Ready to Die
Artist: The Notorious B.I.G.
Released: September 13th, 1994
Length: 1 hour 16 minutes
With the ongoing feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, I was inspired this week to take a deep dive into the rap genre. Rather than focusing on a rapper that was a part of my life growing up, I decided to go with an album that I was not familiar with but had a lot of interest in listening to given that it has two all time songs by the one and only…
…The Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, Biggie, Christopher Wallace.
Whatever you want to call him, chances are you have heard at least one of his songs before. Whether it be the beat of “Hypnotize” at a sporting event, or a remix of “One More Chance” (remixed popularly into “Old Thang Back”), Biggie Smalls has most likely made an appearance in your life. While he only released two albums before he was murdered in 1997, he left the rap genre, and the music industry as a whole, with a style so attention grabbing that I think very few will ever replicate it.
Initially, rap was style of music that I gravitated towards when I wanted to get locked in or amped up. Typically these moments came in the gym or before a basketball game. The beats, the tough lyrics, and the energy of the delivery always sent adrenaline through my body. In college my junior year, whenever we won a game we would celebrate in the locker room by playing “Dome” by Young Thug and those moments with my teammates are some of my favorite memories from school. Rap can be infectious and spread energy throughout a room so quickly.
On the flip side, rap can be very socially conscious, poetic, and speak to struggles that communities face in their lifetime. I find myself more interested in the storytellers of rap more than the hype-guys these days. The storytelling could be about hardships, successes, family, or hypothetical situations. Whatever it may be, if the story is told well then I am usually there to listen.
The last thing I will say before we get into the album is this; if you do not like rap music then you probably won’t like this album or even listen to this album. That is absolutely fine. What I would encourage and ask of you is to not put it down or simplify the genre into stereotypes. You see it in movies, TV shows, or on the news. “Rap music is about gangsters and killing and drugs, etc.” Are there rap songs that talk about those things? Yes. That doesn’t mean it’s all rap songs. Rap artists, the good ones, tell stories about what they know and what they experienced. It’s no different from a country artist singing about shooting guns and taking backroads to a fishing spot. It would be no different if I made an album about going to a prep school and being raised in a suburban town. It’s what I know. So keep an open mind. You don’t have to like rap, but you should understand that it is just as real, just as influential, and just as meaningful as any other genre out there.
Track Listing:
“Intro”
“Things Done Changed”
“Gimme the Loot”
“Machine Gun Funk”
“Warning”
“Ready to Die”
“One More Chance”
“Fuck Me (Interlude)”
“The What”
“Juicy”
“Everyday Struggle”
“Me and My Bitch”
“Big Poppa”
“Respect”
“Friend of Mine”
“Unbelievable”
“Suicidal Thoughts”
“Who Shot Ya?” (Bonus Track)
“Just Playing (Dreams)” (Bonus Track)
Overall Thoughts
After listening to this album I walked away with the desire for more rappers to rap like Biggie Smalls did. It is undeniably smooth, clear, and he is the focal point of every song. There are not a lot of stand out choruses, there is no autotune to make him sound better. It is an album that is solely run by the voice of one man. I hesitate to use the word “simple” for the beats because I doubt that they were simple to make. But I would say they are simple more so because they do not overpower the rapping. Most of the beats are some type of repeating melody with a hard kick drum. To me, it seems like a 1+1=2 kind of situation. It’s straightforward and it makes sense every time. There were very few songs where I wasn’t nodding my head to the beat subconsciously while listening intently to the lyrics.
Speaking of the lyrics, this album delivers on a wide range of topics. It’s vulgar and there is profanity everywhere, but that doesn’t make it any less deep or impactful. There are songs that do talk about selling drugs, carrying guns, killing people, and women in a derogatory way. There are also songs that talk about the struggles of growing up poor in the slums of Brooklyn, the fear of not knowing if you would live to see the next day, and the internal struggle of feeling like you shouldn’t be alive. It’s about as vulnerable as you can be while presenting it in a tough and raw way. It’s Christopher Wallace sharing his life story with us in the only way he knew how to.
The Notorious B.I.G. I’ve always wanted a Coogi sweater because of him.
Song Breakdown
“Things Done Changed”
I love this song as the first real song on the album (Intro isn’t a real song). It introduces his style and his flow as a musician beautifully. Sometimes he raps and rhymes word after word, other times he draws out words to fill space and break up the rhythm.
I hear it as a song about him growing up and looking around his own life to see that he is no longer a little kid, but a grown man that is where he is because of the decisions, either right or wrong, that he made.
“Gimme the Loot”
This song feels like it could be based on reality or just a hypothetical on what Biggie was capable of. Regardless, it seems pretty straightforward to me that this song is about stealing.
That being said, I love this song. I love his flow on it and some of the individual lyrics in it are so clever.
“Machine Gun Funk”
One of my favorite beats on the album. I don’t know what that loop is at the beginning (guitar maybe?) but I do know I love it.
I find it interesting in this song that he expresses how he has left his life of crime behind him and is focused on his music. He brings this up in other songs but contradicts himself other times by rapping about the crimes he has committed or will commit. It’s like he’s stuck between two worlds and unable to jump into either one completely.
“Warning”
This is indeed a warning. I feel like he’s basically saying if you want to test him either physically or lyrically then go ahead and try. You probably won’t win.
“Ready to Die”
The titular song is an interesting one to me. It comes across as this tough, hard rap song about how he isn’t afraid to die, and in fact is ready to die, but I think there are more somber undertones. It feels like a young man that has lived so much in such a short of time that he doesn’t really care what happens to him.
“Juicy”
Easily his most popular song on the album, if not his entire discography. It’s peeled back, vulnerable telling of his own story from dreaming about making it big to actually doing it. He talks about his desire for success to provide for his daughter, his struggles in achieving that goal, and not believing it entirely when he does. It’s a certified classic.
“Everyday Struggle”
Remember when I said above that rap can be stereotyped? Listen to this song. To me, Biggie Smalls is hyper aware that he was a criminal. He also had a daughter on the way. He was kicked out of his house. He saw no way out. This song details his struggle and hopelessness that he felt.
“Big Poppa”
And then you get a song like this. Just a smooth jam that many people know and love. The flow in this song is unmatched. You feel like you’re in the club with Biggie and his crew. Well, at least I do. Another certified classic.
“Suicidal Thoughts”
Again, this song is another fantastic example of Biggie struggling with who he was. He calls himself a “piece of shit” and doesn’t think he’ll go to Heaven. He feels like his upbringing is something he won’t break away from and that he likes to “tote guns and shoot dice.”
He talks about his mother not loving him and wonders if she would even cry if he killed himself. It’s tremendously heavy lyrics and a song that displays the inner workings of a complicated mind. I think this song is a good listen for people that don’t know what it’s like to have these thoughts, because some people do and it can be lonely and scary. Biggie shares these moments with us and I find that quite brave.
“Who Shot Ya?
This song that started the rap battle between Biggie and Tupac. Biggie said this song was just a story about two drug dealers feuding, but I think it’s pretty clear that this was a verbal taunt at Tupac. Personally, I really like the beat, specifically the piano.
Wrapping it up, there were a lot more songs that I wrote about than I expected. I’m glad I sat down and listened to this album because I felt like I got to really listen to how Biggie expressed himself as a person. He doesn’t seem to shy away from talking about his drug dealing past, his struggles as a son and father, and the struggles he had in his own mind. There are songs on here that I don’t particularly like (I excluded them from the song breakdown), but I now feel like I’ve added some more classic rap songs to my collection. I can see why this album is critically acclaimed and hailed as one of the best of all time.
Thanks for tuning in to Week 8. I know I technically got this out on a Sunday but just imagine it was last week. I’ll have Week 9 ready to go this Wednesday! As always, please share with friends, comment your thoughts below, and subscribe to the newsletter! Also check out my Spotify playlist!
