Happy 20th Anniversary: The Big Picture

                                                    

                                                            

What's good my folks?!  Hope everyone is straying safe during these unsure times.  It's definitely trying times, but we will get through this like we do everything else, regardless of who our leadership (I use that term loosely) is.  With that being said, let's continue the twentieth anniversary salutes with an album that has been considered among the most underrated albums of the current century.  This was an album from an artist who had among the wittiest punchlines in all of hip-hop.  A lyrical wizard, this Harlem native first blessed our ears with his superb writing ability on his debut, Lifestylez Uv Tha Poor & Dangerous.  It featured heaters such as the Kid Capri-assisted "Put It On", "No Endz, No Skinz,", "Fed Up With The Bullshit", and "MVP" (although quite honestly the remix was the better version).  The talent displayed within thast album was definitely impressive and showed what type of beast he could be on the mic.  Unfortunately, tragedy occurred when he was murdered for mistaken identity in February of '99 in his own city of Harlem.  While the hip-hop world was shaken from the loss of a potential star in the game, he left behind a slew of cuts promising to satisfy the taste buds of his fans plus attract new ones as well. With the help of his business partner from his label, Flamboyant Entertainment, the album that dropped was a collection of some of the best work one could ask for from an emcee of his caliber.  It showed a glimpse into how bananas this young Harlem upstart was and the star he was about to be.  We salute the late, great Big L and his final full-length album, The Big Picture.

The majority of this album was leftover cuts and B-sides, although known mixtape singles were here a lot as well.  Known cuts such as the searing "Ebonics (Criminal Slang)", "The Enemy", and "Size 'Em Up" helped to propel the album from outside NYC, as most of the rest of the nation hadn't heard these dumb dope cuts.  Same with joints like "Casualties Of A Dice Game" and "The Heist".  What was perhaps the best example of his lyrical swordsmanship was his surprising, yet impressive, collaboration with another late hip-hop icon, 2Pac, on "Deadly Combination".  Although there's no definitive story about how the track came together or if they were actually in the studio together, it's still a very strong cut.  Not to mention, the ferocious "'98 Freestyle", in which he blisters the mic, and spits frequently rewindable lines like : "Get mad hoes, ask Beavis, I get nothin, but head (Butthead)".  The commercial single from the album came in the form of the Miss Jones/A.G./Stan Spit-assisted single, "Holdin' It Down",   Over a knocking Pete Rock production, Big L stings and delivers with lines like: "L is rap's most livest cat/I'm making stacks while you asking people 'Do u want fries with that'".  Clearly, dude had a way with the pen game. Plus an incredible Premo-crafted cut with the legendary Big Daddy Kane, "Platinum Plus" made this album that much hotter.

Rumors of him being courted to sign with Roc-A-Fella at the time were heating up, as one could only imagine how crazy his stature would've been as part of the legendary Roc.  Although we will never know, L was definitely an emcee's emcee.  He knew the art of the quotable and the rewindable bars.  Other posthumous efforts such as the acclaimed Return of the Devil's Son, 139 & Lennox, and The Danger Zone all show how ridiculous of an emcee he was and the potential he had to be one of the top stars in the game.  With The Big Picture, this should've been the launching pad for his quest for stardom.  He had all the capabilities for that to happen.  While it's been over two decades since his death, his legacy of being one of the most promising emcees of his generation remains.  Harlem can forever be proud of Lamaont "Big L" Coleman.  Lift your glasses and salute Big L and The Big Picture.