Notorious B.I.G.'s 'Ready to Die' is a masterpiece. Extremely well crafted and performed with an autobiographical structure to it, rather like Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'. It tells the story of Biggie Small's life.

First we begin with Biggie Small's years as a young adult growing up in Ghetto slums. He describes his childhood of poverty and waiting on his next meal, and his tough upbringing in a violent household but also talks of the strong community spirit there was back then.

Then he describes the rising culture of drugs and guns, which has turned the ghetto into a warzone. And how he turned to that lifestyle to make money. How he robbed trains and banks and even jacked cars. And then he talks of the people he knew and loved who died because of his involvement with rival mobsters.

And then he goes on to talk of his involvement in the Hip-Hop community and how he managed to become a millionaire, to provide for himself and his family, and managed to become a better person.

Ready to Die has all the right balances to it- misogynism and chivalry, thuggishness and sophistication, recklessness and caution, pessimism and optimism, vanity and self-hatred-
We are shown the various sides to Biggie Smalls' personality as he evolves through life.

As well as Biggie, the Album features a small ammount of guest stars, including the very welcome Method Man on "The What", who advises Biggie to work for his money instead of robbing people, and Diana King appears to add a touch of tongue-twisting reggae to "Respect"

There is also Puff Daddy (or P. Diddy as he is now known). He appear on the album's Intro, where we learn that he actually helped deliver Biggie as a baby- no wonder they were so close!

And also on "Big Poppa", where the Isley Brothers sound and subject matter of clean-cut gentlemen suits him quite well. But it is best (and quite easy) to ignore his cliche'd attempts to threaten the listener on the title track "Ready To Die".

Interestingly the intro to the album uses not only guest appearances, but actually samples old R'n'B and Hip-Hop music as the background to various parts of Biggie's childhood and teenage years. Among which is Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly", The SugarHill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", Audio Two's "Top Billing", and Snoop Dogg's "The Shiznit"

This all sets the musical tone for the album- in a blend of Dr. Dre's G-Funk, and Nas' old fashioned blues sound. He blends heavy, multi-layered beats with grainy instrumentals of light guitar rifts, and later as the album turns darker, with sentimental flute pipes, and finally haunting piano strings, and somehow makes it pull together and work as a contemporary Hip-Hop sound. In-fact the most modern sounding track with the most crisp sounding quality on the album "Big Poppa" is a sample from the Isley Brother's soul classic- 'Between The Sheets'.

Every song is near-perfect, and I would even reccomend this album, along with the albums of Jay-Z, Nas, Coolio and Warren G to people who never listen to Gangster Rap.

There are the storytelling songs, 'Gimmie The Loot', where Biggie describes a typical day in his years of crime and robbing at gunpoint, injecting excessive profanity and violence, as well as a dark humour and brilliant visceral skills drawing us vividly into the scene and making us feel the effects of the violence he describes.

And also the song, "Warning" which is just as tense, where Biggie gives a long description of awaiting a bunch of robbers he has been tipped off about, to come to his house and rob his gear and kill him in his sleep.

And obviously influenced by the 2 Live Crew and Snoop Doggy Dogg, Biggie does some misogynistic porno songs- 'One More Chance' and 'Friend Of Mine'. the type of songs I usually find repulsively sexist and vulgar, and yet somehow here Biggie manages to use his visceral lyrical skills to do a bad concept brilliantly and the songs manage to come across as rather humorous, and even erotic. Which perhaps explains why so many female fans of the B.I.G. were not aliennated by his misogynism. He may not treat women with respect, but when it comes to sex, he DOES know what they want!

There are the Gangster bragging, confrontational songs 'Ready To Die' and 'Unbelievable'. Where Biggie shows his brilliant wordplay to describe life or death situations and concludes he is in-fact willing to embrace death and has no fear.

However the album does have its moments of morality, such as in "Things Done Changed" where Biggie describes with uncharacteristically bitter regret about the falling apart of Ghetto society and the rise in killings. Basically this is Notorious BIG's own version of Dr. Dre's excellent 'Lil' Ghetto Boy', and manages to match it on equal terms.

In "Everyday Struggle", Biggie describes his awareness of his own mortality, and cries for understanding for the crimes he committed to ease the poverty he and his family lived in. He also tells us about the death of one of his friends at the hands of the police whilst doing a drug deal.

In "Juicy", he describes how the Rap industry has provided him with an alternative route of rags to riches, instead of the crime underworld. He talks about the wealth he has gained and how he has been able to treat his impoverished family beyond his wildest dreams. And also how he has become a better person.

And in "Suicidal Thoughts", Biggie describes his guilt of the killing he has committed catches up with him, and how his low self-esteem brought about by racial stereotypes has brought him to the brink of suicide.

This is a perfect close to the album as it forces Biggie to conclude that despite all the money and luxury his life of sin brought him, it wasn't worth it for all the misery he caused his family, or how it turned him into a black stereotype and made him someone he didn't like.

On a serious and sad note, that closing song proved unfortunately to be prophetic when Biggie was murdered in 1997- apparently because of the East/West Rap conflict, which Biggie didn't even want any part of.

But after his death, his music remained to teach us a lot about him and his life.


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Hanging With Friends