| Life After Death | ||||
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| Released | March 25, 1997 (1997-03-25) | |||
| Recorded | 1995–1997 | |||
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| The Notorious B.I.G. chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Life After Death | ||||
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Life After Death is the second and finalstudio album by American rapperthe Notorious B.I.G., released on March 25, 1997, byBad Boy Records and distributed byArista Records.[5] Adouble album, it was released sixteen days afterhis murder. It features collaborations with guest artists such as112,Jay-Z,Lil' Kim,Mase,R. Kelly,The Lox,Angela Winbush,Darryl McDaniels ofRun-DMC,Bone Thugs-n-Harmony,Too Short, andPuff Daddy.Life After Death exhibits the Notorious B.I.G. further delving into themafioso rap subgenre. The album is a sequel to his first album,Ready to Die, and picks up where the last song, "Suicidal Thoughts", ends.
Life After Death sold 690,000 copies in its first week, peaking at No. 1 on theBillboard 200. It received widespread critical acclaim upon release and was nominated forBest Rap Album,Best Rap Solo Performance for its first single "Hypnotize", andBest Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for its second single "Mo Money Mo Problems" at the40th Annual Grammy Awards. The album is widely considered to be one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. In 2020, it was ranked at No. 179 onRolling Stone magazine's list of the500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[6][7]
Two and a half years before the album's release, the Notorious B.I.G., who had marriedFaith Evans, became East Coast's icon in theEast Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry and featured on albums byMichael Jackson andR. Kelly amongst others. The album had numerous planned release dates, but Biggie was involved in acar accident in September 1996 that delayed the finalizing of the album. It was pushed back to 1997.
As he explained onBET's Rap City, Biggie aimed to reach a wider audience withLife After Death, collaborating with a wider variety of artists than on his debut. In addition toBad Boy labelmatesMase,the LOX and112, and label ownerPuff Daddy, guests includeJay-Z,Angela Winbush,Too Short,Lil Kim, andBone Thugs-n-Harmony. A record with Bay Area rapperE-40 was not included on the final track listing.
"Most artists, you can tell they're working by the movement of their pen, but Big didn't have a pen and paper. So if a person walked in, they'd think there wasn't any work being done. There'd be conversations going on, the music would be blaring, there'd be smoke in the air, drinks all over the place, girls running around. You would think that a party was going on, but meanwhile Big was sitting in his little corner, just nodding." –Deric 'D-Dot' Angelettie[8]
Production was handled byDJ Premier,Easy Mo Bee,Havoc,Buckwild,RZA,Clark Kent and members of Bad Boy's in-house production team, the Hitmen.Q-Tip submitted a beat, which Biggie enjoyed; however, the album had already been completed and turned into Bad Boy.[9] The beat was later used forA Tribe Called Quest's song "The Love", from their 1998 albumThe Love Movement.[9]
Biggie traveled to the West Coast in February 1997 to promote the album, and shoot the video for the lead single, "Hypnotize." Two weeks before its release, on March 9, he wasshot four times in adrive-by shooting and later pronounced dead atCedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [10] |
| Christgau's Consumer Guide | A[11] |
| Entertainment Weekly | C+[12] |
| The Guardian |  [13] |
| Los Angeles Times | [14] |
| NME | 8/10[15] |
| Pitchfork | 9.5/10[16] |
| Rolling Stone | [17] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [18] |
| USA Today | [19] |
Life After Death received widespread acclaim from critics upon release.Jon Pareles ofThe New York Times described the album as "flaunting affluence with a leisurely swagger, midtempo grooves and calmly arrogant raps".[20]Anthony DeCurtis ofRolling Stone magazine called it a "conscious continuation ofReady to Die", and stated "Life After Death captures crime's undeniable glamour but doesn't stint on the fear, desperation and irretrievable loss that the streets inevitably exact".[17]Cheo Hodari Coker from theLos Angeles Times wrote that "Life After Death reflects both the dark and the heartfelt sides of the rapper'sGemini personality. It's not only a complex testament to who he was in his private life, but also a demonstration of his amazing rhyming ability. In key moments, B.I.G. does a marvelous job of surfing between accessible music fare tailored for the radio, and more challenging material that will be savored by hard-core rap fans who have long admired B.I.G.'s microphone skills. Rarely has a rapper attempted to please so many different audiences and done it so brilliantly".[14] In afive-mic review forThe Source, Michael A. Gonzales felt that it would "undoubtedly become a classic to any true hip-hop fan".[21] AlthoughDavid Browne ofEntertainment Weekly was unfavorable of the album's long length, and some of its violent and materialistic content, he commended Notorious B.I.G.'s "bicoastal respect" by working with other hip-hop styles and artists from other regions of the United States.[12]
Since its release,Life After Death has received retrospective acclaim from critics.Rob Sheffield, writing inThe Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), called it "afiller-free two-disc rush of musical bravado" and commented that the Notorious B.I.G.'s voice and lyrics were "deeper" than before.[18]AllMusic's Jason Birchmeier wrote, "It may have taken the Notorious B.I.G. a few years to follow up his milestone debut,Ready to Die, with another album, but when he did return withLife After Death, he did so in a huge way. The ambitious album, intended as somewhat of a sequel toReady to Die, picked up where its predecessor left off."[10] Birchmeier further said, "Over the course of only two albums, he achieved every success imaginable, perhaps none greater than this unabashedly over-reaching success."[10] Evan McGarvey ofStylus magazine wrote in his review, "Life After Death is a grand exercise in personal mythology, narrative sweep, and truly diverse, universal pop excellence. As a double album it is the very definition of cinematic; it essentially perfected the concept and standard in hip-hop ... Sequenced as an unpacking of sorts, the album's progression from song to song is an essay itself."[22] In 2013,VIBE namedLife After Death the greatest Hip-Hop/R&B album since 1993.[23]
| Publication | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| About.com | United States | 100 Greatest Hip Hop Albums | 2008 | 40 | [24] |
| Best Rap Albums of 1997 | 1 | [25] | |||
| Addicted to Noise | Albums of the Year | 1997 | 7 | [citation needed] | |
| Blender | The 100 Greatest American Albums of All Time | 2002 | 25 | [26] | |
| Ego Trip | Hip Hop's 25 Greatest Albums by Year 1980–1998 | 1999 | 1 | [27] | |
| The Face | United Kingdom | Albums of the Year | 1997 | 20 | [citation needed] |
| Fnac | France | The 1000 Best Albums of All Time | 2008 | 858 | [citation needed] |
| Hip Hop Connection | United Kingdom | The 100 Greatest Rap Albums 1995–2005 | 2006 | 14 | [28] |
| The New Nation | United Kingdom | Top 100 Albums by Black Artists | 2005 | 60 | [citation needed] |
| OOR Moordlijst | Netherlands | Albums of the Year | 1997 | 87 | [citation needed] |
| Pure Pop | Mexico | 18 | [citation needed] | ||
| Q | United Kingdom | * | [citation needed] | ||
| Rolling Stone | United States | 500 Greatest Albums of All Time | 2003 | 483 | [29] |
| 2012 | 476 | [30] | |||
| 2020 | 179 | [31] | |||
| 100 Best Albums of the '90s | 2010 | 66 | [32] | ||
| The Essential Recordings of the '90s | 1999 | * | [33] | ||
| The Source | The 100 Best Rap Albums of All Time | 1998 | [34] | ||
| Spex | Germany | Albums of the Year | 1997 | 19 | [citation needed] |
| Spin | United States | 7 | [35] | ||
| (various writers) | 50 Years of Great Recordings | 2006 | * | [36] | |
| Vibe | 51 Essential Albums | 2004 | [37] | ||
| 150 Albums That Define the Vibe Era (1992–2007) | 2007 | [38] | |||
| Village Voice | Pazz & Jop | 1997 | 13 | [39] |
Life After Death was released to a significant amount of critical praise and commercial success. The album sold 690,000 copies in its first week.[40] In 2000, the album was certifiedDiamond by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA),[41] denoting shipment of 10 million copies (the threshold for double albums) and it has been credited as one of the best-selling rap albums of all time. It also made the largest jump to number one on theBillboard 200 chart in history, jumping from number 176 to number one in one week. Also, it spent four weeks at number one on the BillboardTop R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and ended up as the top album on theBillboard Year-End chart for the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in 1997.[42]
It spent its four consecutive weeks at number one on theBillboard 200 from the weeks of April 12 to May 3, 1997, later being displaced from the top entry by singerMary J. Blige's third studio album,Share My World, which released on April 22.[43]
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Although released in the wake of B.I.G.'s fatal shooting,Life After Death signaled a stylistic change ingangsta rap as it crossed to the commercial mainstream. AfterLife After Death,Puff Daddy'sBad Boy Records continued to bring pop and gangsta rap closer together: the references to violence and drug dealing remained, as did the "gangsta" rhetoric, but the previously dark production changed to a cleaner,sample-heavy, more upbeat sound that was fashioned for the pop charts, as seen in the single "Mo Money Mo Problems". The Notorious B.I.G. is often credited with initiating this transition, as he was among the first mainstream rappers to produce albums with a calculated attempt to include both gritty and realistic gangsta narratives as well as radio-friendly productions.
"It sounded for the first time like an East Coast artist had been able to make the perfect record. It was a pop record, a radio record, a street record, a club record. It embodied every type of song that a hip-hop artist could make – would wish to make, would try to make – in one project. His death magnified the meaning, but ultimately the finished product was super-substantial." –Busta Rhymes[44]
The majority of the album was produced bySteven "Stevie J" Jordan,Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie, Carlos "July Six" Broady,Ron Lawrence, and Nashiem Myrick. However, notable hip-hop producers such asEasy Mo Bee,DJ Premier,Havoc fromMobb Deep, andRZA fromWu-Tang Clan contributed beats.
Various artists were specifically influenced by songs onLife After Death.Evidence's "Down in New York City" is essentially "Going Back to Cali" from the perspective of aWest Coast hip hop artist.Jay-Z borrows four bars from "The World Is Filled..." in his song "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)", as well as the chorus from his song "Squeeze first" from "Hypnotize", a line in "The Ruler's Back" from "Kick in the Door" and "You're Nobody ('Til Somebody Kills You)" on "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)".Ice Cube borrows the chorus from "Kick in the Door" for his song "Child Support". As with B.I.G.'s "I Love the Dough"Monica's 2010 song "Everything to Me" samples "I Love You More" byRené & Angela. The official remix includes a verse from B.I.G. that originally appeared on "I Love the Dough".SWV sampled "Ten Crack Commandments" on the opening track "Someone" featuring B.I.G.'s former protege and friendPuff Daddy. The French rapperRohff named his album "La Vie Avant La Mort" (Life Before Death) (2001) as a tribute to B.I.G,Joey Badass interpolated the lines 'Kick in the Door' on "Super Predator" fromAll-Amerikkkan Badass (2017).
Credits adapted fromLife After Death liner notes.[45]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Life After Death Intro" |
| 1:39 | |
| 2. | "Somebody's Gotta Die" |
|
| 4:26 |
| 3. | "Hypnotize" |
| 3:50 | |
| 4. | "Kick in the Door" | DJ Premier | 4:47 | |
| 5. | "#!*@ You Tonight" (featuringR. Kelly) |
|
| 5:45 |
| 6. | "Last Day" (featuringthe Lox) | 4:19 | ||
| 7. | "I Love the Dough" (featuringJay-Z andAngela Winbush) | Easy Mo Bee | 5:11 | |
| 8. | "What's Beef?" |
|
| 5:15 |
| 9. | "B.I.G. Interlude" |
|
| 0:48 |
| 10. | "Mo Money Mo Problems" (featuringMase,Puff Daddy, andKelly Price) |
|
| 4:17 |
| 11. | "Niggas Bleed" |
|
| 4:51 |
| 12. | "I Got a Story to Tell" |
| 4:42 | |
| Total length: | 49:50 | |||
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 13. | "Interview / Biggie Speaks" (unlisted track) | 11:28 |
| Total length: | 61:18 | |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Notorious Thugs" (featuringBone Thugs-n-Harmony) |
|
| 6:07 |
| 2. | "Miss U" (featuring112) |
| KayGee | 4:58 |
| 3. | "Another" (featuringLil' Kim) |
|
| 4:15 |
| 4. | "Going Back to Cali" |
| Easy Mo Bee | 5:07 |
| 5. | "Ten Crack Commandments" |
| DJ Premier | 3:24 |
| 6. | "Playa Hater" |
|
| 3:57 |
| 7. | "Nasty Boy" |
|
| 5:34 |
| 8. | "Sky's the Limit" (featuring 112) | Clark Kent | 5:29 | |
| 9. | "The World Is Filled..." (featuringToo Short, Puff Daddy, andCarl Thomas) |
|
| 4:54 |
| 10. | "My Downfall" (featuringD.M.C.) |
|
| 5:26 |
| 11. | "Long Kiss Goodnight" |
| RZA | 5:18 |
| 12. | "You're Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You)" |
| 4:52 | |
| Total length: | 59:21 | |||
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Hypnotize" | 3:57 |
| 2. | "Notorious Thugs" | 6:14 |
| 3. | "I Love the Dough" (featuringJay-Z andAngela Winbush) | 5:40 |
| 4. | "B.I.G. Interlude" | 0:48 |
| 5. | "Miss U" | 4:05 |
| 6. | "Mo Money Mo Problems" (featuringMase andPuff Daddy) | 4:17 |
| 7. | "Playa Hater" | 3:59 |
| 8. | "Another" (featuringLil' Kim) | 4:22 |
| 9. | "Ten Commandments" | 3:24 |
| 10. | "Nasty Boy" | 3:51 |
| 11. | "Sky's the Limit" (featuring112) | 4:37 |
| 12. | "Going Back to Cali" | 3:55 |
| 13. | "You're Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You)" | 4:52 |
| 14. | "Lovin' You Tonight" (featuringR. Kelly) | 5:42 |
| Total length: | 59:42 | |
Disc one notes
Disc two notes
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
Decade-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada)[64] | 2× Platinum | 200,000^ |
| Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[65] | Gold | 10,000‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[66] | Platinum | 300,000* |
| United States (RIAA)[68] | 11× Platinum | 5,360,000[67] |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
