but i think ready to die was for all its polish, still very much a hardcore east coast album. life after death is when the polish went too far. but on ready to die, it was still rugged.

yeah juicy sampled an 80s hit, which was pretty diff from everyone else, but it wasnt that diff from other NY rappers at the time. kurious' im kurious, nas' it aint hard to tell and juicy, all did the same thing, but they were all still for rap fans too - it wasnt like anyone dumbed down their rhymes, which i think was the difference to what came later.

but they were basically anomalies on albums that were otherwise still hardcore. the only problem i have with ready to die is some of the skits and that it starts to drag a bit with the diana king song, friend of mine and me and my bitch, but even those songs have their redeeming aspects, i.e. biggie. he makes even the slightly dull songs decent (and you can find memorable lines/moments on all of them, theyre not total filler, which shows how good/on form he really was).

i would put the classic but flawed label on life after death much more than ready to die. life after death was era-defining/dominating, but for me, its seriously hampered by those ambitions ruining/softening biggies style. life after death is very much a bad boy album, but ready to die, is maybe as pure as biggie got (even allowing for him saying that he had to tone it down a bit).

and criticising gimme the loot is sacrilege! lol.