'Ready To Die'

I remember reviewing Oasis' What's the Story (Morning Glory)? a while back and mentioning that it was part of the soundtrack to my 14 and 15 year old self.

The other part: Biggie's Ready to Die.

At the time, hip hop was virtually persona non grata in my life. I didn't just not get hip hop, I hated it. It represented all I hated about thoughtless, soulless popular music.

Then my friend Shane got a pick-up truck after he turned 16 and he used to pick me up and we'd trawl the neighboring city for girls and junk. The constant in the CD player: Morning Glory ... and Ready to Die.

I learned to love that album and listening to it now it's ridiculously obvious how fantastic this album really is. Biggie rhymes and freestyles like a mad man trying to outrun the devil. Like a man who knew that his time on this Earth would be heartbreakingly short and he didn't take a song off or let up at all.

As the story goes, Biggie was brought into the studio and recorded part of the album with A&R guy Sean Combs. Combs was fired and started Bad Boy Records. Before he got his feet back on the ground, Biggie wound up in North Carolina dealing drugs.

Combs brought Biggie back in, they finish the record and it winds up changing the landscape of hip hop in popular music.