Life After Death
Audio CD
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£4.99
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Reviewer
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Anyone who gives this album less than 5stars is off there head,its a classic,lyrically big is amazing as always and he's a great storyteller,plus the production is great from people i aint heard much about(stevie j/nashiem myrick/carlos"july"broady/deric"d-dot"angelettie)then you have the more famous names like(havoc/dj premier/rza and easy mo bee)like i said its a great album and just a dark as his first with songs like(somebodys gotta die/whats beef/niggas bleed/my downfall and the powerfull your nobody(till somebody kills you).this was big's last album and hip hop fans will always love and respect it from one of the greatest ever.
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The problem with this album is that it is TOO POLISHED and commercial. Gone is the raw sound of Ready To Die and all we get is a bunch of poppy RnB hits.
With the wxception of Hypnotize the album is full of forgettable songs. The wordplay that Biggie uses is second to none but the production by Puffy is lame.
Yes it is an epic album and it has a lot of tracks but Puffys production doesn't suit Biggies stories.
Listen to Gimme The Loot from ready To Die and that is Biggie at his very best! Nothing comes close on this album.
You may disagree and that's fine but it's just my opinion.
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Most modern music fans will now only remember Notorious BIG because of P Diddy's relentless plundering of his 'friend's' catalogue, and for the many mawkish tributes he's released. It takes an album like the epic (and disturbingly prescient) Life After Death to remind us that BIG was at one point hailed as the greatest rapper in the world.
Never as prolific as his greatest rival, Tupac, Biggie took a leisurely three years to follow up his classic debut Ready To Die. An amibitious double, it covered virtually every base, and, somewhat annoyingly, featured a considerably increased Puff Daddy quotient. Puffy's omnipresence is one of the album's very few annoying points - he appears on the majority of the skits, several of the songs, produces the album and at more than one point on the otherwise magnificent 'Long Kiss Goodnight' he actually TALKS OVER Biggie's rapping.
But Puff's production is what makes the album what it is. An altogether slicker, poppier, but also somewhat darker affair than its predecessor, Life After Death is also in many ways the better album in that it has more classic songs. The deliberately catchy singles 'Hypnotise' and 'Mo' Money, Mo' Problems' benefit from the pop touch Puffy brings to the table, while the stoner haze of the excellent 'The World Is Filled' is probably the album highlight, its effortless groove underpinning Puffy's best moment on the album, or probably anywhere else.
Somewhat heartwarmingly, at a couple of points he subtly alludes to the East Coast/West Coast rivalry without dissing anyone, but on 'Going Back To Cali' he even suggests that there's nothing wrong with the West Coast at all.
On the darker side of things, Biggie's more violent, blackly comic songs are even better, the spiralling, clattering beat of 'Notorious Thugs' scaling ever greater heights with verse after verse of new guest stars; the slow groove of 'What's Beef' addressing paranoia and rap rivalries with wit and grace; and the sprightly acoustic guitar that underpins 'I've Got A Story To Tell' bringing the first disc to a comfortable close.
It's an album that isn't perfect, but its over-reach, its grandeur and its shameless polish make up for the few times when the quality control sags or Puff Daddy shoehorns himself in too much. In truth, this is the second and last Notorious BIG album you need to buy.
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This album is amazing. I have both this and Ready to die and don't know which one I like more. Ready to die was a street classic whereas this is more commercial. A lot of people slam puffy (aka Diddy) for the production I personally can't fault it. There are some cuts that sound like they're straight out of ready to die and some more different sounds. There are two discs with no real filler but some tracks are sub par compared to others. Although I love this album I think it would have been better if they had taken the best cuts from each disc and jammed them into to one 15 track masterpiece. Ignoring that it's still a classic album. You have to own this if you in any way like rap. Biggie is a genius. Many say 2pac is better but for me he has received too much hype. I reckon if 2pac hadn't died he wouldn't be considered the best ever but if biggie had lived he would without a doubt created the ultimate rap album (in your nobody till somebody kills you do send the sign that he knew death is a good thing for hype though. My favourite 5 tracks are as follows ;( although I like them all except the skits n playa hater)
Notorious thugs ft bone thugs-n-harmony. Biggie switches his flow to keep up with the speeds of bone and has a great beat to boot.
Mo' money mo' problems. Absolute classic
I got a story to tell. Great lyrical rap about a story from biggie's life very lay back and happy.
Sky's the limit great r'n'b style track with 112.
Miss u: emotional track about the death of his friend.
Overall this album is amazing and I'm sure everyone will have there own favourite tracks. Buy this, the notorious was the best rapper ever and the rap world suffered a great loss when he died.
R.I.P. Christopher Wallace Aka. The Notorious B.I.G.
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There have been reviews that call this album great, but there have been reviews that call this album a waste of time. This album needs a fiar judgement, from someone who loves hip hop and knows it, not from little kids who grew up o the commercial side of Hip Hop. Yes, Badboy Records are probably responsible for making hip hop commercial, and i admit even Life After Death is commercial, but it is still quality...
Life After Death... Greatest album of all time? No, unfortunately not, due to production by the ignorant Puff Daddy(Now just Diddy). But, a Hip Hop Classic? Yes, thanks to the flawless lyrics and rhymes of the late and great Notorious BIG, this album is incredible.
Admittedly, quite pop orientaded, but only on a few tracks such as "Mo Money, Mo Problems", "Sky's The Limit", "Love The Dough", "Nasty Boy" and "Hypnotize". But, who doesn't love "Mo money mo problems"? Who can honestly say they never jammed to "Hypnotize"? Who can say they never smiled when listening to "skys the limit" or bobbed their heads when taking in the bouncing flow on "Nasty Boy"? This album has everything, inducing all types of emotions; antithetical moods Anger and Happiness. Biggies lyrics are, as always, legendary. When he was alive, except for a few, most artists craved Biggies touch on their singles. Ready To Die, he was hungry, thirsty for riches and power, craving fame, desperate to escape the streets of Brooklyn. This made his deliveries on Ready to Die memorable, causing impact and shock. He wanted to get his point across, he wanted to let everyone know what he was thinking. On Life After Death its clear that Biggie simply wanted make people happy through his music, or let them empathise with his feelings on more darker tracks.
. I love hip hop and have been following it for years, but i do not favour rappers over others. If an album is good, its good. If an album is bad, its bad. Life After Death is good. It's not even necessary to buy the album, borrow the album from a friend first if your sceptical, but no matter what, give it a chance, sit back and listen to this Hip Hop classic, and then decide to buy it. I may be dwelling into hypocracy here, but don't be moved by reviews that tell you not to listen to this album because its: over-produced, or not as good as 2Pacs album, or is not the same as Ready To Die.
Give the album a chance.
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