Would Life After Death have been evaluated differently if Biggie lived?

[FunkDoc1112]

It undoubtedly would've been a smash hit regardless, but do you think if it didn't have that surrounding it, would it have basically been looked at the same way It Was Written (before the late 2000s) or Hard Knock Life was, where the heads treat it like nuclear waste? I think so, especially with how Biggie and Bad Boy were being perceived in 96.

 

[Carl Tethers]

Nice try, Diddy

 

[Bigblackted4]

Absolutely

 

[FreshAIG]

Dead or alive, it's one of the best albums ever created

 

[bigde09]

Biggie rapping on a I’m coming out sample would have made rap fans shyt on him for selling out. It still would have been a monster success but hard core rap fans wouldn’t feel it at all.

 

[Rekkapryde]

Yes.

They even admitted his death made them give the album 5 mics at the time.

Still a great album though.

 

[WIA20XX]

I'm not sure I know what the current thinking on this album is. Do heads younger than 35 listen to this record? Know any of the classics from this record?

At the time, the thinking was that it would have been a far superior album if they cut it into a single lp and not a double. (RIAA certifications had a lot to do with making it a double lp, imo. Another way that NYC was taking notes from NOLA and elsewhere, but I digress)

It occasionally comes on my playlist via shuffle. The good songs are still good, but the ones I don't really check for, are even less listenable to me.

 

[MINT]

They always talked about it having a lot of fillers anyway

 

[Marlo Barksdale]

The tide outside of NY was almost firmly against him and the multiple disses to Pac would’ve likely had him reach the same fate.

“All I got is beef with those that violate me
I shall annihilate thee” alone on “Going Back To Cali” would have him public enemy #1.

He’d be called out for dissing on the album after lying in interviews about saying he never responded and wanted to squash it.

 

[CHICAGO]

ALL OF THE PAC SUBLIMINALS
WOULD HAVE HAD nikkaS
LOOKING AT HIM CRAZY



​

 

[Awesome Wells]

Dead or alive, it's one of the best albums ever created

This right here.

No matter if he lived or not, before he passed, 1/2 of the album leaked and people were calling LAD a masterpiece already. People don’t usually boost posthumous projects, they do that for the MC. Dude was already seen as the best before he died. And RTD was already an album that was getting critical acclaim everywhere. If anything, LAD might have one of BIG's earlier masterpieces with many more to come, if he lived.

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

Dead or alive, it's one of the best albums ever created

Notorious Thugs Vid??
I Love The Dough Vid??
Story To Tell Vid??

*faints*

 

[Ricardo Gardner]

It’s a movie. A blockbuster. A best picture winner. Crazy achievement at 25. And the tragedy is his flow and storytelling was only getting more GOATed.

 

[Redwood]

This right here.

No matter if he lived or not, before he passed, 1/2 of the album leaked and people were calling LAD a masterpiece already. People don’t usually boost posthumous projects, they do that for the MC. Dude was already seen as the best before he died. And RTD was already an album that was getting critical acclaim everywhere. If anything, LAD might have one of BIG's earlier masterpieces with many more to come, if he lived.

If Biggie lived to create that triple disc Black Album

 

[Peak]

Depends on who you ask. Biggie did a far better job of transitioning early to be commercially viable unlike say Nas. So the mix of popular sounds with underground sounds wasnt too far removed from who he was at the time.It probably would have been well received but not given instant classic status it got at the time.