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The Making Of Life After DeathIt takes a lot of heads coming together to make a classic LP. Life After Death is B.I.G.'scrowning achievement and XXL tracked down everyone who helped make the damn thing. Now thats whats up!Life After Death's Dream TeamSean "Puffy" Combs CEO of Bad Boy Records and Executive Producer of Life After Death *Steve "Stevie J" Jordan Former member of the Hitmen, Bad Boy's In house production team *Deric "D Dot" Angelettie Ceo of Crazy Cat Records. Former Hitman. A&R of Life After Death. Voice behind skit character, The Mad Rapper * Lil Cease long time friend of The Notorious B.I.G. and member of the Brooklyn based crew Junior Mafia * Lil Kim Bedstuy born rapper and first lady of Junior Mafia * Nashiem Myrick former Hitman * Jadakissmember of the rap trio The Lox, Formerly signed to Bad Boy Records * D Roc Childhoodfriend and longtime confidant of B.I.G.* Havoc One half of the infamous rap group MobbDeep * DJ Premier One half of the revered rap duo Gangstarr * Chucky Thompson Former Hitman * Krayzie Bone One fourth of the groundbreaking Cleveland, Ohio group Bone Thugs N Harmony * Layzie Bone One fourth of Bone Thugs N Harmony * Carlos Broady Former Hitman * Carl Thomas R&B Singer * Easy Mo Bee Brooklyn Based Rap music Producer *RZA Mastermind behind Staten Island rap conglomerate Wu Tang Clan * DMC LegendaryMC from RUn DMC * Kay Gee Former member of Naughty By Nature, CEO of Divine MillRecords * Buckwild Bronx based hip hop producer* Schoolly D Philly gangsta rap pioneer *Clark Kent Mild Mannered Hiphop DJ and Producer Life After Death proved to be a sadly prophetic title for 24 year old Christopher "NotoriousB.I.G." Wallace'S second album. Clearly, the Brooklyn rhyme slinger had it all mapped out.B.I.G. would follow up his platinum 1994 debut, Ready To Die - a street hustlers morality talethat ended with the narrator's gunshot inflicted suicide with an expansive statement that anunapologetically celebrated the successful MC's newfound love of life and all its rewards.Recording took over 18 months in New York, Los Angeles, and Trinidad, Life After Deathdocuments the extraordinary and ultimately tragic final chapter in the life of an ascending star.The sessions were interrupted by B.I.G.'s arrest for marijuana and possession, a car accidentthat shattered his left leg and the increasing pressures of fame. And of course, everything wastaking place under the shadow of the media frenzy surrounding the interpersonal strife between B.I.G. and California rapper Tupac Shakur. Released March 25th 1997, less than a
 
month after B.I.G. was tragically gunned down while leaving a Soul Train Awards party inLos Angeles, Life After Death sold a mammoth 690,000 copies its first week according toSoundscan, debuting number 1 on both Billboard's Rap and R&B charts. Eventually, it wenton to surpass the sales mark set by Tupac's 9x platinum double album All Eyez On Me, joining Hammer's Please Hammer Dont Hurt Em as raps only diamond certified discs. On thesixth anniversary of the notorious MC's passing, XXL interviewed friends, associates andfellow artists who played a part in the making of his classic opus. Assembled here, their rememberances give a track by track glimpse into the creative process that resulted in one of hip hop's most enduring artistic achievements. All Hail Big Poppa!1. Life After Death IntroProduced by Sean "Puffy" Combs and Steven "Stevie J" JordanStevie J: Me and Puff was in the studio just trying to think how we were actually going tostart the album. D-Dot came up with this cool suggestion while we were in the thinking process, of putting all of Big's old records together like with his first CD,a lot of skits fromthere and interludes we didnt use. And a big orchestral music sound around it just to make ithuge. That's one of the last things we did on the album. We just wanted to listen to the wholealbum and do what we had to do to make the beginning tight and the ending even tighter.2. Somebody's Gotta DieProduced by Nashiem Myrick, Carlos Broady and PuffyPuffy: "Somebody's Gotta Die" was the first song we recorded it was just really somehardcore lyrics. It wasn't to anybody, it wasn't a threat, it wasn't no subliminal underlyingmessage. A lot of times when MCs talk about something and it's gangsta and its violent, youtalk about any opposing enemy or foe. But it wasn't on no East Coast/West Coast thing or meant for anybody. It was just some lyrics. He had lyrics like that before there were so called beefs, you know. So a lot of things people started to look for and read into just weren't there,honestly.3. HypnotizeProduced by Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie, Ron Lawrence and PuffyD-Dot: When Biggie first heard the Hypnotize beat, he just flipped out. I did the music and picked that sample and Ron Lawrence programmed it. He's the one that sat on the drummachine and pieced it all together. Then me and Puffy helped Biggie, adding the choruses andwhatever we needed to keep it flowing. Puffy doesn't actually make beats. He doesn't sit onthe drum machine or play any instruments so we went into it saying to ourselves, "Whatever we can do to assist him with his label, if he wants to co produce a song with us, no problem,"and that's really how it went with that situation.4. Kick In The Door Produced By DJ Premier DJ Premier: Puff didn't like that record. When I gave him the track he caught me on theelevator and told me, "This is not hot, Preme. I need something more blazin, like"Unbelievable." I was like, "That shit right there is hot." He's like, "I need a Tunnel banger." I
 
said, "That's a Tunnel banger." He goes, "You ain't hittin it like you used to." That's exactlywhat he said. I thought he was doing it just to fuck with me, because that's when he reallystarted traveling with security. I was like OK, he just trying to make me feel small. But at theend of the day, Puff is my man. Me and him is mad cool despite the fact that he did not likethat particular track, and then when we did it I said, "I told you this shit was gonna be hot."And Puff goes, "I told you I had to hear the lyrics first." I was like, "Yeah, aight."Puffy: I didn't really like that beat at first. Once I heard Big's lyrics on it, once i heard him rap,it made me like the beat, it made me understand where he was coming from. Because that'sthe kind of relationship we had. You know, if I didn't like something, he still had the freedomto try it. I would give him my opinion and most of the time he listened, but if he didn't listento it, it must have meant he really felt strongly. So this was one of those cases where he feltstrongly on a joint. Nashiem Myrick: Nas said that record was for him, but when Big said, "Son, I'm surprisedyou run with them/I think they got cum in them, 'cause they nothin but dicks," he was talkingabout Jeru the Damaja to Premo cause Jeru was going at Big and Puff and all them [with thePremier produced "One Day"].Lil Cease: Big talked about Nas a little bit in that shit. It was the King Of New York part, thelast verse: "This goes out for those that chose to use disrespectful views on the King of NY."Thats when Nas had that freestyle out, where he was like "I'll take the crown off the so calledKing and lock it down." Thats when Big had the cover of The Source, and it said, "The Kingof New York." So Big was just addressing shit, but being indirect, cause thats how he waswith it. He wasnt saying who he was talking about. Big was like, "I'ma address it. I'm notgonna blow it. He's the only nigga that's gonna know what I'm talking about." Everybody elsewouldn't have got it, cause you had to really listen to the lyrics. You gotta listen to the indirectlyrics, indirect lines. Read between the lines.Puffy: Part of the song was meant for Nas but it wasn't no real disrespectful shit, it was morelike some subliminal mixtape shit. Nas was doing it. Wu Tang was sayin shit on tapes. Wewere all sayin subliminal shit on tape, but it wasn't to the point where, when we saw eachother, we couldn't give each other a pound and know that some shit was said. It wasn't nodeep shit. It was more on some clever shit, you know? Like little clever jabs, so when youhear it, you're like, "Ooh!" Like if you were the recipient, you would laugh at it, because itwasn't having you all out on front street. Everybody wasn't knowin about it. And you coulddamn near get with the person and yall could talk about it, like, "That shit you said was kindaslick."5.Fuckin You TonightFeaturing R KellyProduced By Daron Jones (of 112) and PuffyLil Cease: We just got locked up again, this is when police ran in the crib and found guns andweed. Next day, Puff bailed us out. We went straight out of jail to the studio - no belts, nolaces in the shoes, no nothing.
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