History Music / LifeAfterDeath

Not to be confused with the [[SimilarlyNamedWorks 1992 album]] by the {{Horrorcore}} group Music/{{Natas}}.

[[caption-width-right:300: [[HarsherInHindsight You're nobody, til somebody, kills you.]]]]

''Life After Death'' is the second album ([[ShortLivedBigImpact of two]]) by Music/TheNotoriousBIG, released March 25, 1997 - just 16 days after Biggie was murdered in Los Angeles, technically making it a posthumous album, though it was completed before he was killed.

A double album, ''Life After Death'' goes in a glossier, more mafioso-themed direction than [[Music/ReadyToDie its predecessor]], but retains that album's mixture of hardcore songs and lighter party jams. It even picks up ''immediately'' where that album's final track, "Suicidal Thoughts", left off. And like ''Ready to Die'', three of its tracks - "Hypnotize", "Mo Money Mo Problems", and "Sky's the Limit" - became singles.

The album was also released at the tail-end of the infamous East Coast/West Coast hip-hop feud of the '90s. It was released a while after the death of Biggie's main rival Music/TupacShakur, but retains a few sly references to the beef (such as the line "My so-called beef with You-Know-Who" on "Notorious Thugs"), as well as a few subliminal disses thrown at several other rappers Biggie was beefing with, such as Music/{{Nas}} and [[Music/WuTangClan Raekwon and Ghostface Killah]].

* AlbumFiller: A frequent criticism is that the album is a bit overstuffed and would be better if it were just whittled down to a single disc (which is kind of funny when you consider that Biggie was apparently planning on releasing a ''[[UpToEleven triple]]'' album in the future). To name specific songs, "Another", "Playa Hater" and "Nasty Boy" are usually pointed to as tracks that could go.

-->''At my arraignment, note for the plaintiff
"Your daughter's tied up in a Brooklyn basement"

-->Think about it now, that's damn near one-point-five\\

But of course [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder you know I had my fingers crossed]]

While it's not ''quite'' [[FirstInstallmentWins as universally acclaimed as]] ''Ready to Die'', ''Life After Death'' is still widely considered a classic in its own right and one of the defining albums of the late '90s. In 2003, the album placed at #483 on Magazine/RollingStone's list of [[Music/RollingStone500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime the 500 greatest albums of all time]].

* ListSong: "Ten Crack Commandments". It originally included a sample of [[Music/PublicEnemy Chuck D]] counting to ten from the song "Shut 'Em Down", but Chuck, who is both UsefulNotes/StraightEdge and heavily critical of drug dealing, was so incensed at being sampled in a song about drug dealing that he sued to have it removed.

[[AC: Disc 1]]

[[AC: Disc 2]]

* AlbumFiller: A frequent criticism is that the album is a bit overstuffed and would be better if it were just whittled down to a single disc. (Which is kind of funny when you consider that Biggie was apparently planning on releasing a ''[[UpToEleven triple]]'' album in the future.) To name specific songs, "Another", "Playa Hater" and "Nasty Boy" are usually pointed to as tracks that could go.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: The edited version is so heavily censored that it fits on a single disc.

'''''Life After Death''''' is the second album ([[ShortLivedBigImpact of two]]) by Music/TheNotoriousBIG, released March 25, 1997 - just 16 days after Biggie was murdered in Los Angeles, technically making it a posthumous album, though it was completed before he was killed.

10. A strong word called "consignment".

'''Life After Death''' is the second album ([[ShortLivedBigImpact of two]]) by Music/TheNotoriousBIG, released March 25, 1997 - just 16 days after Biggie was murdered in Los Angeles, technically making it a posthumous album, though it was completed before he was killed.

* GettingHighOnTheirOwnSupply: Rule number four of the "Ten Crack Commandments" advises potential drug dealers not to do this, lest they face the consequences. Doubles as a nod to Film/{{Scarface1983}}'s Tony Montanna, who ''did'' get high off his own crack, only to lose everything.

* ListSong: "Ten Crack Commandments". It originally included a sample of [[Music/PublicEnemy Chuck D]] counting to ten from the song "Shut 'Em Down", but Chuck, who is both StraightEdge and heavily critical of drug dealing, was so incensed at being sampled in a song about drug dealing that he sued to have it removed.

-->-- '''"Sky's the Limit"'''

While it's not ''quite'' as universally acclaimed as ''[[FirstInstallmentWins Ready to Die]]'', ''Life After Death'' is still widely considered a classic in its own right and one of the defining albums of the late '90s. In 2003, the album placed at #483 on Magazine/RollingStone's list of [[Music/RollingStone500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime the 500 greatest albums of all time]].

The album was also released during the peak of the infamous East Coast/West Coast hip-hop feud of the '90s. It was released a while after the death of Biggie's main rival Music/TupacShakur, but retains a few sly references to the beef (such as the line "My so-called beef with You-Know-Who" on "Notorious Thugs"), as well as a few subliminal disses thrown at several other rappers Biggie was beefing with, such as Music/{{Nas}} and [[Music/WuTangClan Raekwon and Ghostface Killah]].

[[caption-width-right:300: [[HarsherInHindsight You're nobody, till somebody, kills you.]]]]