By the late nineties the change was complete, rap was the status quo and the threat of a Scholly D or a NWA was long past. Rocafella ruled and nothing much changed in hip hop till West’s 808s and Heartbreaks began the reshuffle of the sign.
Still, if you went searching just a little Big Pun and crew were forming D.I.T.C. in the late nineties and it was there that Big L -the late, lengendary Harlem rapper, began his move into the upper ranks. Big L had it all, the best and funniest rhymer, a story teller who can be mentioned in the same breath as Biggie, who rapped with Tupac, who rhymed with Fat Joe, who was simply one of the greatest freestylists of all time and who was a week away from signing to Rockafella records when he was shot to death , appearently in retaliation for something his brother did. The murder was never solved (aint that a shocker?), Lamont “Big L” Coleman. He was twenty-four years old.
In 2000 Big L’s manager Rich King put together his second and final album The Big Picture 1997 – 1999, and it hovers above hip hop in the decade as a potential never realized but if that was all it did nobody would musch care. It it does more than that,. It stands as possibly the best (if not the most culturally relevant) hip hop of the decade. Freddie Gibb’s could only wish, Big Pun had too much filler, Jay-Z was past his prime, Busta Rhymes too busy… Big L had the lot. Listen to “’98 Freestyle” -the rhymes are hysterical, “Turn your tux red, I’m far from broke, got enough bread. And mad hoes, ask beavis I get nuttin butt-head “., and the violence is real and tempered at the same time. Big L sounds young (, the timbre is youthful, cheeky, wiseguy: he is innocent in ways gangsta never is.
And he is such a king of the punchline. Read these:
“yo I got slugs for snitches, no love for bitches,
puttin thugs in ditches when my trigger finger itches.
“is big L slow? hell no,
bitches get fucked on the roof when I aint got no hotel dough.
Im known for yokin jacks and beatin em with smokin gats,
leaving token blacks with broken backs and open caps.”
“old folks get mugged and raided,
crimes is drug-related,
and we live by the street rules that thugs created.”
“im tellin you shit is about to get drastic soon,
im quick to blast a goon,
and break a muthafucka like a plastic spoon”
“I got the looks to make your hottie stare,
i keep a shotty near,
its that nigga with notty hair who gotti fear.”
“all through high school i had braids, kept mad blades,
stabbin teachers to death if they gave me bad grades”
“cops drop when my glock makes the “POW” sound
im from a wild town, you know my style clown,
so bow down.”
Impressed? They all come from a seven minute showdown Big L had with years and years ago. So we’re agreed the man can rhyme and the man can rap and you don’t wanna battle him at all. But did he have, how ya say, the songs? Song after fucking song here is just awesome “The Enemy” (where did he get that sample from?), “Who You Slidin’ Wit’?”, “Fall Back” -every single song on the album is brilliant. There isn’t a hole and there isn’t a breather. The sex is funny, the violence is funny, and nothing is all that funny.
Big L’s flow is superb, his rapping first rate and if he lacks a certain gravitas, he would have gained it eventually. On an album including appearances by the likes of Big Daddy Kane, Tupac, and Fat Joe, Big L never waivers, he is never out of the spotlight, he is never out of his league.
I left the best for last “Ebonics” is a work of magic and a last will and testament. An endlessly inventive course in a foreign language which will leave you thrilled and baffled at the same time. It is so good and it is just a glimpse of the future which shoulda been awaiting Big L and it is only the second song on The Big Picture.
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