"Life After Death" by the Notorious BIG released 20 years ago today

The Notorious BIG's second album, Life After Death was released 20 years ago today, March 25, 1997. The context couldn't have been sadder, as Christopher Wallace was murdered just 16 days before in Los Angeles, making this a posthumous release. Coming on the heels of that tragedy, and as the follow-up to Biggie's widely-praised and commercially successful Ready to Die debut, LAD had big, and empty shoes to fill. And while Life After Death couldn't make Wallace any less gone, the music has lived on to this day.

As big as its larger than life maker and its fat 2 CD set, Life After Death was a dominant USA album of 1997. Upon release, it shot to #1 and spent the entire month of April in the top position. Life After Death also ruled the singles charts, as two of its tracks, "Hypnotize" and "Mo Money, Mo Problems" rang the bell at #1 on the Billboard pop charts. A third single, "The Sky's the Limit" reached #26 on the Hot 100, and topped the Rap singles charts as well. In 2000, Life After Death was certified Diamond by the RIAA, and remains one of only nine rap albums to reach that ultimate sales milestone.

The album also displays Biggie's musical fearlessness and willingness to collaborate with other top talents, such as swapping rhymes with fellow up-and-comer Jay-Z on "I Love the Dough", matching Bone Thug's sing-song harmonies on "Notorious Thugs", and balladeering with R&B king R. Kelly on "F**king you tonight".

Twenty years on, Life After Death remains a testament to BIG's artistry - his flow, wordplay, good humor, cold eyed fatalism - all of it is on display, and the LP has clearly established itself at the very top of the hip-hop canon.

Here's a story from Billboard on Biggie's classic second LP:

20th Anniversary of Notorious B.I.G.'s 'Life After Death': The Videos

... and my favorite song:

 

Love this album, inevitably not as much as I love RTD, but it's still full of classics. There was a terrific piece about it in RS by one of my favorite writers/tweeters here.