It's been 13 years since the release of Ready To Die and 10 years since his death.....


and I still don't get why Biggie is considered one of the greatest rappers of all time.


I know the guy had flow, but I think he was one-dimensional and very limited in his skills. I was pretty young when Biggie was around but I remember vividly the popularity he and Bad Boy attained but never got why he was so popular.
I feel Biggie is one of the reasons why rap is how it is now because so many people see him as a blueprint
Don't flame me or anything, I'm just stating my point of view

With BIG, it was all about delivery and word play and he had that down (along with flow). He was a fantasy rapper and would take you on a hjourney with him.

He only released 2 solo efforts and a Junior Mafia release.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Yeah it was the way he rhymed. No one touched him really at that time...2 Pac and Biggie were like two whole different planes in their territory. No one sounded like them.

So after Biggie died, Jay Z kinda "picked" up what he left and turned it commercial. Eminem really took lyrical wordplay to a whole other level thereafter, so on and so fourth.

I loved "Playa Hata". The slow jam that he "sung" on Life After Death..never heard a rapper sing with live instruments and real background vocals about robbing a store. Biggie could rap with Bone and sound like he was almost part of the group on "Notorious Thugs". He was still commercial, and still street and true in the same time.

I've never understood the appeal of him or Borepac Shakur.

vainandy said:

I've never understood the appeal of any rap/hip hop artist.
They all suck balls in my book

bboy87 said:

I see him as the almost the opposite. He could ride in a certain rhythmic pocket of a beat like no other. He changed up his flow many different times on his 2 proper albums released before his death. Multi dimensional to me. His descriptive story telling could totally take a listener to the scene.

By the way you said "the reasons why rap is how it is now", I'm guessing you mean by the way that mainstream rap is absolute shite generally. Well if these youngsters were lead the way by biggie, then they certainly didn't learn anything from him IMO.

I have a feeling if Big and 2pac were alive they would have ended the careers of most of these young buck fools rapping now. I can't see them standing for this much crap. Rap needs someone to really take out the trash right now, but the only people making any fuss are doing it for marketing purposes ie 50cent vs Kanye West. Nas and Chuck D aren't taken much notice of by the masses unfortunately. I am glad to see Talib Qweli and Common reaching alot of people the past month hopefully people are starting to see through the bullshit.

_

I really think they would have faded away like so many other rappers of the previous decade. Actually, I don't hear any difference in them than in these rappers today. Death made them legends that neither one of them deserved to be.

nuff said

His flow and his lyric's are what made him so popular, and he was one of the best in the last great era in Rap, The 90's. You still had to have skills to get on back then. now most of these ctas are garbage.

bboy87 said:

you were just talking about listening to KMEL.and if yer listenin to that then for sure you like at least some of the stuff going on today. lol

vainandy said:

You mean they rapped on beats that were all under 100 bpm?

_

bboy87 said:

He's well regarded because he was murdered while still at his artistic peak.

vainandy said:

I think both of them knew that. Biggie was gonna retire from rap and focus on entrepreneurship while Pac was gonna focus mostly on acting but street life (Pac) ended one man's life and a mishap after a party (Biggie) ended another.

vainandy said:

Me neither. There isn't much of this kind of shit that I like. I can see how some can relate to them though (unfortunately).

Shapeshifter said:

Bingo!

Well, I loves Biggie. Not all of his stuff but enough of it. The appeal for me was he sounded like no one else, he told stories in his music and I think his flow was pretty tight.

He passed away in his prime.
Was a good storyteller.
Had a great flow.

Krytonite said:

This is it in a nutshell. I often wonder when people criticize an artist, if they have taken the time to actually listen to their stuff.

well i heard that girls pee pee when they see him...

I forgot to add the toliet and toliet paper
[Edited 9/7/07 7:57am]

TotalAlisa said:

And he lays down law like Allen Carpet.

vainandy said:

You would have said the same thing about Jay-Z and Nas if they died 10 years ago.

FuNkeNsteiN said:

Christopher said:

HEY! I hadn't listened to KMEL in awhile. I'm talking almost last quarter 2006:lol:. If I want to decrease my IQ, I'll just turn on the radio

I like Tupac, I just refuse to buy any of these new release with "updated versions"

Dull rapper. Hyped because he died.

Biggie might not be a transcendent, revolutionary MC like, say, a Rakim, Chuck D, KRS-ONE et al., but he was indeed a great MC. nd33 said it well; I'd only add that, when he was at his best, his lyrics were provocative, and, much like Tupac, poetic. Of course, his death has elevated his legacy; however, when he was alive, he was one of the best MC's out there. Like Tupac, he was a hip-hop hero before he was a pop star.

vainandy said:

Come on, vain. You think the Egyptian Lover was a great rapper. How can you speak on this?

nd33 said:


I wanted to highlight this part of your post because I agree wholeheartedly. On Ready To Die, he flowed over "Machine Gun Funk," "Juicy," "Everyday Struggle" and "Suicidal Thoughts," with dexterity, without really altering his style. On Life After Death, he flowed as nice on "Ten Crack Commandments" as he did on "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems," when the beats couldn't have been more different.

The revisionist history on Biggie shouldn't add OR subtract from what he was and is. A hip-hop great.

I think that a masterpiece like Ready to die could make ANYBODY a STAR, and certainly with tons of appeal

Pac and Biggie were among the LAST great rappers, ever. Only Jean Grae is touching any of the classic era emcees today.