Foreword: I'm aware of how many people dislike hip hop, and how vehemently they do so. I ask that if you are one of these people, ignore this post, flip me the bird through your monitor, and just move on. Troll comments will not be tolerated.
The topic title refers to a line by battle-rapper Canibus, in (one of many of) his retort(s) to (unjustifiably) self-proclaimed G.O.A.T., LL Cool J. The man Canibus refers to is none other than the Notorious B.I.G., more commonly known as Biggie Smalls.
Biggie was shot to death on March 9th, 1997, after he presented an award at the 11th Annual Soul Train Music Awards. The shooting was, in similar fashion to the fatal shooting of rival (and argually better) rap artist Tupac Shakur, occurred during a red light at an intersection from a driver-side assailant firing rounds into Biggie's vehicle as he sat on the passenger seat. He was pronounced dead at 1:15 AM.
I don't know why I chose to bring him up, when there are other deaths I could have over the past 18 months (such as the aforementioned Tupac's). I suppose I was typing a reference letter and as Microsoft Word hinted for me to type "March 9th, 2007", that lyric sprang into my head and it hit me that this was the ten-year anniversary of Big's shooting. He wasn't the greatest of all time in my opinion, and as a person I couldn't ever admire his former occupation as a drug peddler (as so many rap artists were wont to do in their former days), but I was a huge HUGE fan of his music.
I would comment on the sad, unfortunate state of hip hop and its correlation with violence, but that'll take too long and I'm sick as a dog. In this post I'd just like to raise my glass to the clever rapper who spat, "Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, when I was dead broke man, I couldn't picture this", who recorded tracks from Machine Gun Funk to Dead Wrong, who went "from ashy to c|assy. (Haha, I like that.)"
So Big, wherever you are, keep rapping for the audience. I can't deny that I'm sick of misogynistic rap in this day and age, but I still miss your rhymes and flow. I hope you and Tupac have made amends and are sharing a bottle of fine champagne.
Oh, and by the way: Ready to Die > Life After Death. Just sayin' ;)
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