The violence and costs of the hustle are laid bare on the stick-up-kid anthem “Gimme the Loot” and the closer “Suicidal Thoughts,” which ends with the sound of him killing himself while on the phone with executive producer/mentor Sean “Diddy” Combs (then known as Puff Daddy), who pleads for him to reconsider.īut against the backdrop of violence and death, Big mixes in moments of aspiration and confidence.
On the seminal breakthrough single “Juicy,” he professes his love of hip-hop through a deeply personal come-up narrative so exemplary that few, if any, have come close to matching it since. “Diddy stepped in and said, ‘Hey, man, we gotta make some radio records.’ Diddy had to convince Big.” The song, which samples Mtume’s 1983 R&B classic “Juicy Fruit,” is one of the first examples of Diddy turning extremely recognizable past hits into commercial hip-hop gold the shiny, familiar production helped Big’s gruff voice and tales of a “common thief” find radio and mainstream success in a year when the biggest rap hit on Billboard’s Hot 100 was Salt-N-Pepa and En Vogue’s “Whatta Man.” “In the early process was Biggie at his most purest, rawest form,” Brooklyn DJ Mister Cee, associate executive producer and the man often credited with discovering Big, tells Apple Music. “When he played ‘Juicy’ for Big, it was just like, ‘What the fuck is this?’” Lil’ Cease, Big’s childhood friend and frequent collaborator, tells Apple Music. Obviously, Diddy won over Big, who, says Cease, “perfected” the formula-street-hustler rhymes softened by glossy, radio-ready production-sketching a blueprint that JAY-Z, 50 Cent, and rap stars of today still follow.It’s every bit as recognizable and even more unchanged than the Diana Ross source material that follows, but the end result is a sharp contrast that moves the story along.
On the second half of the album, we see Biggie introduce another element to his game of contrasting tracks: adopting styles from other regions. Decades before from regionally successful rap acts, Biggie was collaborating with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony on a track that’d fit right in on one of their own albums.
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