On “Smile To Keep From Crying,” Boosie rhymes about his four year stint in jail fighting murder charges, losing his best friend Bleek to gun violence, and how he’s “on parole, one feet up in jail, one feet out the door/Lost three aunties in just one year, this ain’t the rain, this is the snow.” The literal and figurative coldness of that last line parallels in urgency to Big’s “my mom got cancer in her breast, don’t ask me why I’m motherfuckin’ stressed” summation on “ Things Done Changed. They are not just bluntly chronicling their surroundings, but penning rhymes about the toll that grief, poverty, and the specter of death can take on one’s mental health. The dread that he expressed under the throes of systemic oppression still exist, and there are more artists delving into their despondency in a similar package.Īrtists like Boosie Badazz, Mozzy, and 03 Greedo are following in Ready To Die’s weighty footsteps. The project singlehandedly negates the notion of “senseless violence,” as he bluntly explains the factors that lead people toward the violent crimes better than any clinician could.Īnd while the Brooklyn hoods he called home are now rife with murals of him, crafted by people who would have likely called the police on him, some things remain the same.
Notorious big ready to die album cover crack#
He, nevertheless, crafted a personal portrait of what pain looked like for a Black person trying to navigate the treacherous Brooklyn streets in the remnants of the Crack Era. Biggie chalked up the laments of “Suicidal Thoughts” to weed in an interview. So many successive mainstream rap albums took their cues from Biggie’s magnum opus, not just with the track-for-everyone format Puff Daddy orchestrated, but in Biggie’s frank explorations of his existential dread. ” The album’s final track, “ Suicidal Thoughts ,” dealt with the grim self-loathing that manifested from a creeping suspicion that “death is calling” and feeling “ worthless” in a community that “considered him the worst.” In all his utterances that he was ready to die, it was clear he wasn’t just in his feelings. My life is played out like a Jheri curl, I’m ready to die!” He talked about self-medicating and “livin’ everyday like a hustle, another drug to juggle” on “ Everyday Struggle. On the album’s title track, he frustratingly belted, “fuck the world, fuck my moms and my girl. If modern artists are akin to famous visual artist Bob Ross - delicately laying their feelings on a canvas while subtly imploring society to draw along with them - then a project like The Notorious B.I.G.’s 1994 debut Ready To Die is a paintball shotgun fired at that easel, warning everyone to get the hell out of the way. It’s awesome” like Kanye West did on the cover of Ye. I t’s not taboo to sing “Push me to the edge, all my friends are dead” like Lil Uzi Vert did on “XO Tour Llif3.” Or, say things like “I hate being bipolar.
These are issues millions of Americans are dealing with, making them the modern archetypes of a country more depressed than i ts been in centuries. Those projects explore issues like survivor’s guilt, depression, and anxiety. Artists like Kid Cudi and Saba have been praised for their strength in vulnerable albums like Kids See Ghosts and Care For Me, respectively. Honest exploration of mental health has become a predominant theme in hip-hop. Rappers like Mozzy, 03 Greedo, and Boosie Badazz were listening.
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laid the blueprint for rappers on how to rap about the trauma they’ve experienced. It does not store any personal data.Photo Credit: Des Willie/Redferns With Ready to Die, The Notorious B.I.G.
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