179. Notorious B.I.G., "Life After Death"

 


Just an absolute beast of an record, this double album, which was released two weeks after Biggie was shot to death in LA, sold over 10 million copies and is widely regarded as one of the best rap albums of all time.  As an added bonus, it is a fantastic album.

Biggie, of course, was rightfully lauded for his flow, more on which later, but what really struck me listening to it again was the production.  It's almost perfect, from the selection of samples to the way the songs are assembled.  They're not only the perfect canvas for Biggie to work with; they also stand on their own musically.  It's what makes "Hypnotize" a song that gets stuck in your head and not just a great rap.  The chorus melody is lifted from Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick's classic "La Di Da Di," but it's so cleaned up and repurposed that it's basically a new thing.  

There are a ton of guests, and B.I.G. gives them the room to do their thing.  On "Notorious Thugs," guests Bone Thugs-n-Harmony do their classic staccato raps.  Jay-Z shows up on "I Love the Dough," which also features a slick lift from Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?"  ("Fuck You Tonight," which is about its titular subject matter, would be a kinda great slow jam if not for the now-uncomfortable presence of R. Kelly.)

But of course Biggie's voice is the centerpiece and the reason this album went diamond.  Take a song like "Ten Crack Commandments."  Over a hypnotic repeating sample from Les McCann's "Vallarta," Big lays out the rules for dealing crack.  It's a weird song; there's no chorus, and it kind of lopes along, but it shows off the man's voice.  It sounds extremely laid-back and easy, but it's a deep rumble that also manages to convey a sense of foreboding.  It's no wonder he was a legend on the streets in Brooklyn for his rapping before he was even signed.

The whole album is eerie, of course, in light of what would happen to Biggie just weeks before it was released.  The story of the East Coast-West Coast rap feud and how it led to the death of both Biggie and Tupac is well-trod ground by now (I highly recommend season 3 of the Slow Burn podcast about these events; even if you know the story, you are guaranteed to learn something new) but you can forget that there was an actual husband and father who was shot to death leaving a party in LA for no good reason.  Imagine what could have been.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? No question.

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