4 Classic Rap Albums That Ruined Rap Music

#4. Ready to Die by Notorious B.I.G. Married Rap and High Fashion
n 1993, the balance of power in rap music had shifted heavily toward the West Coast. After music made by gang members (which Irefuse to identify by its accepted name because "gangster" does not have two A's) killed the "positive" rap movement with songs about selling crack, the East Coast struggled to find an identity for a fewyears.

To tilt the scales back in the direction of New York, it took a trio of legendary debut albums. The first was the Wu-Tang Clan's Enter the Wu-Tang in 1993, followed by Nas' almost perfectIllmatic in the spring of 1994, and, most importantly for this entry, Ready to Die by the Notorious B.I.G. shortly after that.
More on the Wu-Tang and their hand in ruining rap later, but for now, let'stalk Nas and Biggie. For all intents and purposes, they were opposite-sized versions of the same person right before their debut albums came out. Both had made their names by delivering jaw-droppingguest appearances on other people's records (as if there's another place to make a guest appearance), and both were the next likely torchbearers for what's affectionately referred to as "real" rap.The hype around each man's debut album was off the charts, and each man lived up to it nicely.
Nas and B.I.G. both had street cred for days, but only one of them had Puff Daddy, the most flamboyantrecord executive in rap music history, on their side. Puff (the name I choose to call him because it's the only one that's a real word) practically forced his 350-pound retirement plan to take on a moresuave, player-type persona to go along with his tales of selling drugs and shooting home invaders. And man did that shit work. The album itself, much like those by Nas and Wu-Tang, was light onradio-friendly songs. But the handful it did have were promoted as singles, and the more "street-friendly" stuff was left for people who actually bought the album. While Nas and Wu-Tang stomped around...