'Ready To Die' Twenty Years Later - Chris 'Preach' Smith

I began writing this article in the same way I
sat and first listened to Ready To Die by The 
Notorious B.I.G. two decades ago - I waited for
some downtime when night fell across the block.
Got something cool to drink. Put on the album
and zone out. And while the drink of choice may
have changed from now since then, the most
potent thing is the undisputable fact that this
album is undeniablly part of not only hip-hop 
culture but the landscape and soundtrack of 
New York City. Today is a major milestone for 
an album that when it first dropped, only sold
57,000 copies that week and has now exceeded
quadruple platinum in sales. That fact, among 
many others has cemented Ready To Die as a 
phenomena that provokes thought, appreciation
and a touch of nostalgia.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Ready To Die was one of the last albums I had
religiously listened to on TAPE. Take a moment to
think about that time when your Sony Walkman
bulky as it seems now, was your companion as
you caught the bus to school or traveled around
with your friends. When the album did drop, most
waited on one of their boys to cop it, then grabbed
a Memorex or Casio to make a dub. But this was
different. Ready To Die had you putting down some
change. The iconic cover grabbed you, for one. You
wanted to know how such an ominous album title
was used in conjunction with the striking and simple
imagery of a smiling baby boy with a perfect Afro
in the picture. But as you listened, the message
got louder and louder. Now I had been hearing about
The Notorious B.I.G. from two years before thanks
to underground radio. In 1993, he put his own 
Timberland stamp on the game with ‘Party and
Bullshit’, from the soundtrack to the comedy
‘whodunit’ flick starring Ed Lover and Dr. Dre, ‘Who’s
The Man?’ Biggie’s voice is the first you hear on that
soundtrack, lacing cats with his distinctive voice on
a suave dance-infected beat by Easy Mo Bee. Big 
describing a ‘round the way party scene somehwere
in Brooklyn complete with lines like ‘but all we wanna
know is where the party at/and can I bring my gat?’
made the streets come alive in a descriptive and taut
manner that made you groove even though you knew
he was speaking the truth. It proved he was ready, 
and with the help of Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs who was now
making his own bold play with Bad Boy Entertainment,
Big was in position to show the world how ready he was.
Ready To Die took everyone by surprise, fulfilling the
ambition of strong-arming the rap landscape like it was
a chain robbery over by the 3 train subway stop at
Saratoga and Livonia from the West Coast gangster
element heavy at the time thanks to Dr. Dre and ‘The
Chronic’ among other efforts. In doing so, Biggie filled
a void in East Coast rap. It wasn’t a major one but let’s 
take into account that by this time, the era of Big Daddy
Kane, Rakim and Run-DMC had run its course. It was 
time for newer voices to emerge, and especially time for
THE next major MC to dominate the landscape. 


When you listen to Ready To Die in full, you can’t 
help but get reminders that this album and Big himself
was a concise and vibrant MC that oozed personality.
Even at his most vicious, Big was like one of the
older heads who you knew from off the corners. He
knew your moms, joked around with everyone. The 
charm and chill Biggie had is evident. Look at ‘One 
More Chance.’ The original track is another Easy Mo
Bee banger that lets Big drop lyrics flecked with
references to R&B gems from H-Town, Miki Howard
and others as he speaks on his affairs with different
women with brash and crass overtones. It’s a far cry
from the utterly flawless remix and video featuring
his wife, singer Faith Evans. But we all know that’s
for another discussion. ‘One More Chance’ was a newer,
Moet-tinged way of being a player. One prevailing thing
throughout the album is Big’s indulgence with ‘hoes’
and ‘b——-s’. It 

Photo Credit: Vibe

Big had no airs about who he was, and no need to
hide his vulnerability. Here’s a dude who’s six-foot
plus, dark-skinned and heavy-set moving the crowd
effortlessly. In some respects, Biggie and Ready To Die
can be considered as another bridge between the
toasters of Jamaican reggae and its dancehall iteration
that was huge and hip-hop. Look at his guest verse on
the Supercat track ‘Dolly My Baby’. It reflects another
element of the Caribbean influence in New York City on
a whole and the planet of Brooklyn and its evolution
in the midst of post Reagan/Bush era politics. ‘Respect’
is pure ‘shotta’ theme music with Diana King laying down a
near guttural hook as Biggie drops autobiographical
lyrics. Let’s pause here and appreciate these opening
lyrics:

Nineteen-seventy something, n***a I don’t sweat the date
My moms is late so I had to plan my esccape
out the skins in this world of fly girls
Tanqueray and Hennessy until I cold hurl

Another poignant element of Ready To Die is the 
whole aesthetic of ‘live fast, die young and look good
doing it’ that America touts regularly and denies that
it does to the end. ‘Dynasty’. ‘Scarface’. Even the movie
Big would get a nickname from, ‘King Of New York’.
Biggie covered all of the psychological aspects associated
with that on this album. There’s braggadocio galore on 
‘Everyday Struggle’ but also the weariness that 
undercuts it. And even a bit of social commentary that
points to how the MC saw his struggle and his wish 
for his daughter to avoid the same pitfalls:

I’m seein body after body and our Mayor Giuliani
aint tryin’ to see no Black man turn to John Gotti
my daughter use a potty so she’s older now
educated street knowledge I’m a mold her now

The first two lines alone speak to the murder rate
related to drugs and then mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s
heavy crackdown on drug traffic in the city with a
bit of a hint that John Gotti could get away with
certain acts of ‘organized crime’ due to complexion.
The vulnerability comes to a head in the final track,
‘Suicidal Thoughts’. It’s one verse, interlaced with
Puff’s pleas for Big not to pull the trigger. It’s a track
I know some people won’t talk about for different
reasons. Suicide in the Black community as a taboo
being one of them, as well as how The Notorious B.I.G.
was shot and killed in Los Angeles, California just
three years later (God. Three years.) while caught up
in the heart of the East Coast/West Coast turmoil.
But it is a solid song, as well as a throwback to all of
those gangster flicks with Jimmy Cagney as the lead
bad guy who shoots his way to the top but ultimately
loses it all. It thematically ties the album up neatly,
but leaves you thinking long after the music fades out.


The other day, I passed by St.James Place, Biggie’s 
old stomping grounds after the Michael Jackson 
Birthday Block Party. I used to be around there 
a lot since one of my closest friends lived just down
the road on Frankin Avenue. Bed-Stuy is still 
Bed-Stuy, but in a more tenuous manner now.
Rising rents and the wave of newcomers reflect 
just how the borough is changing. It’s not the 
gritty atmosphere Big spoke of in ‘Things Done 
Changed’. St. James is now home to multi-million
dollar brownstones. There’s more white faces up 
and down Fulton Avenue. It gives heft to the words
I hear from a lot of my friends who are native New
Yorkers. One of Biggie’s classic lines from ‘Juicy’ 
can further hammer home the point: ‘time to get
paid, blow up like the World Trade’. Now he was 
referring to the attacks on the World Trade Center
the year before. But when you stop and consider 
that both he and the World Trade Center, a spot that
became linked with him in a classic photograph and
a cover photo for The Source, are gone? Makes you 
pause. 

Ready To Die is more than just an album, just as
The Notorious B.I.G. was more than just an MC.
It is a time capsule of an era when rap was pure 
and expansive enough and not narrowly commodified
like the majority of contemporary rap albums are
now. It is a testament to one of the greatest MC’s
the culture will ever produce. An album that is a
toast to the hustlers, a boots-on-the-stoop account
of life in the streets, a ribald R&B infused soundtrack
for the nightlife and an introspective look at the mind
of a young Black man trying to survive the struggle
he was dealt. There’s many things to take from this
album as I said before. There’s many questions that
still lie in the folds of the lyrics Biggie dropped in such
an immaculate way. (A major question of course is,
would Jay-Z be where he is now if Big was alive?)
And that makes Ready To Die a true prism of music
immortality. I think Big would want it that way.