Biggie Smalls Ready To Die Album
Label: Bad Boy Records
'Somehow the rap game reminds me of the crack game,' Nas observed on 'Represent,' from his impeccable debut album. Where Illmatic exposed the ravages of the drug trade through the eyes of a project poet, Biggie Smalls' debut Ready to Die told a similar story from the inside looking out. This shift in perspective was clear from the opening moments of the album's first single, a cut called 'Juicy' that laid crack-dealer angst over a radio-friendly Mtume sample: 'This album is dedicated to all the teachers who told me I'd never amount to amount to nothin',' Biggie said with more than a touch of bitterness. 'To all the people that lived above the buildings that I was hustling in front of that called the police on me when I was just trying' to make some money to feed my daughter, and all the niggas in the struggle.'
Christopher Wallace was well acquainted with said struggle. A small-time hustler who grew up on the streets of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, Biggie came to discover that he was even better at rapping than slanging and stickups. He made his name in the rap game battling on street corners and went on to record his demo in the home studio of local DJ 50 Grand. That tape found its way to Big Daddy Kane's DJ Mister Cee and from there to The Source's 'Unsigned Hype' column, which soon landed Biggie in the office of Sean 'Puffy' Combs, the youngest A&R exec in the history of Uptown Records. By that time Puff was already planning to launch his own label and he wanted Biggie down with his team. Biggie's lyrical gifts were undeniable, his booming voice spitting punchlines so hard that they left dents in listeners' brains. But he was nobody's sucker, and took a fair amount of convincing to believe the 'it was all a dream' visions with which Sean 'Puffy' Combs was filling his head.
Comparing Ready to Die and Illmatic may be unfair, but in the end it's unavoidable.
The album was recorded in two bursts of creativity, the first half-hard-body cuts like 'Machine Gun Funk,' 'Things Done Changed' and 'Gimme The Loot'-laid down when Biggie was signed through Uptown Records. After Puffy was fired (no doubt for spending too much time and energy on his own dreams and not enough working for his employer) financial pressures led Biggie to resume hustling in North Carolina while Puffy negotiated the multi-million-dollar deal at Arista to launch his own Bad Boy imprint. The hits came during the second wave of recording: 'Big Poppa' and 'One More Chance' and 'Juicy' were the songs that made the 300-pound-plus BK roughneck an unlikely pop star.
Comparing Ready to Die and Illmatic may be unfair, but in the end it's unavoidable. Like most great MCs after 1994, Biggie was profoundly influenced by Nas. Moreover, the composition of his album—from the cover art that led to Biggie getting called out on 'Shark NIggas (Biters)' from Raekwon's stellar debut OB4CL, to the opening interlude that was so reminiscent of 'The Genesis'—is so close that it almost feels like an Illmatic homage.
There were many important differences as well. While Ready to Die was certified platinum in less than a year, it took almost two years for Nas' debut to be certified gold. Puffy and Biggie proved that New York rappers could earn platinum plaques, even if they did it by taking a page from Dr. Dre's funk-driven production style and blending it with rugged New York beats by the likes of DJ Premier, Easy Mo Bee, and Lord Finesse with tracks that took.
On songs like 'Warning' and 'Unbelievable' Biggie Smalls raps like 'a motherfuckin rap phenomonen,' as he immodestly put it on 'The What,' another of Ready to Die's untouchable classics. Songs like these are what earned Ready to Die its spot among the top 5 albums of rap's greatest decade.
Nas and Big remain two of the greatest MCs in history, and their debuts stand as pillars of New York hip-hop. Where Nas followed his debut with a 20-year career and a rich and varied body of work, Biggie's debut album ended with a song depicting his own suicide. The fact that he did not live to see the release of his masterpiece, Life After Death, says more about hip-hop in the 1990s than 10,000 thinkpieces, and underscores the realness that oozes from every pore of this remarkable album. —Rob Kenner
On the 20th anniversary of Biggie's death, we take a look at 15 amazing facts about the iconic 1994 project - the only studio album he released while alive.
1. Biggie never wanted to record 'Juicy'.
His manager, Mark Pitts, is quoted as telling MTV; 'During Junior M.A.F.I.A. and making the Lil’ Kim album, going into Life After Death, that was a new Big. In the beginning he was trying to figure [the rap game] out. Even making his records on Ready to Die, it’s a lot of joints he didn’t want to do, like 'Juicy.'
2. It is NOT Biggie on the cover of Ready To Die.
The baby is now a 20-year-old basketball player called Keithroy Yearwood living in the US. What did he make for appearing on the album that would go down in history and be regarded as one of the best albums ever to be made in hip-hop? $150.
3. The original Rolling Stones review of 'Ready To Die' read:
'Ready to Die is the strongest solo rap debut since Ice Cube's Amerikkka's Most Wanted. From the breathtakingly visual moments of his birth to his Cobainesque end in 'Suicidal Thoughts,' B.I.G. proves a captivating listen. It's difficult to get him out of your head once you sample what he has to offer.'
4. 'Ready To Die' wasn't certified platinum till after Biggie's death.
The album has an iconic status but many forget that it was actually a slow burner when it was released, having only moved 57,000 copies in its first week album sales. The album picked up momentum when Biggie dropped 'Big Poppa', but wasn't certified platinum till 1999, two years after Biggie's death.
5. The original New York Times review of 'Ready To Die' read:
'Though drug dealing carries tremendous heroic value with some young urban dwellers, he sacrifices the figure's romantic potential. His raps acknowledge both the excitement of drug dealing and the stress caused by the threat from other dealers, robbers, the police and parents, sometimes one's own. In presenting the downside of that life, Ready to Die offers perhaps the most balanced and honest portrait of the dealer's life of any in hip-hop'.
6. Biggie never won a Grammy for 'Ready To Die'.
Not for the album, or for any of its singles. In fact, it only received one nomination. It was for 'Best Rap Solo Performance' for 'Big Poppa', but ultimately lost out to Coolio's 'Gangst'a Paradise.'
7. Biggie was sued for copyright because of the samples used on the album.
A jury decided that Biggie and Puff illegally used samples in 'Ready To Die', 'Machine Gun Funk' and 'Gimme The Loot.' They were made to pay $2.8 millions in damages because of it.
8. The Source gave 'Ready To Die' five 'mics' 8 years after it was released.
In The Source's 1994 issue they gave 'Ready To Die' four 'mics', writing; 'Big weaves tales like a cinematographer, each song is like another scene in his lifestyle. Overall, this package is complete: ridiculous beats, harmonizing honeys, ill sound effects, criminal scenarios, and familiar hooks'. Autocad 2008 crack download. Eight years on from the album's release, and their original review, they bumped it up to a 5 mic rating.
9. Biggie was dealing drugs in-between making 'Ready To Die'.
When Biggie's executive producer, Puff Daddy, was fired from Uptown half-way through recording the album he was left in no mans land. Biggie went back to drug dealing in North Caroline before returning the the studio a year later on Puff's Bad Boy Records label.
10. Biggie started memorizing his lyrics during the making of the second half of the album.
First his break from making the album, Biggie would write all of the lyrics he created down in a notebook. But after returning to record the second half a year on, he would record the raps entirely from memory, never writing his lyrics down.
11. What was the first song Biggie recorded off 'Ready To Die?
The album's titled track, of course.
12. Biggie was only 21-years-old when he recorded 'Ready To Die'.
Biggie was born on 21st May 1972. Recording on the album began in 1993, and it was released in 1994. Picture: Rex
13. The meaning behind the 'Juicy' Lyric; 'To all the teachers that told me I'd never amount to nothing'
Biggie's teacher told him that he would likely be a garbage collector when he was older, his mum recalls Biggie telling the story of how he did some research and got back to the teacher the next day, saying; 'A teacher makes a starting salary of $22,500. A garbage collector starts at $29,000…You said some of us inside here are gonna be garbage collectors. But we're gonna be making more money than you, so that's cool.' Picture: Rex
14. It Was Puff Daddy aka Sean Combs that heavily shaped 'Ready To Die'.
Biggie wasnted the album to be full of heavy rap and rough around the edges, it was Puff Daddy who at the time convinced him to make more commercial songs and appeal to a wider audience.
15. Q Magazine only gave 'Ready To Die' 3 out of 5 stars in its original review.
The review said: 'The natural rapping, clever use of sound effects and acted dialogue, and concept element (from a baby being born at the start to the fading heartbeat at the end) set this well apart from the average gangsta bragging'.