With a tongue as skilled as his, Biggie could have stayed above the listenerвЂ™s head for the entire album, wrapping similes, metaphors and multi-syllable rhymes around each other. and the bevy of legendary producers feeding him beats to devour created radio ready hits, tales of grimy street mythos, anthems of ascendant black affluence (ashy to classy if you will), and suave earworms for the ladies to groove to-all equally enthralling in their variance. If Ya DonвЂ™t Know, Now Ya Know: Notorious B.I.G.вЂ™s Final Album вЂLife After DeathвЂ™ Defined AnвЂ¦Д«.I.G. But two decades later, it stands tall as a behemoth rap classic.

The release of the album was overshadowed by his death and the infamous beef that it was attributed to, and as with any abrupt death of an artist with seemingly boundless potential like B.I.G.вЂ™s, the lauds it received were tinged with a little doubt from critics and the public alike. Life After Death built upon that successful formula and simultaneously contains lessons in rap radio single craft, what beef really is, rules for street-level drug moves, big man swag (and swag in general), genre blending with R&B, smart features, beat selection, black social mobility, capitalizing on the American penchant for tabloid culture, and of course rhyme and flow. Ready To Die was already an early blueprint for commercial rap success in 1994, deftly mixing street lore with accessible, danceable beats while managing to not compromise his artistry. So letвЂ™s look at what he did give us while he was alive: One of the best albums, and certainly illest debuts ever, in Ready to Die, and a rare double-disc classic in the unexpectedly posthumous Life After Death-two excellent albums by the age of 24. Would he own part of the Brooklyn Nets instead of having his jersey in the rafters? Would he have started his own clothing line? Would he be on VH1 with the fam? Would he and Faith be on Love and Hip Hop? Would his Twitter be popping? Would he laugh at trigger-turned-Twitter fingers or be embroiled in Twitter feuds himself? Would he have something to say about Donald Trump? Would his music have become more political? The possibilities are seemingly endless, and not just because of the uncertainty death brings to all human existence, but because he was that nice with his. was versatile enough to bend his flow toward the rapid-fire cadences of Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony on вЂњNotorious Thugs,вЂќ would he try MigosвЂ™ triplet flow on for size? Did he have another platinum effort in him? Did he have more than one more in him? Would he and Pac have patched things up and did their own version of Watch the Throne? LilвЂ™ Cease thinks so. making room for his label head hat next to the tilted crown on his head? Would he still have the crown? Would the crown matter more? Could he have surprised us and gone the mogul route, following in PuffвЂ™s footsteps? Would TIDAL be his? Would Kendrick have dared call himself the king of New York on his вЂњControlвЂќ verse? B.I.G. had grown into a full-fledged imprint with B.I.G. Would he actually dead 90% of the rappers out now? Would he bless a certain few with features because he wanted them to receive the torch he passed? Would Junior M.A.F.I.A. ItвЂ™s easy to hypothesize about what kind of rapper Biggie would be today. was alive 90% of rappers today would be working at McDonalds.вЂќ After getting over the alarmingly reductive options that presents for young black wordsmiths, I wondered if it was true. I cant believe this just happened!! #wemissyouBIG GOD IS THE GREATEST BIG FOREVER!!! Thank you /25gxlt9jamДЄ particular T-shirt a fellow train passenger wore sparked more contemplation in me than any of the gestures I witnessed or described above. Through gestures big and small, fans celebrated his legacy in any way they saw fit, even with something as simple as a T-shirt, and everything felt right, mostly. Pieces about the significance of his life, death, music and legacy popped up all over the interwebs from the same publications that covered him two decades ago and many more. Throughout the Bedford-Stuyvesant streets where Biggie grew up, candle-lit vigils flickered, freshly painted murals glistened on walls, Coogi sweaters were popping again, and his music wafted through the air as if a part of earthвЂ™s atmospheric makeup on his Fulton St.

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