from the vibe vault: biggie’s ‘life after death’ is the greatest lp since ’93

[Knicksman20]

They has a couple of good points but that album on has a few good tracks. Too much of Puffy's touch on it. Very overrated IMO.

 

[Knicksman20]

I like classic 80s shyt too breh.
My point here was that this album sparked the trend of trying to appeal to all demographics in one album. BIG was talented enough to pull it off. How many others made marginal albums trying to follow that template?
Hip hop was at its best when it was regional and rappers weren't overly concerned with making a crossover single

You beat me to it bro. I completely agree

 

[Knicksman20]

To your point mobbin, I don't think I would say "Killed" Hip Hop per say but it may have indirectly made it harder for future generations. Overall "LAD" did more good for Hip Hop because Big showed us how far Hip Hop could take it. With that said Bad Boy 97 opened the floodgates for corporations to really take over Hip Hop like they never had before. It was a slow build in the late 80's to the mid 90's but by 97 they finally got their corporate footprint deep in Hip Hop a$$. So "Life After Death" gave these corporations the ultimate blueprint. If you look at most commerical rap albums today they are formatted modeled more after "Life After Death" than any rap album before it. Overall I do blame Puffy more than Biggie and once he passed, Puffy had nobody there to keep him balanced. The reason I feel "Life After Death" indirectly may have hurt Hip Hop is because Big was so ILL and FLAWLESS that you compare him to everyone.

This is why you always see "Biggie Vs So and So Rapper" For the GOAT. He is held as the standard. Again it's not Big's fault he was the ILLest but I can see how what he accomplished might have had negative effects as well. Dispite this I can't imagine a Hip Hop world without this album. It's hard to listen to "Life After Death" today and not cringe when you hear some of these records being played now because it's clear these rappers are lazy and don't care about the craft. We just saw how "Get Money" was in the spolight. Look how Lyrical Big was on that club song. I mean a street Lyricist like Biggie making #1 single pop records and they are still lyrical? How many "Lyrical" club songs do you hear today? next to none. So though the album is a Classic and Legedary, one problem with the album is Biggie set what seems to be an impossible blueprint that can only be imitated and not duplicated.

The blueprint of mixing Street/Commericalism/Regionalism perfectly. "LAD" expanded Hip Hop by including everything for everyone. But in that broadening it has made a lot of rappers feel they have to try and match it but they don't have Big's skill level to pull it off. I think Jay has done it best as far as using the formula but he hasn't made an album better than "LAD". From NaS to 50 to many others, they all took pages from Big's success with this formula. Yes LL could be credited as trying aspects of this forumla first in the 80's and early 90's but it was "Ready To Die" that got the full formula started and "Life After Death" perfected it. This is why Big is called the GOAT off 2 albums because both albums changed the game. It might be one of the few rap album in History that has a song for every Hip Hop Fan imaginable male and female. So in Biggie trying to please everyone he might have indirectly hurt future Hip Hop because nobody has been albe to execute an album like this since it's release and it's almost been 20 years. I say it all the time, Biggie would probably not be in GOAT Discussions without "Life After Death". "Ready To Die" album alone would of still made him a Legend but "LAD" put him in Best of all Time discussions. Vibe and many others will continue to call it one of the GOAT albums because it was.

 

[Mike the Executioner]

Never saw Life After Death as a potential GOAT album. Should probably listen to the whole thing when I have the chance.

Blaming Biggie for what LAD did is like blaming Nas for what Illmatic did. They set a template that rappers with less talent or creative vision tried and failed to emulate.

 

[spliz]

Nope. His first one was better imo. Still a great album tho.

 

[Rapmastermind]

Nope. His first one was better imo. Still a great album tho.

"Ready To Die" = The Godfather
"Life After Death" = The Godfather II

You can't go wrong with either choice. But you have to admit, his skillset improved from first to second album.

 

[MidnightMercenary]

Not even the best Biggie album since '93

 

[I love Latina women]

i got the album on right now

 

[JayBaldacci]

It wasn't even the best double album released that year. even though it has a bunch of dope cuts it still ushered in the wack "something for everybody" formula.