Customer Reviews

Greatest Hits

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

An artist with as influential (and short) a career as Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G., is done a disservice by an album like "Greatest Hits," especially since it was conceived as a tribute to the Brooklyn rapper 10 years after his tragic death.

While half of the release lives up to its premise with choice cuts from B.I.G.'s brief but brilliant studio album output like "Juicy," "Hypnotize" and "One More Chance/Stay With Me," the other half is muddled with posthumously-released cuts that are more vehicles for guest artists like Nelly and Eminem than true Biggie classics.

Removing the layer of artist purity, one would expect radio hits like the massive tribute release "I'll Be Missing You" or duets like "Mo Money, Mo Problems" (with Diddy), especially since minor hits like Junior M.A.F.I.A.'s "Get Money" made the cut. But no, sadly, neither of the first two tracks are anywhere to be found, while the latter track and "Notorious Thugs" (with Bone Thgs-N-Harmony) made it onto the album.

This album is worth it if you're only passively interested in Notorious B.I.G.'s biggest radio hits (and don't mind paying for a lot of filler). Serious fans and B.I.G. beginners should seek out "Ready to Die: The Remaster" and "Life After Death" and call it a day.

Ten years since the passing of Christopher Wallace, one of the greatest MCs to ever rock the mic, Bad Boy Records and exec Sean "Diddy" Combs have released the first Notorious B.I.G. compilation. I find a Biggie hits compilation redundant in the same way I find a Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth or a Digable Planets collection redundant because he only released two albums in his career, but more than that, those two albums were five-star classics and skip-free material. "Ready to Die" and "Life After Death" are two of the 1990s most important albums, and in my opinion both should be appreciated in their entirety. But as this is a greatest hits album, I also have a little beef with the tracklisting. I understand that in order for fans to buy this, some more songs would be needed than just the originals from his two albums released during his life. But that said, putting songs from posthumous releases like "Born Again" and "Biggie Duets" doesn't seem right to me, probably just serving to misinform and confuse new listeners. Like other listeners said, it's a mystery why his most popular song, "Mo Money Mo Problems," would be omitted.

That said, I can't belittle most of the songs here. Standards like "Juicy," "Big Poppa," "One More Chance (Remix)," "Warning," "Notorious Thugs," and "F... You Tonight" are simply classic hip hop, showing a legendary MC in top form. You can't front on that material.

For a Biggie hits collection, this isn't terrible, but it would've been easy to make a better one and in principal a Biggie hits compilation isn't the most practical thing anyway. Biggie fans should steer clear of this, they have all the material already anyway and would only ever consider owning this for die-hard completion purposes. I suggest the same to new listeners. If you're looking at this, consider shelling out the few extra bucks to buy both "Ready to Die" and "Life After Death." These are near-perfect hip hop albums, and having just the hits would keep you from some of his greatest work.

When putting together a hits collection from somebody with only two big albums out, key songs should NOT be missing. I mean c'mon. Sure this has "Juicy" and "Big Poppa", and even "One More Chance" and "Notorious Thugs". BUT you can't argue that "Mo Money, Mo Problems" should be here. That was the first B.I.G. track alot of people ever heard. Also where's "I Love The Dough" and "Sky's The Limit"? Two of the catchiest songs on Life After Death. I even think ending this with Puff's "I'll Be Missing You" would have been a nice touch. Hidden track maybe. Still there's some classic tracks here, and overall good for the new fan. Let me be the 100th person to say just get Ready To Die and Life After Death.

The best songs from one of the best hip-hop artists in history. F*cking Awesome!

I've always Dug Biggie. he was One of the Best Story-tellers ever in his all but Brief Career. now of course I dig all the Hits. "F****** you Tonight" with R.Kelly is a Classic Love Song. we don't hear much of those anymore. that was my cut 10 years ago. it cracked me up,but it was direct&to the Point. Ten Crack Commandements was also the cut. "One more Chance"/Stay with Me" a very strong usage of the Debarge Song'Stay with Me" is used very nicely here. that Debarge Song was also used for BlackStreet,Ashanti&also for 2Pac's "I ain't mad at'cha". Biggie had Humor& way of breaking things down. there should have been a few more tracks,but basically if you have his first two albums then you have 99% of all you need.Puffy needs to stop milking the Brother&let Him Rest in Peace.

So here we are...one decade since the murder of Christopher Wallace aka Notorious BIG. Rap has changed since Biggie left us. We all miss him. Remember back in summer of 1994 when he came out with "Juicy". Today that remains my favourite song from him off of his (recently put back on shelves) album "Ready To Die". Then in '95 he introduced the world to his crew Junior M.A.F.I.A., which held almost two dozen members, including Lil Kim and Lil Cease. They had hits like "Get Money" and "Players Anthem". Then in '97 Biggie recorded his final studio album "Life After Death" with his only single released before his death "Hyp.otize", before his life was cut short.

So what we have here is a Notorious B.I.G. greatest hits album. Most of these songs on here are in chronological order. The classic songs are here, like "Juicy", "Big Poppa", and "Notorious Thugs". And we can't forget the song "One More Chance (Remix)" with Total. That was the summer of '95 song, back in the day. And then the love song "Lovin' You Tonight" with R. Kelly, which is another classic song.

There are some songs that were origonally 12" singles. The well known "Who Shot Ya". Also "Dead Wrong" was another 12" single before it was placed on the "Born Again" CD and featured Eminem.

Then there are more of those "rehashed" songs on here, like the sorry "Notorious B.I.G." and "Nasty Girl". Both songs were lead singles from his postmothous albums "Born Again" and "Duets: The Final Chapter" respectively. Those were technically hits from Biggie, even if they were made after he was dead, but they were still hits. I'm just not feeling how that is though, nor any of his posmothous hit songs. As well as the new songs "Running Your Mouth" and "Want That Old Thing Back". The latter song is used from the origonal "One More Chance" and features Ja Rule and others. Also "Players Anthem" is nowhere to be found on this album, which is another dissapointment.

I'm glad to see Diddy help remember the legacy of Biggie with a "Greatest Hits" Album. Can't be mad at that, cuz he did the best he could. We all have our own personal songs that should have been on here, so there is dissapointment. Also couldn't they have found a better album cover of Biggie. It looks like whoever designed the album cover just photo shopped his face on a white background. It looks like a bootleg pic on the album cover. Also if you're like me and have "Ready To Die" and "Life After Death", his two only studio albums, picking this up will be somewhat irrevelent because most of the songs on here are from those albums. But all is all though, it's a way to remember Biggie. The "Life After Death" 10 year anniversary is creeping up, and I hope Diddy plans on releasing that album as well.

Peace!

first of all the rating i gave has nothing to do with biggie himself. this is stricly about the overall product at hand. thats what reviews are for. anyway this greatest hits cd made for B.I.G. is a strait-up cash-in, i need more money scam from diddy. a single disc GH's release for the great B.I.G.???. thats pretty lame if you ask me. first of all the tracklist that should of been, is incomplete. wheres mo money mo problems, goin' back to cali, & the one i that could'nt belive that did'nt make the cut...sky's the limit?????. this is extremely frustrating for completest, who want all the greatest hits in one spot/package. second...would'nt it had only been right to include a second disc...a dvd anthology of every one of B.I.G.'s videos remastered in 5.1 surround, along with the actual greatest hits album put on the same dvd in a 5.1 surround dvd audio mix playlist(5.1 videos & 5.1 dvd-audio will fit together on a dual-layered single-sided dvd disc). third...how come diddy could'nt of gave B.I.G. some type of special packaging for this release. theres no digi-pack packaging or book style packaging(though diddy has it for his limited edition version of his press play cd, figure that one out). forth...maybe some extra's such as some glossy fleer-styled cards with complete song lyrics for all the songs & rare pictures of B.I.G., with his crew, his family, on the mic, live on stage, etc(would been great for collector's). all 4 of these problems i listed above keep this from being the truly great ultimate release from B.I.G. this is the man's 10 year anniversary of his death & he gets treated this way???. theres no excuse that diddy could come up with for this half-a****, poor excuse for a release. this single disc release made for B.I.G. is a disgrace & an injustice to B.I.G. himself. avoid this release & pick-up ready to die & life after death. BTW...make sure you pick up the original 1994 copyrighted release or the 2004 copyrighted release with the bonus dvd & avoid the 2006 re-release as the songs "machine gun funk" & "ready to die" have been tampered with, with the parliament & bridgeport samples being removed from those 2 songs, which is'nt a good thing. thanks alot diddy. SAD.

Biggie was pretty dope for the short time period that he graced the mic. But he doesn't have an extensive catalog like PAC to be able to make a greatest hits CD. Half the songs are from Life after death and the the other half are from ready to die with a few singles mixed in. So if you own the first two albums (which is about 95% of the world population that do own them) you will be wasting your money. In this day in age with technology, I could probably put together a better greatest hits disc of BIG at home if I wanted the songs on one disc. The cd is a marketing ploy for Puffy and is a complete waste of money for most of the consumers in the world.

Trust me when I say that this is not a real greatest hits from Biggie because it is missing quite a few jewels. This album looks like it was slapped together with a team that just sat down and thought "oh yeah that one was a hit single, I remember that one" instead of actually doing research on all of his hits. It does have most of his hits, but not all of them or songs from soundtracks and "B-Sides". Don't buy this cd if you already have biggies cd's wich you should already have!

swear when an artist dies the label pimps them to death if big would have spent extra time in the studio I swear we would have gotten more releases. anyway we heard these sonmgs to death you really like big download this nasty girl features nelly, and fagged edge puff and nelly could have did that by themselves did they have to put big on there but hey anything for money.