The Notorious B.I.G.
Life After Death 3LP

Biggie's second long-player was a huge slab of hip hop featuring a whole range of guests and a whole load of hits. 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.

NEW / Released in 1997 / Reissue

Tracklist:

A1 Life After Death Intro

A2 Somebody's Gotta Die

A3 Hypnotize

A4 Kick In The Door

B1 Fuck You Tonight

B2 Last Day

B3 I Love The Dough

B4 What's Beef?

C1 B.I.G. Interlude

C2 Mo Money Mo Problems

C3 Niggas Bleed

C4 I Gotta Story To Tell

D1 Notorious Thugs

D2 Miss U

D3 Another

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...

F2 My Downfall

F3 Long Kiss Goodnight

F4 You're Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You)