Even 21 Years Later the Notorious BIG Is Still the MC Who Impresses Me Most

'The greatest rapper of all time died on March 9th.' 'Canibus, 'Second Round K.O.'

Every year March 9 rolls around, and we celebrate through music and reflection the life of Christopher Wallace aka the Notorious B.I.G. aka Biggie Smalls aka Biggie aka the only Christopher we acknowledge, who was gunned down in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997. The Brooklyn, N.Y., MC from Bed-Stuy is one of the all-time greats and despite his small catalog'two proper studio releases, Ready to Die (1994) and Life After Death (1997)'is highly revered in the hip-hop community. And for me, he is STILL the MC that I'm most impressed by.

Jay-Z is my favorite rapper of all time. Some of that is due to my undying loyalty to his debut album, Reasonable Doubt. The rest is due to how many songs and albums of his I enjoy, how good of a rapper he was at his height and for how long and how much better he is at rapping than so many others, even now. Greats gon' great. But even as great as Jay is, Biggie will always be the one who makes me laugh and shake my head at his sheer ability and witty wordplay. Even on Reasonable Doubt, Biggie and Jay traded bars on 'Brooklyn's Finest' in a real Ali vs. Frazier-style rap-off and Biggie's lines STILL stand above them all:

Me and Gutta had two spots, the two-for-five dollar hits, the blue tops, gotta go Coolio, mean it's getting too hot, if Fay [Faith] had twins she'd probably have two Pacs, get it, Tupac's ...

That STILL gives me the warm and fuzzies. And this is on a track where Jay said, 'Like short sleeves, I bear arms ...' Those guys.

Listening to the back-to-back bangers 'Unbelievable' and 'Suicidal Thoughts' (among the rest of the records on the album), I can't help being impressed by how lyrically dextrous he was on 'Unbelievable,' where he famously weaved 'recent shenanigans' into the first verse. 'Suicidal Thoughts' was a clinic in storytelling, dark as it was. 'Juicy,' which is still one of my favorites of his, is inspirational, a real hood success story. Ready to Die was a classic the moment it was released for showing us the promise Biggie exhibited on 'Party and Bullshit.'

Read full article here