It's not Life After Death's fault that Ready to Die is one of the closest things we have to a perfect rap album. When I press play on Biggie's debut album I am instantly transported to his world, & like a roller coaster with automated restraints, I can't leave until the ride is over. To extend the amusement park analogy, Life After Death is Disney World to the debut's Disneyland: bigger, newer, flashier, but sacrificing some of the humble, immersive fun by spreading itself over a larger amount of real estate.
One thing that hasn't changed, thankfully, is Biggie's absolute mastery of the art of emceeing. He enunciates clearly without sounding fussily precise, he injects his steady baritone with just enough sly humor to make everything sound good-natured, & most importantly, he never sacrifices his flow for the sake of a rhyme scheme. Some "lyrical" rappers are so fixated on thrilling you with verbal acumen that they will tie their flow up in all kinds of knots. Biggie throws in an array of multisyllables, internal rhymes, metaphors, allusions, & catchphrases, but his 1st priority is staying in pocket. Ironically, this makes him sound more "lyrical" than a lot of those white-knuckle wordsmiths who bend over backwards to impress you.
Another thing that hasn't changed, this time sadly, is Biggie's subject matter, for which I feel like I have earned the right to use the word "immature." The obsessive fixation on gleeful descriptions of violence & vulgar disrespect for women reminds me of nothing so much as an adolescent trying his best to be edgy. And, yeah, the kid was 24. From my perspective today, he's at his best when those elements are contained within a storytelling frame, like the tribute to the fallen on "Miss U" or the mafioso story over sweeping cinematic strings of album opener "Somebody's Gotta Die." The rainfall sound effects of the latter song cue us to approach the album like a movie, & Biggie had a gift for storytelling details that made him one of the most visual rappers ever. The cinematic element can soften the impact of some of the more antisocial lyrics by making it clear that Big is embodying a character, but that doesn't make the multiple homophobic slurs he & Jadakiss drop on "Last Day" any easier to swallow. I don't know why this stuff bothers me more on this album than it does on the previous one--maybe I wish that in the intervening 3 years he had been able to do some more growing up. It's not like I demand that every album has to be a massive leap forward, but it's undeniable that the only thing Life After Death does that Ready to Die didn't is fill 2 discs.
There's nothing wrong with any of the production on Life After Death, but like lots of other things, it suffers compared to the consistency of its predecessor. Ready to Die's kingfish, Easy Mo Bee, only makes 2 beats here, "I Love the Dough" & "Going Back to Cali," which are both glitzy numbers far removed from the rugged, bass-heavy style he flexed on the last album. DJ Premier drops in to offer 2 beats, which as usual are 2 of the album's best: the ascending horn chop of "Kick In the Door" & the warped cuts of "Ten Crack Commandments." Another highlight is the sunny acoustic guitar-based "I Got a Story to Tell" by Buckwild, which contrasts the crude scenario its lyrics depict. I also have to admit, though I think usually Puffy was better off outsourcing Big's production, The Hitmen laced "Hypnotize" up proper. It's easy to remember the so-called "shiny suit" Bad Boy era as having equally shiny, plastic production ("Mo Money Mo Problems" is definitely an offender here) but "Hypnotize" is about as minimalist as you can get, offering little more than a syncopated bass groove & an echoing Herb Alpert sample for Big to get extra-busy over. It's the kind of beat that works just as well on the street corner as on the dance floor & pop charts.
In a world where Life After Death was the only Biggie record, I wonder how I would perceive it--& how the public would perceive him in general. I think the album would certainly be easier to love, & its flaws easier to ignore. It's really a pointless hypothetical though, because with its sophomore ambition & its self-mythologizing, Life After Death is the kind of album that could only come after an earthmoving debut. Consequently, it's hard for me to see it as anything but a bloated, diffuse, only intermittently successful attempt to recapture the magic of Ready to Die, albeit by one of the greatest pure rappers in history. Despite its parade of classic tracks, I almost never have occasion to play the whole thing front to back.
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