Sold Date: May 7, 2021
Start Date: April 7, 2021
Final Price: €29.99 (EUR)
Seller Feedback: 270253
Buyer Feedback: 0

It may have taken the Notorious B.I.G. a few years to follow up his milestone debut, Ready to Die (1994), with another album, but when he did return with Life After Death in 1997, he did so in a huge way. The ambitious album, intended as somewhat of a sequel to Ready to Die, picking up where its predecessor left off, sprawled across the span of two discs, each filled with music, 24 songs in all. You'd expect any album this sprawling to include some lackluster filler. That's not really the case with Life After Death, however. Like 2Pac's All Eyez on Me from a year before, an obvious influence, Biggie's album made extensive use of various producers -- DJ Premier, Easy Mo Bee, Clark Kent, RZA, and more of New York's finest -- resulting in a diverse, eclectic array of songs. Plus, Biggie similarly brought in various guest rappers -- Jay-Z, Lil' Kim, Bone Thugs, Too $hort, L.O.X., Mase -- a few vocalists -- R. Kelly, Angela Winbush, 112 -- and, of course, Puff Daddy, who is much more omnipresent here than on Ready to Die, where he mostly remained on the sidelines. It's perhaps Puffy himself to thank for this album's biggest hits: "Mo Money Mo Problems," "Hypnotize," "Sky's the Limit," three songs that definitely owe much to his pop touch. There's still plenty of the gangsta tales on Life After Death that won Biggie so much admiration on the streets, but it's the pop-laced songs that stand out as highlights. In hindsight, Biggie couldn't have ended his career with a more fitting album than Life After Death. Over the course of only two albums, he achieved every success imaginable, perhaps none greater than this unabashedly over-reaching success. Ready to Die is a milestone album, for sure, but it's nowhere near as extravagant or epic as Life After Death. - allmusic

Trackliste

A1 Life After Death (Intro)
A2 Somebody's Gotta Die
A3 Hypnotize
A4 Kick In The Door
B1 #!*@ You Tonight feat R Kelly
B2 Last Day feat The Lox
B3 I Love The Dough feat Jay Z & Angela Winbush
B4 Whats Beef?
C1 Big (Interlude)
C2 Mo Money Mo Problems feat Mase & Puff Daddy
C3 Niggas Bleed
C4 I Got A Story To Tell
D1 Notorious Thugs
D2 Miss You
D3 Another feat Lil Kim
D4 Going Back To Cali
E1 Ten Crack Commandments
E2 Playa Hater
E3 Nasty Boy
E4 Sky's The Limit
F1 The World Is Filled feat Too Short & Puff Daddy
F2 My Downfall feat Dmc
F3 Long Kiss Goodnight
F4 You're Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You)