The Notorious BIG, born Christopher Wallace, was raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. He is out of jail and the world he finds is brutal, cutthroat and hopeless. “Turn the page to 1993/ Niggas is getting smoked, G: believe me.” “Lounging at the barbecues, drinking brews/ with the neighborhood crews, hanging on the avenues,” Where Nas is more focused on the changes in his life, Biggie is looking at the changes in his community: Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. In the first song of the Ready to Die, “Things Done Changed”, Biggie, like Nas, is reflecting on his past. That is, until Biggie’s conscious gets the better of him. The album flows chronologically, moving from the angsty and angry street hustler into the triumphant success story. The album’s intro literally begins at Biggie’s birth and weaves through vignettes of Biggie’s childhood his father leaving, the schools failing, resorting to crime, getting locked up and eventually getting released. Ready to Die has a more vivid form of narrative direction. Biggie’s first album, released 5 months after Illmatic, is an absolute triumph. Now let’s compare that to the tone of another New York rapper’s debut album, the Notorious BIG’s Ready to Die. This piece is part of a series comparing two massively influential hip-hop albums, Nas’ Illmatic and The Notorious BIG’s Ready to Die.
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