Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Intro
2. Things Done Changed
3. Gimme The Loot
4. Machine Gun Funk
5. Warning
6. Ready To Die
7. One More Chance
8. Bleep Me
9. What
10. Juicy
11. Everyday Struggles
12. Me And My Bitch
13. Big Poppa
14. Respect
15. Friend Of Mine
16. Unbelievable
17. Suicidal Thoughts
18. Who Shot Ya
19. Just Playing (Dreams)

Disc 2:

1. Juicy
2. Big Poppa
3. Warning
4. One More Chance
5. Unbelievable

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70839 in Music
• Released on: 2005-11-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: CD+DVD, Original recording remastered

CD Description
Once he stepped out onto the scene as the rapper on the remix of Mary J. Blige's hit single "Real Love", many hip-hop fanatics anxiously awaited the debut of The Notorious B.I.G. a.k.a. Biggie Smalls. Their prayers were answered with READYTO DIE, fifteen tracks of uncut, hard-core, lyrically sophisticated rap all complemented by hypnotic beats supplied by the underground's most prominent producers. READY TO DIE resumes where his "Juicy" single left off, but separates itselffrom the array of hip-hop albums that don't live up to the initial hit.
Blowin' up the charts using his knowledge ofthe streets and hard bangin' snares provided by producer Easy Mo Bee, the Bedford-Stuyvesant native Notorious B.I.G. isfar from "Ready To Die". Not since the likes of Slick Rick has there been an artist so successful in the storytelling genre of rap music, creating a mental picture of life in the heads of his listeners. The up-tempo "Gimme The Loot" illustrates the hustlin' ways of a trigger-happy robbery expert stressed from the "Everyday Struggle" of life. The recurrence of the Isley Brothers tune "Between The Sheets" adds to the charm of "Big Poppa", where Biggie portrays his "player" image. No need to skip any songs, READY TO DIE is packed with hits all the way through.

Customer Reviews

Genius
The legend of Tupac Shakur has only grown since his death, not least due to how suprisingly prolific he is from beyond the grave. With the West Coast practically ruling gangsta rap in the early nineties, it says something for Biggie Smalls a.k.a. Notorious BIG that he almost single-handedly shifted attention back onto the East Coast in 1994, and that with only two proper albums his legacy measures up to Tupac's. Indeed, many still consider him to be the greatest to ever pick up the mic, and this album is the majority of the reasoning behind that stance.

Ready To Die, rather than a conventional gangsta album, is a conceptual album about the rise and fall of a hustler and gangsta, played, of course, by Notorious BIG himself. It's gritty, it's dark, it's defiantly hardcore and most definitely not for everybody. Infused with an almost casual misogyny and violence and a blackhearted sense of humour, Biggie doesn't meet the audience halfway and it results in an album that few have equalled and even fewer have bettered.

The album is split between two camps - the poppier side, helmed but mercifully not smothered by Puff Daddy (who's corrupting touch would detract from the follow up album), is covered by the likes of 'Big Poppa' or big single 'Juicy.' They are all fine songs, 'Juicy' in particular a sweaty anthem but one depicting a bleak childhood where 'birthdays were the worst days' and 'Christmas missed us.' As a rags-to-riches tale, it's far more compelling than say, Jay-Z's.

The other, even better side of the album is the gangsta drama side. With only one guest MC on the album - Method Man, making an amusing, oddly adorable turn on 'The What' - it's down to Biggie himself to cover all the players in his rap opera, and he does so with gusto. 'Me And My B***h' tells the tale of a woman caught in the crossfire of his hustling career; opener 'Things Done Changed' is a blackly comic account of how being young and black the only way out of the slums is 'slinging crack rock' or having 'a wicked jump shot.' Best of all is the remarkable 'Gimme The Loot,' in which Biggie plays two different characters, one fresh out of jail as they start a new crime spree. It's wicked, it's funny and it's Biggie at his best.

The follow up album, Life After Death, portentous title and all, was a grander statement, overblown and almost as good. But his real masterpiece remains Ready To Die. don't remember him for mediocre posthumous duets with Nelly and Ja Rule and Ashanti. Remember him this way.

(P.S. The DVD, featuring a rubbish live video and all the album's promos, is a take-or-leave situation with little bearing on the purchase. The bonus tracks, however, are well worth having.)

Brilliant
This is one of the best rap albums ever made, brilliant production from puff, very funky beats and biggies wicked flow over it. Every song is a classic and also great humour in some of them but at the same time seroius songs like suicidal thoughts. If u dont own this get it, your lifeis not complete without it. it will take your breath away

Album alone worth 5 stars but...
Ok i'm not going to do too much of a review of the album itself if you've heard it before you know its dynamite if you haven't well then quite simply you haven't heard the greatest rapper of all time. For those shouting about 2pac, Eminem and even Jigga or Nas i'm not saying Biggie's lyrics are the best, though they are certainly up there, but as a pure rapper theres no one worth a mention in the same breath.

Ok on to the album well generally the remasters are at least the equal of the original with notable improvments to tracks like Big Poppa and Everday Struggle, however the one big (no pun intended) let down is Juicy don't ask me why but the bass has been made to sound far more tinny than on the original for most fame tracks this would be a shame but to to this to a track like Juicy must be considered a crime against rap itself.

Finally the dvd bonus disc is nice to have (and for only £1 more than the non-dvd version definatly worth it) however be warned that the dvd tracks are the edited versions perhaps not the end of the world but an edited version of One More Chance just seems wrong.

Still all in all its fantastic and without serious rival for the greatest rap debut of all time, ok well there is illmatic but......