The Notorious B.I.G.: Ready To Die (2LP) [BAD BOY]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set comes in a gatefold jacket, pressed in the USA. Ready to Die is six times platinum, and in 2020 Rolling Stone named it the greatest hip-hop album of all time.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Gatefold jacket
• Pressed in the USA

About the album

Christopher Wallace started making this record on one label and finished it on another. He began recording in 1993 at Uptown Records, laying down the darker, hungrier songs like "Things Done Changed" and "Gimme the Loot"; when Sean "Puffy" Combs left to launch Bad Boy, Biggie followed, and the later sessions at the Hit Factory and D&D Studios caught a smoother, more confident voice.

The storytelling is the thing. "Juicy" flips Mtume's "Juicy Fruit" into a rags-to-riches anthem, "Big Poppa" glides on The Isley Brothers' "Between the Sheets" and went to No. 6 on the Hot 100, and "One More Chance" is pure charm. Easy Mo Bee, Chucky Thompson, DJ Premier (on "Unbelievable") and Lord Finesse share the production, Method Man trades verses on "The What," and "Warning" turns an Isaac Hayes sample into a tense little thriller.

It brought the spotlight back to East Coast hip hop at a moment when the West Coast owned the charts, and in 2024 the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry. Brooklyn's finest, now officially a matter of national record, which is more paperwork than most of us will ever manage.

Also at Kops: more The Notorious B.I.G. on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Bad Boy (cat# RR1 285201), a reissue of the 1994 album.