Ready To Die.

Ready to die is one of my favorite albums.
Not just from hip-hop but of music period. It's a classic to me because there are no "skipables" and every song provokes many legitimate emotions. Biggie put the raw feelings that we all feel into true lyrics. Many artists today just get on the mic and spit some lyrics that will either a) get the club jumping, b) sound like a phenomenal simile/metaphor, or c) glamorize the amount of money they make. Where's the story? Where's the content? What happened to the truth? Nobody is making "Juicy" or "Brenda Had A Baby" these days.

And there was a huge shift from Big's "Ready To Die" to "Life After Death". He wasn't on the same shit like Jay-Z has been for 10 albums. "Ready To Die" explains why it was rough, what he did to survive, his state of mind and the stress. "Life After Death" explains how he finally made it out alive, his new perspective on life and how he treasures it.

The first track is an intro that visualizes Big's life starting from when his mother struggled to raise him by herself to big robbing a train and eventually leaving prison. "I'm trying to get paid"

I always thought about the meaning behind the title 'Ready To Die'. I've interpreted it a few different ways. One might spend an entire lifetime trying their hardest to get to a certain point, to "make it" or to "get on" and when they finally do reach that point, they're ready to die because there is no higher point. This is the climax. This album also includes Homicidal narratives so another interpretation maybe for a victim to be ready to die. In a diffferent perspective, this album contains Suicidal narratives so Big might be talking about killing himself perhaps in more ways than one. There's a point in a artists life where they exert soo much energy into a masterpiece that it literally drains and exhausts them.

Or this is real suicide note, where Big really feels the raw emotion to be dead. Perhaps he felt he did not fit into this world, or the world did not fit with him. It's impossible to restart on life, Biggie fucked everything up early on and saw no way out but death. "All my life I been considered as the worst. Lyin' to my mother, even stealin' out her purse" "My life is played out like a jheri curl, I'm ready to die"

And the last way I can interpret Ready To Die- Big lived one life and had one personality up until he finally started getting in the booth with Diddy and started forming a new life. Everything was changing. Life was changing. "Now I'm in the limelight 'cause I rhyme tight. Time to get paid, blow up like the World Trade" The Christopher Wallace that once was, was forming into a newer character, shed from his very own history.

Big was only 21 when he recorded Ready To Die. What does it take to contemplate death at such a young age? But this is what you get when you are hungry and you actually live this. To many listeners such as myself, these words appeal to me as...something hardcore with dark context. But to the artist, it was real life. And it was daily. As a young writer, I find it difficult to please the reader and incorporate a true deeper meaning so I'll often leave one or the other out. Biggie made it possible to create a masterpiece suitable for kickin' back and bumpin' or to find a poetical truth in the context.

Em X Mos X Thought

Hip Hop Talk.

I've never liked the way Jay-Z positions himself as some sort of godfather of rap . To me, he resembles an old retired man sitting in his rocking chair and when the young'ns are making too much noise he has to get get out of his chair and scorn them and bang on the floor with his cane. The fate of Hip Hop does not lie, and never has, in the hands of one person. Hip Hop's fate lies in the in artists' that respect what is real/true and not in what generates the most money. What I do appreciate about Jay is his consistency of putting out good music. This is what he, Eminem and Dre have in common. It's not about quantity but rather the quality. Wayne has consistently been putting out garbage and getting away with it.

My problem with D.O.A. (Jay's new single) is that it's kind of a stab at the 808's. 808's And Heartbreaks is an album that surpasses any other recent hip hop album in many categories. I feel it is completely genius. Hip hop has always been about pushing the boundaries and challenging the status quo. Some people watch love movies others eat pints of ice cream to deal with heartbreak but I bump the 808's. "I wish this song would really come true
I admit I still fantasize about you"

Not once have I attempted to defend hip hop when everyone was saying it's dead. I've felt that way before Na$ was shouting that out and before LRG was printing it out on their shirts. Hip hop died around the same time dave chappelle quit. Bullshit artists slutted her out and killed the whole game. We used to not care how many times the rapper was shot or what his career was prior to rapping but now everyone puts out 5 albums about "the trap" and "pushing that baking soda." (btw, I'm tired of all these metaphors for sellin cocaine...coke, dough, baking powder...just say cocaine!)

The way I see it, if I can picture the rap game without the rapper, then they are not hip hop. Like ludacris. I can be happy without him putting out lame ass hits. But eminem-noooo waaay! Who's going to be the white boy shutting up critics and clowning celebrities? Dr. Dre? Noooo, never. Who's going to supply us with the raw beats? Flo-Rida? Get the fuck out of here with that BS. I mean for God's sake-Power 106 is playing "YOU'RE A JERK" !!!

A Lesson In Hip Hop History.

Everyone is familiar with Andre "Dr. Dre" Young. He is a well known artists in the music industry as a legendary producer and rap icon for his works as a solo artist and gangsta rap group N.W.A. But Dre started his career earlier than that.
In 1986, Dr. Dre ran with a crew that went by the name of The C.I.A. (Cru' in Action!) It consisted of K-Dee, Sir Jinx and Ice Cube.

Dre was also associated with another crew. The World Class Wreckin' Cru was a 1980s Electro-hop group out of Compton. It included DJ Yella, Dr. Dre, Shakespeare, Cli-N-Tel, and Mona Lisa Young (Dre's sister). They were managed by Jerry Heller who later became part of the gangsta rap scene on the west coast, forming Ruthless Records with Eazy-E, and helping the careers of other rap artists.

Dr. Dre also worked with the supergroup The Firm including Nas, Foxy Brown, and AZ. Dre did all the producing and they were signed to his label Aftermath. Their debut was the group's only release and they broke up in 1998 with each member continuing their solo career.

Here's one of their most popular songs "Phone Tap". If it sounds familiar, it's because Power 106 uses the beat for those phone taps in the mornings with Luther Lufey.

Eminem "We Made You"

"It disgusts me to see the game the way that it looks.
It's a must I redeem my name 'n haters get mushed."

R.I.P.'s

Twelve years ago today, Christopher "B.I.G. The Hoes Know Me" Wallace was shot. I was only 7 years old when it happened so his death didn't begin to bother me until I become of age to understand the hardcore shit he rapped about. I say I was about 16 when I truly began to appreciate his concepts of suicide and murder and also his syntactical wordplay.

The difference between Hip-Hop and Rap (in my opinion):
The Hip-Hop artist allows you to envision the world he's portraying through his unique metaphors and can deliver a true feeling through his rhetoric (persuasion). Rappers just bullshit around fluid similes and fake ass punchlines with no meaning. Seriously, Can Lil' Wayne's trash compare to the ruggedness of Biggie's "Ready To Die"?

"And if I deceive, she won't take it lightly

She'll invite me, politely, to fight G

And then we lie together, cry together

I swear to God I hope we fuckin die together."