Born Again [PA] - B.I.G., Notorious (The) (CD 2005)

1. Born again (intro)
2. Notorious B.I.G. feat. Lil Kim, Puffy Daddy
3. Dead wrong feat. Eminem
4. Hope you n***as sleep feat. Hot Boys, Big Tymers
5. Dangerous mc's feat. Mark Curry, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes
6. Biggie feat. Junior Mafia
7. N***as
8. Big booty hoes feat. Too Short
9. Would you die for me feat. Lil Kim, Puffy Daddy
10. Come on feat. Sadat X
11. Rap phenomenon feat. Redman, Method Man
12. Let me get down feat. G-Dep, Craig Mack, Missy Elliott
13. Tonight feat. Mobb Deep, Joe Hooker
14. If I should die before I wake feat. Black Rob, Ice Cube, Beanie Siegel
15. Who shot ya
16. Can I get witcha feat. Lil Cease
17. I really want to show you feat. Kci & Jojo, Nas
18. Ms. Wallace (outro)

With 2 Hip Hop classics under his belt Biggie was one of the heavy hitters in the rap game when he was murdered in March 1997. Till today no one knows who hided behind the guns who fired the deadly bullets. But we kind of know how Biggie would sound some years later. With "born again" Puffy's Bad Boy label released an album which can't be just dismissed as a "money-makin" one-hit-strike. Although postum released works can seldom touch the originality of albums which were released during the artists' lives.

"Born again" features 16 hip hop songs, and I'm telling you, half of the songs is str8 classic s**t! What surprises me is the quality of the production. The beats, the music, the trumpets, strings and guitars are hardcore and hitting directly into a hip hop fan's heart. Whether Nashiem Myrick's melancholy "biggie", the heavy beats of "dead wrong" by Yellow Man, the kind of Wu-stylish "come on" (Clark Kent), the theatrical "tonight" by Yellow Man and Puffy or the phat club-crunk "hope you n***as sleep" by Mannie Fresh, this album sounds fresh and ready for the new millennium. Then the protagonist, Biggie himself, spits incredible lyrics. Take the rhymes of "n***as" or "hope you n***as sleep" or the hookline of "biggie", and you understand why Biggie was one of the best rappers out there. And Mr. Wallace kills almost everyone on this album. Maybe Cube and Nas can present the same level.

There are some disadvantages of that album: it may be interesting to see Biggie with artists who became top of hip hop after B.I.G.'s death, but there are a handful of kind of commercial songs, e.g. the single "notorious", although most of the songs are str8 hardcore rap - what B.I.G. fans expect. I don't think it's a classic, but it is a very good album.