Search - Notorious Big :: Born Again

Ain't Biggie's FAULT

Jason J Lee | Palo Alto, Kali | 12/27/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It was a total shock to the entire hip-hop community when Notorious Big (aka Biggie Smalls) was shot to death at the age of 25. Two years later, Biggie's fellow producer, Sean "Puffy" Combs intends to utilize his remixing and collaborating skills to bring Biggie back to the "Greatest Rapper of All Time" by releasing Born Again [Dec. 7]. Unfortunately, Puffy failed to do that. This album only revealed Puffy's avarice and disrespect to his ceased homie. Puffy simply just sliced together the collection of Biggie's old lyric and remixed songs, which had seemingly ruined the originals. It was sad what Puffy did to the album especially with the guest appearances. These guests seems to make Biggie not as the "greatest rapper" on the strength of the two multi-platinum selling albums he had previously completed (Life after Death and Ready to die) before he was murdered by a drive-by shooting. This album contains some of the posthumous Notorious B.I.G.'s demos, freestyle verses and other fragmented clips, cut with new production and guest verses in the present tense that makes Biggie "born again". Since Puffy doesn't want to waste a second of Biggie tape, the production frames his lyrics like jewels of wisdom. Of this disc's 18 tracks, 14 are brought up to regular length by "featured" guests and not counting the intro and the outro. Thus Biggie's gifted performance only appeared in the remaining fragments. The most obvious example is the song "If I should Die Before I wake". It is built out of roughly 20 seconds worth of Biggie sound, covered by the guest rappers Black Rob, Beanie Sigel and Ice Cube.The song "I Really Want to Show You" sounds like the replica version of "Everyday Struggle", featuring the excellent performance by K-Ci and Jo-Jo and Nas. New rapper Eminem tears into his verse of "Dead Wrong" like it's his one chance to prove himself, and knocks Biggie out of the picture. Before Biggie's death, he doesn't even know who Eminem is, and we don't know if Biggie is willing to mix his song with Eminem. The fast song "Notorious B.I.G.", featuring the cheerfully nasty Lil' Kim, the cheerfully bland Puff Daddy and a cheerfully inevitable is a much better idea than it sounds like. This album is a disgrace to a Hip Hop legacy. Not because Biggie lacks of talents. It is Puffy try to make more money o release this cacophony and he ruined this brilliant rapper. Even worse, Biggie wasn't there to stop Puffy and Puffy makes all the profit. Anyone who dared to characterize the immortal lyrics of Life after Death and Ready to Die with this latest release is sheer blasphemy, and Puffy should go to Biggie's grave to beg for pardon."

IF U THINK THAT THIS ALBUM IS TIGHT THEN U DEAD WRONG

Blakout | Reston, Virginia | 12/21/1999

(1 out of 5 stars)

"With all due respect this biggie album (an exception) was ruined by puff daddy once again, now puffy if you ruin your album that's somthin' but if you ruin an album for biggie and he is not even alive to defend himself that's a crime. It is sad what puffy did to the album especially with the guest appearances."

A B.I.G. waste of money

E.J. Rupert | Milwaukee, WI | 03/06/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I don't think people are even talking about this album anymore because it was such an injustice to Biggie's legacy. Instead of a third Biggie effort or even a tribute to Biggie, Born Again is a overhyped and inconsistent album thrown together by Puff and company just to make some quick bucks. But first, the good news. The updated "Come On" featuring Sadat X has a better beat and Sadat's rhymes are better than on the original. And even though Biggie didn't really rhyme with Beanie Sigel, Black Rob and Ice Cube on "If I Should Die Before I Wake", the beat is so murderous and the dudes rhyme so well that you start to wonder what if they really did record together.Then, there are the halfway decent songs like "Notorious B.I.G." (what a clever title, huh?). It is here where Jadakiss got the hook from for The Lox's "All For the Love". And though "Dead Wrong" has some dope lyrics (they had to cut out the part where he said, "I'm wrong/Jehovah said I'm barred from the pearly gates/F__ it, I didn't wanna go to heaven anyway") and Eminem rips it as well, they used the same played-out beat used in Rakim's "Mahogany".But the album has so many shortcomings that it's sickening. There are some rappers that you know Biggie wouldn't have rapped with like Missy ("Let Me Get Down"), and the Hot Boys on the album's lowest point, "Hope You N's Sleep". Mannie Fresh's beat mixed with Biggie's unpolished rhymes is worse than having Biggie's vocals over Juvenile's "Ha" beat from his bootleg album, Reborn. And Mark Curry's verse saves "Dangerous MC's". Moreover, the song titles are repetitive and uncreative ("Notorious B.I.G.", "Biggie").It gets worse. The masterminds must have run out of Biggie's lyrics to use, so they run and dig into some of his lyrics from songs that EVERYONE has heard before. The chorus to "Biggie" is from the Heavy D/2Pac/Untouchables collabo "Let's Get It On"; "Big Booty Hoes" jacks Luke and Biggie's "Bust a Nut"; and "Tonight" and "I Really Wanna Show You" uses verses from "Long Kiss Goodnight" and "Everyday Struggle", respectively. Who are these people trying to fool? Even DJ Premier makes a misstep here. Though his beat to "Rap Phenomenon" is dope, and Redman's line, "I'm concurrent in your hood like a teenage mom," is hilarious, BIG's verses are taken from Tracey Lee's "Keep Your Hands High". And BIG's outtakes on "Can I Get Witcha" are called outtakes for a reason. They were lazy freestyles that should have been left in the archives. But the worst moments are putting on the shortened version of the ancient song "Who Shot Ya", and in "I Really Wanna Show You", K-Ci's singing/yelling is HORRIBLE. To further [degrade] the album's quality, Biggie's moms complains in the outro how hip-hop killed Biggie. That is mad debatable.Why dig through those songs when it would be just easier to Puff and them to admit that they don't have enough Biggie lyrics to make an album? Then they could have shelved this whole project. Forgive them, B.I.G., for messing up your third album."