Before I proceed with this blog, may I apologise for the lack of posts of late, from yours truly. To be honest I've literally been a bum who occasionally goes out and becomes inebriated, to a degree that I'm considering to join the 'AA'. Nonetheless, I'm back, so enjoy!
The inspiration for this post came from a typical Sunday evening of mine- where I lay in my bed and listen to some sort of song by The Notorious B.I.G (Biggie). In this current situation, I was listening to 'Niggas Bleed', off his double-disc masterpiece- 'Life After Death'. Needless to say, I've listened to this song a million times. However on this particular occasion I opted to listen to the song whilst reading the lyrics on Rap Genius (shout out to Rap Genius by the way!). Reading the meanings of the lyrics of the song, made me realise things I had never realised before, and extended my gratitude for this MC as a lyricist. At which case, I sat in my room mouth wide-opened like a Hippo at how astonishingly gifted this human being was. I could go into greater detail as to what astonished me but I feel you as readers should share the amazement I did and listen to the song yourself, whilst reading the lyrics on Rap Genius!
Although, out of the galore of great rappers that have existed during the short time the genre named Hip-Hop has existed. I've always had Biggie at the highest regard. But, I like many, would always contest that; despite him being a brilliant rapper, he only left two albums, one that he never actually got to see be applauded. In which case, the age old argument of would he have been able to maintain the consistency of lets say Jay- Z or be able to maintain the lyrical artillery that Nas has been able to? However, these questions will always be left unanswered. Atleast his rival and once friend- and often mentioned 'G.O.A.T' (Greatest Of All Time) 2Pac left a solid six albums before he was laid to rest.
Having said all that, I actually do not care whether or not Christopher Wallace (Biggie's birth name) would of maintained his consistency or would of switched his style for the worse or would of started using auto-tune and maybe made an R'n'B album (shrugs). On the basis on what he left, he is in my opinion the greatest rapper to ever do it!
I could of course label a number of reasons as to why I say this, however I think we can all think of why. His more noticeable attributes such as melodic flow, unique voice, story-telling ability and simple but potent lyrics, are the easy ones to notice. However, I'll support my opinion of this, on the basis of one thing and that thing is 'Life After Death'. Don't get me wrong his debut album 'Ready To Die' is a masterpiece in itself, and arguably a better album than 'Life After Death', however 'Ready To Die' brought to us or rather displayed Biggie's ability as a rapper or albeit a G.O.A.T, but 'Life After Death' cemented this and more. At it's simplest 'Life After Death' showed that Biggie could do all styles of rap. Whether it was story-telling (which he was more commonly known for) with 'I Got a Story To Tell' or the aforementioned 'Niggas Bleed'. We were also used to Biggie's relaxed and elegant flow, but with 'Notorious Thugs' showed he could speed up his flow whilst firing masterful lyrics (probably his best verse off the whole album) competing with Bone Thugs and Harmony who were known at the time for their fast style of rapping. He even went completely left-field (and I mean that literally) by rapping on a West Coast production, with 'Going Back To Cali' holding his own on a rival style of rap. I mean, at it's best Biggie demonstrates how to perfectly produce songs that are radio-friendly such as 'Hypnotize' or 'Mo Money Mo Problems', but still providing hard, street and lyrical songs on his albums. Which all rappers struggle to do (well maybe not Jay- Z but you get the point lol).
From this assessment I can only confirm that The Notorious B.I.G is the greatest rapper ever to do it. Purely off what he left us. In my opinion no-one has yet outdone what Biggie left. Again, we could add the old age question of 'what would of happened had he not died'- well, I'm sorry we'll never know, we'll just have to make do with what he left (Kanye shrugs)!
Gezza...
