R.I.P. B.I.G.
Raw. Egotistic. Audacious. Biggie Smalls turned the hip-hop world upside down in the early nineties with the exponentially eloquent Ready To Die and strutted around like he deserved every single nanosecond spent on top of the world. When I conjure up memories of B.I.G., I imagine him slowly stepping out of a ridiculous stretch limo sporting a white fur coat with a scowl eternally chiseled into his plump face, and a fine Castro Cuban parked in his grill to boot. His rhymes were so buttery, so smokey, they billowed out of his lungs thicker than jungle canopy and morphed into an infectious miasma of colloquial candor that distinctly reminded people why Christopher Wallace’s head-spinning swagger was so suitable. As the 2000s come to a close, it’s nice to see that cutting-edge bands, like the infectiously melodic shredder troupe Ratatat, have the chops to remix a Biggie classic instead of whatever overproduced pizza puff Common just stuck in the oven. So, throw on this jam and turn up the volume. Most of all, remember that the next time you see some hipsters rhyming to club rap and carousing along to their (falsely) perceived apostasy, this number tackled the doomed shallowness of rampant consumerism with much more verve then they’ll ever realize.
Notorious B.I.G. - “Party and Bullshit (Ratatat remix)”
About The Author
Raf
Raf has written for Time Out Chicago and Gapers Block. He can be spotted attending Chicago concerts and hanging out in alleys. Aphex Twin still creeps him out a little bit.
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