Song of the Moment

J. Cole - Lost Ones

Monday, August 9, 2010

Notorious B.I.G. - Ready To Die



Anonymously I got a request to review some Biggie. Somewhat surprising I haven't gotten to anything by him yet - but it happens. I will say, I was never a huge fan of Biggie back in the day. Since I was a Pac fan, it was hard to really enjoy Biggie. Not even so much from the beef standpoint - but because their styles are so different. Biggie relies a lot on a sweet background arrangement for him to flow over, and he has a lot of rhythm to his raps. Pac on the other hand just went hard, and he had that raw emotion quality. I think I started to respect Biggie more after college when I really sat down and listened to the lyrics. Juicy is one of the best rap songs ever, regardless of what coast you vibe with. Conversely, I think Big Poppa is one of the more overrated hip hop tracks ever. I also quite enjoyed the film 'Notorious' that came out a couple years back. Biggie certainly has that typical rap story - big into the drug game, has kids, get noticed and makes it big. Regardless of what I feel about his raps, he died way too early. I'm glad that whole beef until guys get shot thing is over. I don't doubt Pac and Biggie would be friends again today and making phenomenal music together. This is shockingly only 4x platinum, but plays much better than that. There are probably a few tracks that could have been cut from this, and it'd have been a 5 star record all the way. A couple too many weaker flows on here to be really great. Still a very good record, one that you need to hear if you haven't already. This had a huge influence on modern hip hop and molded many artists into what they are today. Enjoy!

TRACK LISTING:
1. Intro
2. Things Done Changed
3. Gimme the Loot
4. Machine Gun Funk
5. Warning
6. Ready to Die
7. One More Chance
8. #!*@ Me (Interlude)
9. What, The
10. Juicy
11. Everyday Struggle
12. Me & My Bitch
13. Big Poppa
14. Respect - (Patois)
15. Friend of Mine
16. Unbelievable
17. Suicidal Thoughts
18. Who Shot Ya
19. Just Playing (Dreams)

Listen To Samples

Top 3 Tracks:
1. Juicy
2. Who Shot Ya
3. One More Chance

FINAL RATING:
4 out of 5 stars

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