The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die

Ready to Die opens with a birth, a prison release and a robbery, all compressed into ninety seconds of skit, and then Biggie starts rapping and New York had a new centre of gravity. Released in September 1994, the debut arrived when the city's rap scene had spent two years being outsold by the West Coast, and it ended that conversation on its own.

"Juicy" is the entry point, a rags-to-riches story built on Mtume's "Juicy Fruit" that still lands as one of the warmest songs in the genre. "Big Poppa" and "One More Chance" made him a radio fixture. But the album is far darker than its singles suggest. "Everyday Struggle" and "Things Done Changed" are unglamorous street reporting, and the record closes with "Suicidal Thoughts," three minutes of Lord Finesse production and a phone call that ends the album in the bleakest possible way.

The production credits read like a summit: Easy Mo Bee on the hardest tracks, Chucky Thompson and Sean Combs on the smoothest, DJ Premier on "Unbelievable," Poke on "Juicy" and "Respect." Biggie's voice does the rest, unhurried and impossibly detailed.

This double LP reissue on Bad Boy and Rhino carries nineteen tracks across four sides, pressed at Memphis Record Pressing on 140-gram vinyl. A cornerstone.