The early 90s was a seminal time for hip hop. Street culture became pop culture thanks to brave and bold artists like Ice T, Dr Dre, Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Lil Kim and groups like N.W.A, Naughty By Nature and Salt-N-Pepa. The sound of gang culture originated in New York, swiftly followed by Los Angeles, and then spread like wildfire across America and the world, giving a voice to kids who otherwise felt unheard.
The explosion of hip hop paints a similar story to the uprising of punk culture in the 70s. Youth who were angry with the government, and felt forgotten by their country, were fed up with racism, classism and ignorance found a voice to tell their stories to the world. And the world was ready to listen and connect.
This week marks the 25th Anniversary of Ready To Die, the debut studio album by The Notorious B.I.G., aka Biggie, aka Biggie Smalls. To celebrate we thought we'd jump back to 1994 and dive into the album, one that still stands strong today, and whose message is as relevant as ever.
The Notorious B.I.G – Ready To Die
Hailed by critics as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time, Ready To Die, produced in part by Sean "Puffy" Combs aka Puff Daddy, aka Diddy amongst others, tells the real-life story of Biggie's youth as a criminal and street hustler. It was the only album released by Biggie while he was still alive, he was shot just two weeks before the release of his second album, Life After Death, in 1997.
The album included three commercially successful singles in "Juicy", "Big Poppa" and "One More Chance".
"Juicy" is a rags-to-riches tale chronicling the story of being born into poverty, dreaming about becoming a rapper by watching his idols succeed, and then reaching those same levels of success and a living a life of excess.
In 1998, The Source - a highly credible hip hop and urban culture magazine - ranked "Juicy" in the top 100 hip hop tracks of all time, and Q Magazine included it in their top 10 greatest hip hop tracks list, at number nine.
"Big Poppa" uses a sample of The Isley Brothers song "Between The Sheets" (1983), and the title is one of many nicknames Biggie used. This song was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 1996 Grammy Awards, and was part of a 12" release that contained seven remixes.
Most of us recognise "One More Chance" featuring the soulful vocals of Biggie's wife, Faith Evans. However, that is a remix and the original version on the album features the vocals of R&B trio, Total - which sounds remarkably different. At the time of release, it was the highest selling single of all time, on par with Michael and Janet Jackson's "Scream". Here is the more popular remix which includes Faith Evans in the video.
The 25th Anniversary edition of Ready To Die comes with nine 7” colored-vinyl singles (black, white and red) that feature every song from Ready to Die, plus two bonus tracks, and will be released on September 13th, pre-order here.
Listen to Ready To Die on Spotify
Listen to Ready To Die on Apple Music
