The Notorious BIG - Ready to Die
Until this year, rap was one of those genres that I perpetually told myself I was "going to check out"- which essentially meant that I never listened to it. My only exposure to the art form was the occasional radio airplay, along with a few songs I'd somehow downloaded. However, after coming off of a long stretch of listening to electronic music almost exclusively, I decided to bite the bullet and pick up a few old rap albums, just to see what I was missing.
After Dr. Dre's The Chronic, I realized that I was missing a lot. The production on that album is famous for being extraordinarily well-done, and I was so impressed that I immediately picked up the debut albums of rap titans Nas (Illmatic) and Snoop Dogg (Doggystyle). After dismissing rap for so long, it felt almost comical to walk around blasting N.Y. State of Mind and Gz and Hustlas, but I did it anyway, because it felt right.
Ready to Die, although indisputably an east-coast album, seemed to me like a sort of bridge between the relaxed, metropolitan sound of Illmatic and the funky, suburban hustle of Doggystyle. Biggie practically waltzes between styles- performing flawless hip-hop chest-thumping on "Big Poppa", while still opening up on tracks like "Juicy". This subject-hopping keeps the album interesting for the duration, and the production, while not always fascinating, enhances Biggie's deep, smooth flow.
Biggie was a man who understood his art form. Rest in peace.
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