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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic album, January 19, 2004
Damn what a talent Big L was to lose. This 1995 album was his only ever release, and what an album.I've listened to hip hop for many years but Big Ls raps really blew me away. Hes pretty ruthless when it comes to lyrics, while the production is dark, dense and threatening. L paints pictures of dark street corners in the seedy underbelly of NYC, and deadly misadventures and run ins with the law. This is no doubt one of the greatest (And sorely underated) hip hop albums ever, and one for all the true heads to check. For my money few emcees could ever come close to Big L. I hear dukes threw some collection of unreleased songs together after L died but this is his only album. A classic and worth checking out.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The defining effort by the most gifted MC of a generation, August 31, 2004
There have been plenty of MCs with more intelligent and enlightened content to their rhymes than Big L. There have also been a few (though not many) with more distinct delivery--and perhaps one (Nas circa "Illmatic"?) with a more natural flow. But for sheer, unadulterated rhyming skill...there's just no one that touched L. Ever. Period. His gift was so unbelievable that I half wish they would have studied his brain when he died (morbid as it may seem)--because there had to be something abnormal about it. If anyone in the hip-hop game was ever a bona fide "genius" in the true sense of the word (meaning blessed with an almost freakish mental gift) it was L.
Don't sleep on the posthumously released "The Big Picture," but make no mistake, this grittier and more vibrant first album was L's magnum opus. Any one of these tracks contains more stunning, astounding, OHHHH (...)!-inducing rhymes than most MCs ever pen in a lifetime. Just listening to the relentless, incendiary first verses of "8 is Enuff" and "Da Graveyard" is enough to blow you straight off your feet. The numerous collaborators on those tracks are stunning, too, but they're clearly just sweeping up what fragments remain of the mic after L annihilates it.
Accompanying L's absolutely unparallelled talent for rhyme is a penchant for vicious, shock-value lyrics--which is a deadly combination. The faint of heart do NOT want to pick up this album. In fact, even the not-faint of heart should be advised--if you're going to be offended by references to cop-killing, child-killing, mother-killing, GRANDmother-killing, NUN-killing, Satanism, general blasphemy, rape and other violence against women...just click on over to another album. L obviously lived and died under tough, violent circumstances. His music not only reflects it, but magnifies it to the point of satire (one of the sickest things about all this is you'll find yourself LAUGHING at lines like "Every Sunday, a nun lay from my gunspray").
The occasional more thoughtful moment on the album (such as the cautionary "Street Struck") should reassure you that no, L doesn't really mean all these terrible things. Is he posing? I don't know, was Mick Jagger posing when he sang from Satan's perspective in "Sympathy for the Devil?" It's my considered opinion that lyricists, writers, poets, etc. have the right to don whatever guises they wish in their quest to enlighten and entertain--and I certainly don't begrudge Big L that right.
This disc sometimes catches flak for having weak production, but I disagree. The arrangements boast driving drumbeats and basslines to support L's dazzling vocals, while some occasional mellow, jazzy samples round out the tracks with a nice touch of sophistication without crowding L's flow. Anyone expecting huge, flashy arrangements should pick up "The Chronic" or something by Handsome Boy Modeling School--this is production designed purely to support the MC, and in my humble opinion it succeeds.
If you have ever nodded your head in appreciation of a rhyme, buy this disc now...but be careful not to break your neck.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Greatest Rapper of All time, August 28, 2000
Well, there's too much to say about this album, but I'll try to keep it within a thousand words. L was, and still is, simply the best. He proves it with crazy metaphors like "when it comes to gettin' nookie, I'm not a rookie, I got girls that make that chick Toni Braxton look like Whoopi," and "I told him give up the dough before you get smoked... 'Oh, you broke?' (gunshots)... now you dead broke!" Definitely the most clever MC there ever was, regardless of whether he achieved gold or platinum status. This album in particular is special because of the stellar production from Showbiz, Buckwild, and Lord Finesse(D.I.T.C.- the best crew in hip-hop for those that didn't know) and dope guest spots from Herb McGruff, and the rest of his crew in Harlem. People are just catching on to L's greatness even though this joint came out in '95. It's a shame that L didn't live to see the success of his new joint, but buy this joint and his legacy will live on.... R.I.P Big L 1974-1999.
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by Big L 
