Notorious B.I.G.
 

Does anyone listen to his 2 albums? I really like some songs by him, particularly Juicy and Everyday Struggle. They are quite catchy.

Ready to Die was good, he's got a very distinctive voice and is great at rhyming. I think his first album is pretty much as good as Hip-Hop gets. Didn't care for the second one.

I think Biggie is slightly overrated though.

I agree Ready to Die was great, but the second one was great as well just like the first one. You should check it out sometime, its definitely an album you should listen to if you enjoyed the first one. Its a double disc album called Life after death.

Another album he has is one called Born again with unreleased songs, but that was released long after he died, and had no input from Biggie himself.

Yeah Biggie is great, love Ready to Die. What would you guys fav tracks from Ready to Die be?

Also, don't we already have a Biggie thread somewhere?

Gimme the Loot and the title track definitely. What about yours mate?

I also find that interlude where he's having sex rather annoying. Have to skip that one.

I find the whole album quite annoying. Full of interludes, personal jokes and uninteresting filler. Yet just because of the media ****storm the Biggie/Pac feud built up this is considered a classic album. Nah, it's not. It's poor.

What? Are you being serious?

yes. The guy wasn't the best when he was around and has been surpassed many many times since. I can't listen to either one of his albums the whole way through because of all the irrelevance in them. Why would I want to listen to 20 seconds of someone coughing up?
As for the production, it sounds low-budget and gravelly. Nothing about the records has aged at all well.

What is so appealing to you lot about gun shots and various people shouting 'niqqa'
Omg, that's so revolutionary. 5* classic!

Dude I'll agree that some of the crap inbetween songs can get a lil annoying. Thats not what made Biggie and Pac great though. I think overall it was their ability to tell different storys in ways that wasn't so cliche and mundane like a lot, if not all of todays rap. Biggie was very stylistic in his delivery and overall sound. Most of the dialogue in his raps weren't overly predictable like todays are. To me Pac was the best of ALL time and you can say what you will but Biggie was def top 5 as well. The dispute between the two artists definately contributed to some of the notoriety they recieved, but overall it was their music that payed the most dividends to their fame. To me rap during that era was the best and has never been the same since. Dre, Cube, Pac, Snoop, Biggie my all time top 5.

You don't listen to much hip-hop do you?

Biggie and 2Pac were about as clichéd as you could get. Outside of drugs, bitches, beef and guns, what did they really talk about.
Oh yeah each had their embarrassingly bad attempts at creating sentimental emotional songs.
You're under the impression that Ready to Die = Good but 'all of todays rap' = bad. You sound like a generic Youtube comment.
Ready to Die doesn't use samples appropriately, the rapping is boring and uninspired. I've touched on the production. Add that to the tired clichés and failed sense of machoism, there's nothing at all 'great' about that album sans Suicidal Thoughts maybe.

As for your top 5 of all time, that's your opinion but before making sweeping inaccurate generalizations about hip-hop (i.e. all todays hip-hop is bad, which couldn't be further from the truth) why don't you try listening to it first?

Uhh dude I try to but everything I hear has not appealed to me at all. Its either "yeahhhh boiiiiii" or "whhhaaaattt" and just recycled garbage lyrics and beats. The storys aren't told in a way thats articulate at all and most the beats sound like a tayor swift song chopped and screwed up. Eminem had some stuff I liked but I really cant think of anyone else who I could acknowledge as tolerable. Dont say lil wayne cause every song sounds the same.

But no, I dont listen to much hip hop anymore cause I havent heard anything appealing really for a long time. The occasional old schoolers putting some stuff out and some one hit wonders here and there.

Gotta disagree with this. Musically he wasn't that great.

Yeah, Biggie took some growing for me (and I still hate the skits) but Pac was nothing but agony every time I tried.

Ah geez.

Anyway, Biggie has lines that dedtroy just about anyone's little puns or wordplay to this day, had one of the most distinctive rhyme scheme patterns recognized to this day, and told some of the most vivid stories heard to this day. "Warning" itself, a barely three minute song (including the closing skit thing) is massive, so loaded with imagery and juicy little details - along with incredibly intricate rhyme schemes - he puts a lot of cats (I'm gonna say Em because I hate him) to shame.

Lil Wayne

You can't really argue against his comment to be fair.

My favs off Ready to Die gotta be Respect, Juice, and Ready to Die.

Gotta love Manky and his controversial opinions! :D

Personally though, I'd take Jay or Nas over Biggie/2pac.

Reasonable Doubt flow/rhyme scheme is pretty damn hard to touch.

I could name about 20-30 rappers off the top of my head that are better lyricists than Biggie.
Here's one for you. How can so many people consider Biggie to be one of the greatest of all time based off of two albums?
Nobody talks about Big Pun or Big L who had the same number of albums, one studio album and one posthumous release being the greatest of all time despite the fact they were both superior MC's to Notorious BIG.
As for his imagery, it's all clichéd as I'd already pointed out, just talk about guns, bitches and pretending to be Al Capone.
It doesn't interest me in the slightest.

You need to realize that all of what you are saying about Biggie is merely your personal opinion and not permanent facts. I didnt create this thread so I can watch drama floating around about Biggie or something like that. If you dont like Biggie's albums then just say so. No need to be dramatic about it.

Personally I like many more rap artists other than Biggie but I was just curious to know if anyone else likes him. He's not a great lyricist but I like some of his songs, particularly Juicy and Everyday Struggle. They actually have good lyrics too.

A lot of people seem not to care much about his second album,which is a pity since its a great 2 disc album with lots of variety in the songs. And its definitely worth checking out since Biggie's discography is quite small anyway.

I agree with you that Big L and Big Pun are better than Biggie (though I like Biggie too), but I disagree that no one talks about them. Both are pretty well regarded, at least among hip hop fans.

Biggie can certainly rhyme, musically is up to interpretation, I don't think you can deny that he was good at rhyming to a beat.

I suppose I probably meant to say among casual fans. I know most members on here and those who pay attention to hip-hop are aware of them. It's just casual fans seem insistent that Biggie & Pac > everything else for some strange reason.

Yes hoes, money, fat rides, and banging is something of the norm in hip hop. Just like in rock its drugs, women, etc. What seperates good artists from the average is the creativity in which you tell your storys. Which imo in most of todays hip hop is very predictable. "Shawtys at the club"....."yeah yeah"...."I'm rollin on some dubs"..."what what." I think the way in which Pac and Biggie and a lot of others from the ol days of hip hop did it was more artistic.

I say this as someone who likes rap but doesn't dive into it a lot and am generally exposed to bits and pieces from all over the genre, rather than move through it with any intentional path...

Biggie has better flow than most. I always felt like BIG made it sound effortless. That has little to do with lyrics, so maybe he gets a pass on that more than he should, but theres something a lot more smooth to me about BIG than most rappers.

In a general sense, I don't care for much rap because its a little too affected. Thats why I think I like Biggie, too. He once said "I rap about what I know. If I ate at McDonalds every day, I would rap about eating Big Macs."

Outside of rap, you find a lot of dead-horse beaters. I don't know that we should bag on rappers for the same thing. Furthermore, when rap goes beyond what it knows, it can often get preachy and stale, so I'll take a guy who knows his wheelhouse over someone who doesn't know his limits.

Thats a good point there man. These subjects are definitely present in so many hip hop albums that it is very predictable what you're going to hear about mostly. Though if you take rappers like Eminem for example, he doesn't really rap about these kind of subjects that you mentioned.

Yeah, Biggie had decent flow but it's not the best flow in hip-hop.
The guy was obviously talented, I just don't feel like he ever produced what he was capable of. His albums smacked of gimmick, they contained far too much filler and for every one glimpse of greatness, there were 10 sub-par moments. In my opinion that is.
I also find it interesting, Biggie choose eating at Mcdonalds as his analogy as if he'd never frequented a fast food joint.

Yeah because Eminem's stale ass crap about bringing his daughter up to have the life he never had and protecting her from the spotlight by talking about her every second line is the very best of hip-hop.

Well if you think about some of Pacs stuff like the song.."you wonder why they call you bitch" or "shorty wanna be a thug" Its more of a tale of how things came to pass and why things are the way they are. Instead of just the cliche things you mostly hear now about the search for ho's and gettin ho's and how tough they are. To me they told things in such a way that was easy to keep your attention without becoming monotonous and mundane. Biggie accomplished the same thing in a lot of his music.

As far as Eminem goes it wasn't just about his daughter "Love the way you Lie" was a great song to me. "I am whatever you say I am" was also great along with some other songs.

I guess I cant disagree with that. I hate Eminem so much and I think he's a terrible rapper, so any derogatory comment towards him is much appreciated by me.

lol the reason L isn't as appreciated by casual Hip-Hop fans is because he never had any tracks crossover, Put It On was the cloest he got, you won't see L getting his videos played on music channels or the radio unless they are dedicated Hip-Hop channels. Biggie was hanging around with Puff Daddy and making tracks like Mo Money Mo Problems, that was only his 2nd album, if he'd have made more the tracks would have certainly been even worse, look at some of the features he had on his 2nd album, also as someone else said, Pac/Biggie were involved in all that fighting and were murdered which has just enhanced their legacies even further.

L was better than Biggie imo, I also prefer Lifestylez over anything Biggie did.

I'll leave this to the experts, I just thought Bigs music was worthy of more than what he gets credit for. Like a lot of artists of yesterday in my opinion.

Fair enough mate.

I think considering his output, he gets enough credit, arguably a little too much. Most Hip-Hop fans regard him as one of the greats and the casual fan would likely include him in their top 5. Not too shabby for 2 albums.

I wonder how his subsequent albums would be if Biggie was still alive today.

Aceyalone probably has my favourite flow in Hip Hop. "Deep and Wide" is hella crazy. Like being on a slow-moving roller coaster.

To answer the lingering queries of this thread;

1. Notorious BIG is in no way under-rated. To imply he doesn't get the credit he deserves is ridiculous. He is heavily touted by fans, fellow rappers and critics alike. Based off the fact he only had two albums, I'd say he is held in too high regard if one were to actually measure his contributions to the genre.

2. If he were alive today, he'd probably have gone down a similar path to Jay-Z and the two would inevitably teamed up, if Biggie had any idea of how to market himself to the changes in the times, he'd probably be a quite successful hip-hop artist who made crossover tracks, similar to Jigga. The whole 'gangster' gimmick wouldn't cut mustard in 2013.

3. Hip-hop is not all about 'hoes n bitches' in 2013. In fact, the last two years have shown just how many diverse, talented hip-hop artists are out there and in my opinion the scene is better than it's ever been. If you want substance, look for it instead of just lazily complaining about what MTV Hits play.

I've been meaning to check Aceyalone out for a long time. What would you say is his best album?

I liked a few Biggie songs not gonna lie, but I always found his slurred/lispy delivery kind of annoying. It was almost like dude needed to blow his nose before recording. I prefer Tupac, granted he wasn't earth shattering either. Far better people from that era that don't get the credit they deserve. For bitches and hoes rap none was better then Too Short. Dude is still lighting a torch in the ****ty small club venues.

1. 99 percent of people only know Big Poppa and Juicy. Secondly he made 2 albums that influenced more artists that most people could in a lifetime. If you dont think thats true just look how many rappers reference Biggie in their music.

2. That is a complete and total guess. You are seriously saying the rap scene is better than it was in the 90's? That is like like a telling a blues fan the golden day is now and the 60's were nothing. Come on man every rappers favorites albums are even from the 90's. Pac, Em, Biggie, Mobb Deep, Del, Dre, Snoop and soooooooo many more that are considered the most influential rap albums of all time.

3. Um much of the good hip hop from the 90's wasnt all about "hoes and bitches" either. And I would say much more of the mainstream today is.

I wonder how many of those artists took influence from Biggie himself.

Because they're both really really good? Take a guess yourself.

Big L was ill, no lie. His rhyme schemes weren't nearly as interesting as BIG's, though, which is a large part of his credentials.

This from the guy who digs "Backseat Freestyle."

Ok, in two minutes Biggie dropped lines like:

Even if you don't like what he's talking about, it's still vivid.

All Balls Don't Bounce and Magnificent City.

The track I was talking about: