Big L - The Big Picture (August 1, 2000)

When the hip hop world lost Lamont Coleman in 1999, he was in a state of transition. After releasing his first album, Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous, on Columbia Records in 1995, Big L switched over to Rawkus Records, the former home of acts such as Company Flow, Mos Def, and Talib Kweli, for his sophomore disc, The Big Picture. During the recording process, rumor has it that he was all set to switch sides once again, this time signing with his friend Shawn Carter's Roc-A-Fella Records, a move that might have brought him some mainstream attention (but would have probably resulted in him being quietly dropped from the label, as Jay-Z is good at promoting Jay-Z, after all), but he was murdered one week prior to the deal being set.

Sadly, The Big Picture ended up being the most successful of his two albums. Released posthumously a year and a half after his death, it was completed with the assistance of such time-honored figures in hip hop as DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Kool G. Rap, and Big Daddy Kane, along with various members of his second crew, Diggin' In The Crates (curiously, members of Big L's first group, Children Of The Corn, are nowhere to be seen: you would think that Cam'Ron would want to pay tribute to his fallen comrade, and what the fuck was Ma$e doing that was more important?). The Big Picture went on to move over half a million units in less than a month, which is pretty fucking amazing for an underground artist that should have been so much more.

It's just fucking sad.

1. THE BIG PICTURE (INTRO)
What starts off as a touching intro (Freddie Foxxx and others remembering Lamont live during a concert) turns quickly into a freestyle over your standard-issue DJ Prtemier instrumental. He sounds good, though: have to give him credit.

2. EBONICS
This is the original version of the track, over a Ron Browz beat, and not the Primo remix that appeared on the first D.I.T.C. album. There's hardly anything to the music on here, and Big L isn't really saying anything, to be honest, so some folks may be compelled to skip past it. However, Lamont's explanation of slang terms is revolutionary in that it can double as a thesaurus for those two readers that occasionally need help deciphering what their favorite artists are mumbling.

3. SIZE 'EM UP
This is actually pretty fucking good. Ron Browz created a beat that has a pressing immediacy that draws you in, and luckily enough, Big L has one of those flows that captivates you for the almost four minutes this song lasts.

4. DEADLY COMBINATION (FEAT 2PAC)
This comes off as a mixtape track, on which a deejay gathered together unused freestyled from Big L and Tupac Shakur and combined them to give off the illusion of the two men working together in the same studio. I've always wondered why the full version of this song, which also featured a verse by the late Notorious B.I.G., was not included: perhaps the label thought it would be fucking creepy to have three deceased artists on a single song? Oh well.

5. '98 FREESTYLE
If you've followed Big L's career even a little bit, you'll probably recognize most, if not all, of his lines on here, but that's not the point. The fact that Lamont could string these words together in such a compelling fashion is the fucking point.

6. HOLDIN' IT DOWN (FEAT AG, MISS JONES, & STAN SPIT)
Pete Rock's beat is unusually distracting, and Stan Spit should never be allowed in the same musical genre that also houses Big L. Also, the hook is pretty fucking stupid, as its sole function is to repeat the name of the song over and over again (yes, like most hooks tend to do, but still). Big L's D.I.T.C. teammate Andre the Giant (or AG) comes off well, though.

7. THE HEIST
I always appreciate a good storytelling rap. This isn't the most complex heist tale ever, but simplicity can be a virtue.

8. THE ENEMY (FEAT FAT JOE)
I found it weird that this song also appeared on the first D.I.T.C. album in the exact same form. (Maybe Rawkus Records needed to add an extra three minutes to the album's running time?) Regardless, it's always good to hear Big L over some DJ Premier freshness. I could have done without Fat Joe's meandering, though, since all he seems capable of doing on here is making Big L sound like the greatest rapper ever by turning in an awfully terrible performance. Still, good song.

9. FALL BACK (FEAT KOOL G. RAP)
G. Rap's hook is a hot tranny mess: it's much too wordy and it's fucking looped, which is always annoying. I suppose the verses on here are alright, but the negative bits cast a dark shadow over anything redeemable about this song.

10. FLAMBOYANT
I always found it interesting that Big L could use words such as "flamboyant" in his songs, and nobody else questioned his choice of words. I suppose that if he were a weaker rapper, the homophobia that is rampant in our chosen genre would be out in full force, but I guess that talent offsets any possible criticism. Oh, the song? I didn't like it at all.

11. CASUALTIES OF A DICE GAME
The title is pretty classic: it's almost like a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novella. (Speaking of which, Chronicle Of A Death Foretold is a good read, and it's short, which helps.) The song itself is a bit disturbing, considering the circumstances around Big L's passing, but if you take everything at face value as simply another tall tale, it clicks on all levels.

12. PLATINUM PLUS (FEAT BIG DADDY KANE)
Primo kind of tricks us on this song: the beat sounds like some generic Gang Starr B-side material at first, but then switches completely into something much more majestic. Lamont is pretty awesome, as usual, and Big Daddy Kane seemingly makes up for the fact that I didn't like It's A Big Daddy Thing by making the strong argument that not all of the old-school rappers are outdated, so that was nice.

13. WHO YOU SLIDIN' WIT (FEAT STAN SPIT)
What the fuck is this shit?

14. GAMES (FEAT GURU & SADAT X)
This song is incredibly weak, but I appreciated Sadat X's implication that celebrities cross paths with other celebrities on a regular basis, almost as if once you become semi-famous (we're talking Kim Kardashian famous here, not fucking Tom Hanks), you're granted entry into another state of being in which you notice both famous people and the regular folk, but somehow the regular folk seem inaccessible, thereby building up the myth. Yeah, I realize that statement had nothing to do with the song.

15. THE HEIST REVISITED
Lord Finesse presents a bland remix of "The Heist". Pass.

16. THE TRIBORO (FEAT FAT JOE, O.C., & REMY MARTIN)
The four players of this posse cut, which is fifty percent good, twenty-five percent amusing, and twenty-five percent meh, can be easily compared to the four main (male) characters in Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy. Big L is obviously the star, so he would need to play the Will Ferrell role, and O.C. is his Paul Rudd, the other seasoned vet that can easily hold his own. Remy Martin, who was admittedly still a rookie at this point, can be compared to Steve Carell's character, in that a lot of her lines are really fucking stupid and are spit by someone that sounds like she can barely string words together, but at the same time, she manages to tie everything together into a funny package (although she wasn't trying to make you laugh). That would make Fat Joe, by process of elimination, one of the bears at the San Diego Zoo near the end of the flick that terrorizes the rest of the day players.

FINAL THOUGHTS: You can't really judge The Big Picture as an actual album, as it was mostly compiled after Big L's passing, so the complaints regarding a heavy reliance on guests and a general lack of cohesion between songs are rendered moot. While a lot of these tracks are awfully lackluster, the best ones prove that Big L was going to be a strong voice in the genre, and was taken from the game well before his time. Sigh.

BUY OR BURN? I recommend you buy this album, not because it's consistently great or anything (far from it) but because Big L deserves your money and your respect. Also, the best songs on here fucking rock.

BEST TRACKS: "Platinum Plus"; "Size 'Em Up"; "The Heist"; "The Enemy"; "Casualties Of A Dice Game"

-Max

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Big L - Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous