With mixed emotions of enjoying B.I.G.’s signature lyricism and the expansive arrangement of the double LP, the experience of listening to the album was solemn, as the best moments solidified that we may have just lost the best to ever formulate rhyme schemes. Only two weeks after receiving the news of Christopher Wallace’s death, grief now accompanied the anticipation for the long awaited follow-up to B.I.G.’s classic 1994 debut Ready to Die. Twenty years ago, the concepts of hip-hop fact versus fiction intersected like never before with the posthumous release of the Notorious B.I.G’s sophomore album, eerily titled Life After Death. The lines often blur on whether art imitates real life, or real life imitates art. Sadly, life beyond the lyrics of hip-hop music is sometimes filled with as much tragedy as the vivid street stories its artists recount about the harshness of life inside our inner cities. Happy 20th Anniversary to The Notorious B.I.G.’s Life After Death, originally released March 25, 1997.
