The 25 Best Songs From The Notorious B.I.G.: Critic's Picks (2023)

Hip-hop has changed dozens of times in the decades since the 1990s, and it will continue to change dozens of times in the coming years. That said, there won't be a permutation of the genre that The doesn't use.Infame B.I.G.it is DNA.

He's ground zero for many of today's tropes, including backstories, love for Versace, and the ruling power of New York hip-hop. Each birthday is a reminder that Christopher Wallace, born male, achieved it all in just five years on the market and one album released in his lifetime.

This time of year is also a time to take stock of Biggie's tragically short catalog. Looking through it, much of his material still ranks among the best hip-hop has to offer, thanks to the charisma that flows naturally from his prose and Sean "Puffy" Combs' impeccable ear for the beats. This goes for all dimensions of Biggie's personality - the certified Mack, the narrator and the English-speaking street rhymer.

Here they areo infame B.I.G.Top 25 songs including collaborations and performances.

25. "Just Play (Dreams)" (1993)

The decades of intense idolization surrounding Biggie's back catalog sometimes overlook the fact that his best material often depended on his comic wit. "Just Play (Dreams)",an add-on to the 12-inch promotion for "Juicy",is the most obvious example from their catalogue. Essentially a cocky rap that R&B singer Biggie wants to have sex with, the two-verse favorite showed early on that he's become one of mainstream hip-hop's grittiest stars. The stars he checked by name - includingMariah Carey,Mary J. Blige, and star of the 70s/80sPatti Labelle– Everyone supposedly accepted the mentions. The women who, understandably, resisted were the "ugly asses."XscapeGenericNameBitches.” “We saw them in Atlanta and Big told them it was just for fun,” friendboy stop it told MTV News in 2012.

24. "Gimme the Booty" (1994)

"Gimme the Loot" stands out because it is one of the most vivid examples of Biggie's characteristic talent for vivid detail. OReady to dieThe fan favorite meets B.I.G. effortlessly define his two characters: the older mugger is the kind of guy who sees murder as an inconvenience ("Don't be a dick and get smoked because you're recalcitrant"), while his helium-voiced partner takes just as much pleasure into crime as a kid could beg for a Sega Genesis ("Ooooooo, Biggie, let me jack you off!"). The resulting shock raps were too much: the lines "I wouldn't give a shit if you were pregnant" and "Bitches get strangled by their earrings and bracelets" were even censored.Ready to die's Parental Advisory-Version.

23. 112's "Only You (Remix)" feat. Mase e The Notorious B.I.G. (1996)

One of the biggest innovations for Bad Boy — a label whose '90s hits have aged better than songs decades younger — was how its biggest hits showcased R&B and rap as two naturally complementary flavors. An important example was the Atlanta R&B Quartet112Top 20 hit "Only You". The Notorious B.I.G., already with "Can't You See" under his belt, was still in his scented bag and stuffed it into aTony! Tony! Tonelada!Reference before giving the word. "Only You (Remix)" was also significant in introducing many to Bad Boy's labelmate.mase, who fronted this sweet alley with her own charisma on her 1997 multi-platinum debut,Harlem world.

22. "Things Done Changed" (1994)

Ready to diewas another example of cultural unrest in hip-hop. Gone were the good days of "Rapper's Delight" and peacekeeping parties; Since the late 1980s, we have been familiar with the trauma of Reagan-era survivors. "Things Done Changed"Ready to die, the first song, explicitly gives context to Biggie's debut. “Damn what happened to summer barbecues / Every time I turn my head a n-a gets kicked out / Shit my momma got breast cancer / Don't ask me why I'm stressed out,” Biggie rhymes in the final snags. As a result, escapismReady to dieThe highs of s seem necessary.

21. "Warning" (1994)

Ready to dieThe hookless narrative of a stolen robbery works because of the way it plays out in conversation. The details stick in your mind like modern folklore: Pop from the hairdressing salon informs Biggie that enemies are planning to rob him; our hero gets mad ("Damn, n-how you want to get me for my role," Biggie repeats four times in disbelief), spends a few bars contemplating all the means he has to defeat these villains before finally getting rid of them in the limit way slapstick ("You also have a red dot on your head!"). Classic B.I.G.

20. "Hino do Jogador" de Junior M.A.F.I.A. The infamous B.I.G. (1995)

"Player's Anthem" has become a veritable anthem for gamers, even though it's only oneJunior M.A.F.I.Afirst single. The premiere clique, made up of Biggie's friends from his Bed-Stuy neighborhood, benefited from being formed around this time.life after deathTimeline the rapper landed on countless hits (and even a Michael Jackson song). "Player's Anthem", produced by DJ Clark Kent, was also Lil' Kim's first appearance on a single. Her signature provocative delivery was there from the jump.

19. "One More Chance (Remix)" feat. Faith Evans e Mary J. Blige (1995)

The original One More Chance Is Why You Can't Really Play ItReady to diedirectly in public. Preceded by the pornographic skit "Fuck Me (Interlude)", this release is a raunchy cartoon-style sex rap rivaled only by2 team live. Still, Diddy saw something radio-worthy about it - and in one of his frantic strokes of genius, he called producer Rashad Smith to cut a sample for the remix. blacksmithcountedriotsin 2017 who originally formed the Ohio band Faze-Os"flying high' but not entirely satisfied, he called the instantly recognizable sampling ofDeBarges „Stay With Me“.Diddy sagely wrote in Mary J. Blige for backing vocals as wellAcredite Evans, whose melancholy performance on the hook became the perfect foil to her husband's slovenly presence.

18. JAY-Zs "Brooklyn's Finest" ft. The Notorious B.I.G. (1996)

JAY-Zand the infamous B.I.G. are now considered New York's greatest hip-hop towers, but the latter was initially skeptical about the future king. "I'm warning [Biggie] like 'My husband is coming... He doesn't write rhymes,'" DJ Clark Kent, producer of Brooklyn's Finestsaid SPIN in 2016. "Get out of here. I'm like, 'No, he doesn't write rhymes. He usually does it in one go. He doesn't have to do his verses again.'"

Biggie discovered that DJ Clark Kent wasn't bluffing. "Brooklyn's Finest" turned into a heart-pounding back-and-forth that found a young, hungry Jigga to rival the Brooklyn champ, who still managed to smile despite being embroiled in war ("If Fay Had Twins,She probably had two Pacs/ Got it?") After Biggie's death the following year, "Brooklyn's Finest" marked the passing of the baton.

17. Puff Daddys „Victory“ ft. The Notorious B.I.G. e Busta Reime (1998)

A year after his death, "Victory" appears, in which the black Frank White returns as a sinister apparition. "Victory" was a stark contrast to No Way Out's previous Jiggy-era singles, which centered on the serious sound ofBill Contis "Going the Distance"from the Rocky series. In one of the best highlights of the Bad Boy catalog in the world, Puff takes two big verses heavily camouflaged in the foreboding tone that endedlife after death. BIG. ends his second verse, one of the last he recorded, shouting at his bad boy crewmates and possibly referring to the commission.a supergroup is said to include Puff and Jay-Z. Sadly, this exciting opportunity died with B.I.G.

16. "Get Money" (1995) de Junior M.A.F.I.A.

Lil' Kim was by far the biggest non-Biggie star of Junior M.A.F.I.A. Click, so it makes sense that one of the group's few essentials is the duet with Biggie. Notably, Biggie — who spends his lines ignoring his girlfriend's cheating (referring to his earlier "warning" lament: "Damn, why does she want to hold me down for my job?") — takes a backseat herelittle kimbecomes a player. His verse contains a flurry of NSFW one-liners ("Deeper than a bitch's pussy, six feet"), making the leap from here to "I have clowns that eat my pussy while watching cartoons' wouldn't be far.

15. Totais "Can't You See?" ft. The Notorious B.I.G. (1995)

A big reason why Bad Boy's mix of R&B and rap was so seamless is that both sides drew inspiration from the same source material. When you spend your formative years engaged in a form of expression, it becomes part of your worldview, at least unconsciously. The result is Total's classic "Can't You See", downplaying the funk of James Brown's "The Payback" to create acoustic silk. Even with its blatant opening lines ("Give me every chicken head from Pasadena to Medina"), Biggie's partnership with Total feels like a Kismet act, though it's really another example of Sean Combs' ear for hits. Diddy's cackling line in response, "Calm down son, you're killing her" also became an oft-quoted part of this club standard.

14. "I've Got a Story to Tell" (1997)

life after deathI've seen Biggie double the noir narrative raps ("N—as Bleed," "Somebody's Gotta Die"), but the most indelible of all is "I Got a Story to Tell." In this episode, B.I.G. has a date night with a woman who is dating a Knicks player who is playing for the Utah Jazz that night. This guy - who is about six feet tall; Biggie is not sure - he enters at the wrong time and forces our antihero to steal it. Biggie then spends the second half of the track retelling the story to his boys in barbershop conversation ("Y'all N—How Won't You Believe What The Hell Happened To Me"). The entire saga is absurdly detailed to not have at least some truth in it.

And apparently it did: Fat Joe reluctantly told ESPN in 2016 that the victim in question was late Knicks fan favorite Anthony Mason and Diddy.confirmeda few days later. Even in his most bizarre moments, Biggie really lived up to his raps.

13. Mary J. Bliges „Real Love (Remix)“ ft. The Notorious B.I.G. (1992)

While he functioned much better as a star, Biggie Smalls was also pretty solid hype. In your second most importantReady to dieAppearance, B.I.G. popularized his sly humor in his opening lines as he toasted his future Bad Boy label mates: "Look to the sky It's a bird, it's a plane / No, it's Mary Jane, there's absolutely nothing that changes." Biggie would finally be releasing his first solo single "Party and Bullshit" the next year, but it didn't come close to matching the euphoria, the new Jack Swing peaks from this remix.

12. "Sky's the Limit" ft. 112 (1997)

DJ Clark Kent told BET in 2017 that the beat of "Sky's the Limit" wasn't even Biggies to begin with. "When he heard 'Sky's The Limit' I thought, well, that's what this track is forAkynyelethen you can't have it",said the producer. "He says, 'No,' I need this. I said, "Not for Junior M.A.F.I.A." He said, "No, that's for my album."

So DJ Clark Kent worked on it for two years before coming up with this one.life after deathInspiring testimony from. "Sky's the Limit" is, in many ways, the spiritual cousin of "Juicy"; The bittersweet difference is that the first, released after Biggie's death, is a memorial to dreams once lived. The video, in which Bad Boy's peers joke about generosity, was an innocently sentimental touch.

11. Funkmaster Flexs „Live Freestyle“ com The Notorious B.I.G. e Tupac Shakur (1993)

Although it was canonized on the 1999 Funkmaster Flex and Big Kap albumA tunnel, BIG. and Tupac's famous freestyle happened a few years earlier. The two sang the verses alongside legend Big Daddy Kane and rap prodigy Shyheim at the 1993 Budweiser Superfest, a Madison Square Garden extravaganza that also featured Patti Labelle and Bell Biv DeVoe. Renowned New York DJ Mister Cee, who captured the moment,reminded to MTVthat while the Notorious B.I.G. After the release of Party and Bullshit, Tupac was the star because Poetic Justice, starring Janet Jackson, had just come out. Of course, a few decades later, you'd be hard pressed to find a New York DJ willing to play Tupac's impassioned verse for Biggies, whose incredibly iconic "WHERE BROOKLYN AT?" became Brooklyn's rallying cry.

10. „I Love the Dough“ com Jay-Z (1997)

life after deathThe scope was so great that a clear single like "I Love the Dough" was downgraded to an album cut. JAY-Z and Biggie's follow-up to Brooklyn's Finest was more traditionally structured with full verses and an actual hook, but the brilliance was far from standard. Hov throws in some excellent quotes ("Skip the bull 'cause we matadores"; "Being pleite is a child and I'm full grow"), while Biggie gets drunk on sharp internal rhymes ("Blind your broken ass, I even got rocks in my beard and whiskers"). One of the best moments on Jay-Z's 4:44 Barclays Center tour stop was when he revived that cutfor a rare live version.

9. "The Ten Commandments of Cracking" (1997)

This song wasn't originally by Biggie either: DJ Premier said solate combat jackIn 2013, that beat belonged to New York emcee Jeru the Damaja. The instrumental was also used on Angie Martinez's Hot 97 show "Top 5 at 9". Puff Daddy tuned in one night and demanded for the Notorious B.I.G. at the. This is theMandrel D Probeit is now recognizable as the introduction to hip-hop's most quoted rulebook. Lin-Manuel Miranda would shoot themlife after deathclimaxes in the "Ten Commandments of Dueling" for Hamilton, while Faith Evans calls him "Ten Commandments About Wifey.“

8. "Big Daddy" (1994)

"Big Poppa" is another example of Puff Daddy smoothing out the sand edges of Biggie's road.Ready to dieOn his second major single, the Bad Boy star jumps into the 1983 Isley Brothers classic "between the leavesIt's clearly an unashamed reach for the top 10, but Biggie's slow jam reveals the grandeur and lushness of his world, which is as wide as Goodfellas' legendary restaurant. "Big Poppa" is pictorial in a way other rappers couldn't emulate, and when the Notorious B.I.G. By the time he finishes singing its gleefully crooked chorus, he has already established himself as a legitimate sex symbol.

7. "Incredible" (1994)

Ready to diewas finishing up his recording sessions when Biggie had to convince DJ Premier to write this beat for just $5,000. As he later did with Jay-Z, Premier's sample-heavy style is an instant transition from commercially ambitious to street real. For Biggie, the dark, carnival-like boops that fueled "Unbelievable" served that purpose. Notorious condenses the most important aspects of his personality into the album's most combative rhymes. The opening bars - "Live from Bedford-Stuyvesant, the liveliest / Representing BK to the fullest" - became the neighborhood's most coveted calling cards; no blooming coffee will erase that. same asReady to dieThe placement of "Unbelievable" as the penultimate song, balancing Top 40 radio aspirations and concrete hip-hop, argued that Biggie was a straight rapper first.

6. "Who shot you?" (1994)

Diddy and B.I.G. denies that this song is about Tupac,the last one saying it was recorded for monthsbefore being shot and robbed in the lobby of the same studio where they recorded. But the song was scrapped a month after the incident, and Tupac was convinced they had set him up. The dice had fallen.

"Who shot you?" it would be part of a chain of events with fatal consequences for both parties, making it impossible to separate this context from a surreally sharp track. Producer Nashiem Myrick's deceptively honest use of David Porter's "I'm Afraid The Masquerade Is Over" gives the writing a psychedelic quality. Biggie, menacing as ever, uses negative space in his lines, giving his threats a biblical intensity ("Feel a thousand deaths when I let you go/I feel for you").

Regardless of whether Biggie's lines were directed at him, Tupac now saw him as an enemy and would respond in kind following his 1995 sentencing stemming from a 1993 sexual assault case. "Hit 'Em Up" named Biggie, Puff and Bad Boy on what decades later still stands as hip-hop's meanest diss track.

5. "Mo Money Mo Problems" com Mase e Puff Daddy (1997)

Biggie spends a lotlife after deathHe ponders the grim consequences of excess, but takes a moment to turn that stress into joy with the help of Mase and Puff in Mo Money Mo Problems. While everyone involved has embraced the money-making ethos, the concept never overshadows their individuality. Mase is so self-obsessed that he doesn't bother to finish his verse before the hook. The infamous B.I.G. still has a foot in crime ("Am I losing my touch? That never / If I did, it's okay to get the gat") and at least a pulse in Rollies. But ultimately, it's all about that Diana Ross pattern - a ray of light reflected off those shiny suits that still shine decades later.

4. "Notorious Thugs" ft. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (1997)

"Notorious Thugs" is the trump card of any Notorious B.I.G.-as-GOAT debate because it is the most damning demonstration of their technical versatility. He switched from his typically laid-back flow to Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's famously complex Double Time. And Biggie didn't feel the least bit out of place - his characteristic love of cinematic detail permeates the snappy verse, evoking a suspenseful sensibility as he descends from decadence to violence. Bonus points if you know Bizzy Bone's dizzying lines by heart.

3. Craig Macks „Flava in Ya Ear (Remix)“ com The Notorious B.I.G., Rampage, Busta Rhymes, Puff Daddy e LL Cool J (1994)

The late Craig Mack gave Bad Boy Records its first hit with the platinum certified "Flava in Ya Ear". However, the promising start to the Puff Daddy dynasty became the beginning of the end for the Craigs. With the remix, "Flava in Ya Ear" became Biggie's song in a few crucial seconds. "You're mad because you admire my style / Don't be mad, UPS is hiring" is the immortal couplet here, but nearly every bar is a snappy quote. The performance was a demonstration of how the Notorious B.I.G. could extract moments from even his most laconic sentiments, and "Flava in Ya Ear (Remix)" made it clear that Biggie was Bad Boy's future.

2. "Mesmerizing" (1997)

life after deathsaw the Notorious B.I.G. from surviving on the streets to mafia tales told behind Versace sunglasses. "Hypnotize" ushered in Biggie's nouveau riche era, which is why it's daring that the bad boy chose minimal production by label standards. The groove-laden bassline and reverberating guitar slap - copied from Herb Alpert's "Rise" - vibrate around Biggie's oversized persona, which exuded sex, mayhem and black humor with equal effectiveness. And it helps that everything floats on the current, whose acrobatics contrast with her proudly round figure. Directed by Paul Hunter, the video features a fast-paced car chase, ending with Puff and Biggie riding triumphantly in a boat into the sunset. It's a cliché that sounds touching: Biggiedid not liveto see the final edit of the video.

1. "Juicy" (1994)

The infamous B.I.G. He really didn't mind making what would become his favorite hit. apparently he wantedReady to diecenterHard-Edge-Ostküsten-Rapand needed some convincing from Puff to do otherwise. The fact that the bad boy mogul came up with the idea of ​​rhyming his main attraction with Mtume's sultry Funk&B hit "Juicy Fruit" appeals to his impeccable commercial ear, while the resulting ubiquity of "Juicy" speaks to the Biggie's genius.

Ready to diespawned higher chart hits with "Big Poppa" and "One More Chance Remix", which fell to No. 27 after "Juicy" and other songs. Lines like "Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis / When I was dead, man, I couldn't imagine that" and "Without heat, I wonder why Christmas left us homesick. They've become part of everyone's history." "Juicy" is aexaggeratedbiography, but it's also the story of hip-hop and how its legends twist the American Dream through sheer genius.