I'm on holiday without a laptop but this is a great thread.
Would love to add more detail.
I've always said there's 2 things in particular that made Biggie a genius orat least 2 particularly individual traits. Both pure literary and poetic devices. The first is his use of assonance, alliteration, internal rhyme schemes in a fluid fashion. But the other is the vivid imagery - the small details of his storytelling. Just the description of Arizona Ron from Tucson. Starts off depicting how he likes the slow jams - you don't expect such a killer. As his description goes on you can see something is wrong pathologically with this man.
The 'nothing to lose, tattooed around his gun wounds, everything to gain embedded to his brain'. Is just ill on a rhyme level the repeated T sounds in the first half, repeated E in the second. 5 rhymes in 2 bars but it sounds slick as hell. But for a good rapper that's not that special. Jadakiss can do that all day. But what put BIG over the top was the imagery of intent from that line. The way it's ordered and worded with embed it likens his mindset of 'everything to gain' to the deep permanance of the tattoo first bar. Working to reinforce in 1 slick line Arizona Ron does not give a single fukk. He's been shot, presumably almost died and has no regard to it.
Even in the opening verse the way he skips back and forth in the conversation. Without being heavy handed he has a back and forth conversation without saying 'I said' 'he said'. Introduces a boss, the plot and the context. You got Frank's character. Every line is just drenched in detail and relevance. Not a bar wasted. Biggie and them pictures man. There's nobody close to him in that sense. It's that creativity, the choice of words and how seamlessly he put them together puts him in a league of his own in many facets as a lyricist.
If I had the time I'd break down some of the less obvious genius of his writing.
Would love to add more detail.
I've always said there's 2 things in particular that made Biggie a genius orat least 2 particularly individual traits. Both pure literary and poetic devices. The first is his use of assonance, alliteration, internal rhyme schemes in a fluid fashion. But the other is the vivid imagery - the small details of his storytelling. Just the description of Arizona Ron from Tucson. Starts off depicting how he likes the slow jams - you don't expect such a killer. As his description goes on you can see something is wrong pathologically with this man.
The 'nothing to lose, tattooed around his gun wounds, everything to gain embedded to his brain'. Is just ill on a rhyme level the repeated T sounds in the first half, repeated E in the second. 5 rhymes in 2 bars but it sounds slick as hell. But for a good rapper that's not that special. Jadakiss can do that all day. But what put BIG over the top was the imagery of intent from that line. The way it's ordered and worded with embed it likens his mindset of 'everything to gain' to the deep permanance of the tattoo first bar. Working to reinforce in 1 slick line Arizona Ron does not give a single fukk. He's been shot, presumably almost died and has no regard to it.
Even in the opening verse the way he skips back and forth in the conversation. Without being heavy handed he has a back and forth conversation without saying 'I said' 'he said'. Introduces a boss, the plot and the context. You got Frank's character. Every line is just drenched in detail and relevance. Not a bar wasted. Biggie and them pictures man. There's nobody close to him in that sense. It's that creativity, the choice of words and how seamlessly he put them together puts him in a league of his own in many facets as a lyricist.
If I had the time I'd break down some of the less obvious genius of his writing.
That was real game he was dropping in that line.
That's foul. But I always found it hilarious.
that's some next level shyt