styxie Big Time · Living Big

Franklin Washington Duval (September 2, 1972 – January 29, 2006), famously known as Big Frank, was a Sierran hip-hop artist and rapper and is considered to have been one of the greatest and most influential rappers in Sierran musical history. Born in Fort Travis in the province of Kings, Franklin grew up in the city, but had a troubled youth growing up due to his West Coast influenced culture and obesity issues causing him to have few friends and become socially isolated from his pears. He eventually moved to Shasta to complete his secondary education. There he developed his passion for music and rap and practiced rap during his free time throughout his high school years. After graduating in 1990, he moved to San Francisco City, San Francisco and would did solo-raps as a street perfumer and later a private entertainer before securing a deal in 1994 and worked for Pacific Records and later O.P. Entertainment in 1998.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s Big Frank became famous and was a household name in the Sierran Pacific Northwest with over 10 million records being sold by 2003 across the Pacific Northwest and another 2 million sold in the Styxie provinces. Throughout his life Franklin would struggle with obesity and turned it into a rap icon. His obesity became a rap symbol and had helped him rise to stardom, though he continued to struggle with it in private. In 2004, Big Frank became famous for his iconic order at Shirley's and his order would see him rise to further fame and more records were sold over the course of the year. After the order, Frank would start to exercise and would exercise, jog and run in private throughout 2005 fearing that his obesity would cause him to suffer a fatal health issue. He eventually died on January 29th, 2006 at the age of 33 from a heart attack which was attributed to his obesity according to the official autopsy while he was on tour in the Channel Islands.

In the years following his death, Big Frank has become an icon within Sierran rap and has been cited as a role model and source of inspiration for many contemporary Sierran artists and rappers. In 2009, Q-Lo had called Big Frank "an inspiration to Sierran rappers and musical artists all over" and called his death an untimely tragedy. Over 40 million records have been sold as of 2017 and has been memorialized across the country. Since 2005, Big Frank's order has been added to Shirley's menu and the street where Big Frank held his final concert in Little Gibraltar has been named in his honor.

Early life

Franklin Washington Duval was born on September 2 1972 in the city of Fort Travis, Kings at around 7:21 am. He was born in a working class family with his father being a blue collar worker for a mining company and his mother being a nurse at a local hospital in For Travis. During his youth, Franklin would live with his family in an apartment and would be frequently visited by extended family and friends of his parents. When he was five, he started to develop an interest in music and was encouraged to pursue it by his parents who wanted him to develop his passion. During an interview in 2000, Franklin said that his father "clearly saw my developing passion for music and fortunately let me persue it. I ow it to him that I'm able to do any of this". During his school days, Franklin would be socially isolated as he found it difficult to make friends due to his contrasting personality and frequent clashes with teachers, problems that only grew worse by the time he entered into his teenage years and would soon develop obesity as he frequently ate food, even large amounts, to cope with his few friends. One of the few people Franklin called his friend was Gregory Wellington, a Fort Travis native who was in the same school band class that Franklin would be a part of by the time he turned 15. Frank refered to Greg as "a true light in a source of constant darkness".

Personal life

Obesity and self-image

Franklin had delt with obesity throughout the majority of his life with the problem having developed when he was a preteen, but became noticable by the time he was 13 being diagnosed with it in 1986. Frank's obesity primarily came from the fact that he had few friends, both in Kings and Shasta, and only kept to a small group of them. This isolation greatly effected him and he took to frequently eating out with friends at various restaurants and fast food chains as a means of coping. In 1999, Frank said that his friends were big fast food fans saying "fast food was a frequent source of cheap and easily attainable food, and it still is, so we went there and ate it a lot. I did it to remain close with the boys and I didn't wanna lose that". Franklin had visibly gained weight by the time he was 16, but refused to let it stop him from playing music nor stop him from studying rap.

Discography

Main article: Big Frank discography

In popular culture

Main article: Big Frank in popular culture

See also

• Big Frank's order
• Music in Sierra