THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G.

"I went from ashy to nasty to classy", rhymes Notorious B.I.G in a gangsta-slick song on his musically nature sophomore set on Bad Boy/Arista Records. "Life After Death", succinctly summing up his journey from hustling along cracked brooklyn streets to lounging inside posh power suites.
Recorded and mixed mostly at the studio of Bad Boy CEO Sean Puffy 'Combs' Daddy's House Recording Studios in New York City, the album is a 22-song, double-disk collection featuring production by RZA, Easy Mo Bee, Kay Gee, Derick Angeletti, Buckwild, Clark Kent, DJ Premier, Stevie J. and Daron Jones from the platinum-selling Bad Boy act 112.

B.I.G has a lot to say..."I write about situations and problems that occur in my life," he explains, "and the experiences I've had doing all teh records and tours have been exciting." But he also manages to make room for guest appearances from fellow rappers Li'l Kim, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Too Short, Run-DMC, The Lox, Jay-Z and of course Puff Daddy. As well as a little help from r&b crooners Mary J. Blige, Angela Winbush and R. Kelly. "All the people that appear on the album are friends or people that I have relationships with," B.I.G. explains. "Nothing was really heavily planned or strategized."
The Lox, Li'l Kim and Jay-Z are B.I.G.'s long-time buddies from the Brooklyn bricks; he and Too short are long time members of a mutual admiration society, and he bonded with both R. Kelly after Puffy competed a remix for the artist last year. Similiarly, he linked with Winbush when Combs produced a track for her husband Ronald Isley and his brothers. "When they came through I realized they were some real ballers, B.I.G "They live just like we live."

The moody molasses tracks on "Live After Death" are interspersed with cinematic snipets, which makes the album flow like a movie. It all starts with a heartbeat thumping, which represents a thematic follow-up to B.I.G.'s debut "Ready To Die". "That album ended with the sound of a heart fading out," B.I.G. recalls. "Now it's building, because I'm on another level."
Ever since 1993 when he introduced himself to the world on chart-topping singles by Mary J. Blige ("Real Love" and "What's The 411") and Supercat's ("Dolly My Baby")-- B.I.G. has been on a hit-making trail. His early rhymes were brief, but, delivered with high poetic charge, clear enunciation and a crisp, commanding tone, lyrics packed with more feeling and skull-cracking appeal than many performers' whole albums.

To satisfy the tastes of underground heads ending for more B.I.G released "Party & Bullshit" on Uptown's Who's The Man motion-picture soundtrack. Then he dropped the critically-acclaimed, multi-platinum selling "Ready To Die" -- which offered a ghetto- styled cinema-verite look at the scarred life-styles of chocolate-city drug dons--as well as a slew of new cameos on hits by others, including Michael Jackson, Faith Evans und 112. Later he formed the group Junior M.A.F.I.A. with friends from his hustling past, and also rhymed on their gold-certified lead album "Conspiracy". Now B.I.G. is representing further growth after becoming one of hip-hop's most popular artists ever.
Released in 1994, B.I.G.'s first full-length LB cronicled his transition from a life of crime to a career writing rhymes. It spaned such classics as "Juicy", a Top 5 Billboard rap single, "Big Poppa"/"Warning", which rose to # 1 and "One More Chance" another tuneful top-liner which debuted at # 1 on every format.

For his efforts the performer earned several honors, including three 1995 Source Music Awards (for Best New Artist, Best Live Performer and Lyricist of the Year), one Soul Trains Music Award (for best rap album), and a Billboard Music Award ("Big Poppa" was named Single of the Year in 1995).
With this all-important second album B.I.G. continues the Bad Boy tradition of creating untouchable music meltdowns. He says he's "basically trying to show the world that the sophomore slump has nothing to do with me. I'm trying to come stronger than before and I want my name to fit my music. Everything really has to be B.I.G."
To assist his efforts to punch a higher floor B.I.G. called on the production Talents of several studio quasars. With a voice as smooth and rich as textured black satin, he backs the tracks. "I gotten a lot of beats from all over," B.I.G. says. "But basically chose just the hot ones. I'm not partial to any certain producer, and the only person I picked to do a track before even hearing a note was RZA. I love Wu-Tang Clan; I think their tracks are incredible, and I've always wanted to rhyme over one of them".

B.I.G swaggers through a rapscapes with conversational tones that conjure up images of playboys posing, flygirls Rolex-staring, hotties with narcotic bodies and hustlers bouncing blue caps (crack) across the bricks. He brilliantly translates his catalog of experiences into a series of short stories and rap classics.
Cuts include "Fuckin' You Tonight", whose libidimous grooves and humping rhymes support B.I.G. and R. Kelly's sticky seductive sentiments; "The Ten Crack Commandments", a tune that spells out the rules for winning the drug game; and first sinle "Hypnotize", which hops and drops like a peg-legged playboy on the prowl.

The collaboration with Bone "Nototious Thugs" is, perhaps, the biggest creative dare of B.I.G.'s career. Like a true artist he experimented and challenged both both himself and his audience. "I practiced their flow and I wanted to see if I could be diverse enough to rhyme like them on a joint," he says. "It took me about two weeks to get the flow tight. If I would've done a rhyme the was I usually do, it would not have taken that long. But I really wanted to do some different shit."

Several songs on "Life After Death" are directed at folks flexing player-hating attitudes. "I always expected everybody to be just naturally happy and proud for me when I made it," B.I.G. says. "But it's not like that, so I speak on it."

The performer never addresses the media-manufactured rivalry between him and 2Pac, who leveled several sharp accusations and personal attacks B.I.G.'s way before passing. "I feel like I'm a bigger person for ignoring it," he says. "Me addressing it would just leave the door open for somebody to say something else. And I felt that if I can do a whole double-album--22 songs--and say nothing about that, that was gonna show people that B.I.G. doesn't care about non-sense, I'm stronger than that".

A resident of the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brookly, NY, B.I.G. was born Chris Wallace and grew up surround by bleak buildings, nooding crackheads and dapper dealers who sold then ill pills. He came up in a world with little hope, where positive role models were few. "Hustlers were ma heros," he says.
By the time he was a teen-ager, B.I.G. had succomed to all the allure of the streets. "Everything happend on the strip I came up on," re remembers, "and it didn't matter where you went-it was all in your face."
He had fun hanging in frat packs on corners, comparing fashions and competing for girls. But there was also a dark side. "We were seeing people get shot all the time," he recalls, and as he himself dogged coffins and hid in the shadows to escape police, a battle waged in his soul. He felt tension and developed depression.
When B.I.G. wasn't transacting deals he was messing with music and recalls, "I used to hang with the OGB Crew and the Old Gold Brothers." One of the members owned a pair of turntables, a mixer and cassette recorder, and B.I.G. made tapes of himself free-styling over scratched breakbears. They started circulating around the neighborhood, and a buzz started building about B.I.G.

A dub made it into the hands of BIG Daddy Kane's DJ Mister Cee, who in turn passed it on to an editor at THE SOURCE. He placed B.I.G. into the magazine's "Unsigned Hype" colum before introducing B.I.G. to Sean "Puffy" Combs, who later founded Bad Boy Entertainment.

Comparing the twin experiences of maken "Ready To Die" and "Life After Death", B.I.G. says, "When I did the first album I was in a living hell, stressed and depressed. I was more relaxed making this one and I'm proud of what I came up with. I want this to be the biggest record ever. I want it to hit the streets harder than any record before. I want to live up my name and prove to everybody that there really is life after death."

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