If you are looking to own a piece of hip-hop history or you are tired of spending your hard-earned money on albums that disappoint you with mediocre songs that force you to press fast forward then pick up The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Life After Death” album that is currently on sale at Best Buy for $9.99 and available at Amazon.com for $9.65. Released on March 25, 1997 for $19.99, just weeks after Biggie’s death on March 9, the double album went on to sell more than 10 million copies and break numerous records on the Billboard charts. Only Tupac Shakur’s double-CD, “All Eyez On Me,” can be compared to the LP as it was the first double-disc in rap history and went on to sell 9 million records.
Biggie’s sophomore album consisted of 22 songs and featured the best in hip-hop and R&B as Jay-Z, 112, Lil’ Kim, Mase, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Too Short, D.M.C. of Run D.M.C., R. Kelly, The LOX, and Puff Daddy all made guest appearances. The album’s soundtrack also featured the most sought after producers in the genre including DJ Premier, Havoc of Mobb Deep, RZA of Wu Tang Clan, Kay Gee of Naughty by Nature, Easy Mo Bee (who previously produced “Temptations” for Tupac), DJ Clark Kent (who produced “Brooklyn’s Finest” for Biggie’s collaboration with Jay-Z on “Reasonable Doubt”) and Stevie J, star of VH1’s “Love & Hip-hop ATL.”
The album includes “Hypnotize and “Mo Money, Mo Problems” which made Biggie the only artist in Billboard Hot 100 history to have 2 #1 singles posthumously. While Jay-Z later released his own double-album, “Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse” in 2002 and Nas gave fans an abundance of music with 2004’s “Street’s Disciple,” neither album was able to surpass the sales, critical acclaim, and cultural impact of “Life After Death.”