20 years ago today this masterpiece was released. Many people will disagree about which album is the best rap album of all time, but anyone would be hard pressed to name a more cinematic album. As soon you pressed play and heard that intro, you realized that you were listening to a movie on wax/cd/cassette. Biggie had a way of painting vivid pictures with his rhymes so that even if he was talking about a situation you had never experienced, you could still see it in full color in your mind. Living on the West Coast, you didn't always get exposed to rap from the east, but I remember being at a coffee shop next to where I lived and reading the issue of Rolling Stone that had the review for Ready To Die in it, and they lauded it so much that I rushed to Musicland on 3rd and Pike the next day and copped the album. Its rare that an album lives up to that kind of hype, but it was even better than Rolling Stone had made it out to be. I'll be playing this front-to-back today, and if you're not then do your ears a favor and let them "watch" this movie today.