by guest contributor Will Gulseven
On 9 th March 1997, The Notorious B.I.G. was fatally shot at the age of 24, sending shockwaves through the rap world just six months after the death of Tupac Shakur under tragically similar circumstances. Biggie and Tupac had embodied the East Coast/West Coast feud that dominated the hip-hop scene in the mid-90s and propelled both artists to new heights of fame and artistic brilliance.
Twenty years later Biggie's murder has remained unsolved, but his place as one of the most influential hip hop artists of the 1990s – and all time – has been firmly cemented. We took a dive into Biggie's Last.fm stats and examined his incredible legacy.
Although he only released two full-length albums during his short career, Biggie brought East Coast hip-hop back into the spotlight after years of dominance by West Coast artists like Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, and paved the way for the huge success of fellow East Coast artists Jay-Z and Nas. While other East Coast artists like Wu-Tang Clan and Mobb Deep had previously enjoyed critical acclaim in the 90s, Biggie was one of New York's first platinum-selling rappers since the days of Run-DMC. Because of this, it's only appropriate that he is the second-most listened to artist tagged with East Coast rap on Last.fm, coming just behind Jay-Z - who took Biggie's blueprint and expanded on it during the mid-1990s through to the present day.
His debut album, 1994's Ready to Die, set a new precedent in hip-hop under the direction of Sean "Puffy" Combs. Juxtaposing the stark and menacing lyrical content of tracks like Gimme the Loot and Ready to Die with the chart-friendly production and hooks of Juicy and Big Poppa, Biggie proved himself to a bona fide radio superstar while maintaining uncompromised artistic credibility. The album also established Biggie as a rapper with one of the most natural storytelling abilities in hip-hop, as well as an enviable flow that incorporated deceptively complex rhyme schemes into his laidback delivery. Because of this, Ready to Die has been recognised by Last.fm users as one of the best hip-hop albums ever, and is among the top five most scrobbled hip-hop albums on Last.fm.
Released less than a month after he died, Biggie's second album Life After Death eclipsed his debut in terms of critical reception and chart performance. Not only did the album go on to sell over 10 million copies - making it one of the biggest-selling hip-hop albums of all time – it also spawned chart-topping singles Hypnotize and Mo Money Mo Problems, further establishing Biggie as a household name even after his death. It also expanded on everything that made Ready to Die such a compelling listen, with more accomplished production, a more developed lyrical style, and a wide range of collaborators and features. Interestingly, though Hypnotize is his second most-scrobbled track with over 600,000 listens, Last.fm users clearly prefer Biggie's earlier work, with Ready to Die racking up over 12 million total scrobbles, compared to Life After Death's 5 million.
Whichever Biggie album is your favourite, what can't be disputed is that his music is as vital now as it was twenty years ago - with a total of 36.4 million scrobbles on Last.fm equating to over 240 years' worth of listens, and a legacy that lives on to this day.
Follow Last.fm elsewhere: Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Instagram | Spotify | Soundcloud |Flickr
