This past weekend I was thinking about what I am sure is a bad movie(Notorious, produced by Diddy).I intended on writing a piece of stinging criticism that condemned Puffy and the Bad Boy Era he orchestrated. But that’s for another time and place.
I wanted to say a a few things about the movies subject and what he meant to Hip Hop.
The uninitiated may wonder, why all the fuss about Biggie? What makes him so great?
It’s simple,
1. flow.
BIG was a lyricist, excellent with wordplay. But what separated him from the rest of the MCs of his era was his innate ability to transform and adapt to any type of beat.
Big could switch his style up at the drop of a hat and made it look easy.
Sure Jay-z ,Kanye and Weezy rap over all kinds of stuff now(Rock, Pop, whatever you want call what MIA does) That’s the difference though, BIG never rapped over anything. He made it his. The beat was no longer the beat it was an instrument that accompanied his delivery.
2. Storytelling
He painted realistic stories that resonated across racial and socio-economic boundaries. The majority of the kids who bought his albums never sold crack on a corner(thank god, that would be akward for everyone involved).Hell, most of them never even stepped foot in what would be considered a real ghetto. But, they felt connected to the experiences because BIG provided songs overflowing with dynamic and vivid lines. He had a flair for the dramatic and and eye for details that made his artistic pendulum swing a lot closer to a Scorsese or Tarantino than a Das Efx or Busta Rhymes.
The reason why we love/loved Tiger and MJ is because they make the near impossible seem easy with a certain amount charisma that cant really be quantified nor explained. That’s what Biggie was to rap. He was the funny neighborhood fat kid, lumbering in appearance with goofy mannerisms but agile on the mic. He had an unpracticed precision…he was a natural. Just like Hendrix was supposed to be a guitar player and John and Paul were destined to be songwriters, Christopher Wallace was supposed to be a rapper.
Was some of his imagery over-materialistic, yes.
Did he make records full of threats,and paint scenes of intense violence with some misogyny peppered in, yes.
Was he only a kid, yes.
BIG was gunned down at 24. A damn shame.
