XXL Making of Ready To Die

[Larrabee]

Ahh, man...times like this I wish I had a scanner. I got no problem typing the articles out, though it takes quite some time. So far, XXL's only had like 5 of them. ( Ready To Die, Life After Death, All Eyez On Me, The 7 Day Theory & Big Pun's "Capital Punishment ). I hope they cover some West Coast classics...that would be killer. 

[music is like magic]

yeah man all that shit would be dope to read, im interested, if you dont wanna type that shit, you can throw us a good quality scan

damn its like i got no props fo r wht i did ill send you tuker0 the scan i got and then i guess i get my props shizzle

[Traumatized]

I'll put 7 Day Theory in the west Forum

[TuKer Says: Angeles Records is the truth!!]

yeah man all that shit would be dope to read, im interested, if you dont wanna type that shit, you can throw us a good quality scan

damn its like i got no props fo r wht i did ill send you tuker0 the scan i got and then i guess i get my props shizzle

hook me up with the scans 

[Traumatized]

yeah man all that shit would be dope to read, im interested, if you dont wanna type that shit, you can throw us a good quality scan

damn its like i got no props fo r wht i did ill send you tuker0 the scan i got and then i guess i get my props shizzle

I would prop you if I ony could.

[Larrabee]

Sorry ya'll, I got caught up these last couple days with work & shit...lemme ask though, I can post it piece by piece throughout the next few days ( the article's longer than I expected ), I can do that, or I'll post the whole remainder on Friday...Tuker, whatchu think?

[TuKer Says: Angeles Records is the truth!!]

whatever suits you man, i mean if you can post a bit every day, it'll be less work i think, than type all in one day

[Larrabee]

^ Right...ok then, tomorrow, I'll have like most of the rest posted...then I'll wrap it up on Thursday, no doubt.

[TuKer Says: Angeles Records is the truth!!]

uppin 

[LEON]

is it possible someone can finish it off???

[Larrabee]

Sorry about the delay on posting up the rest, ya'll...today, I'ma type out the rest of it and finally post it.

[RZARECTA]

man i got it   but way too much 2 post yo its dope though

[Larrabee]

"Juicy" - Produced by Jean "Poke" Oliver and Sean "Puffy" Combs \ Additional Vocals by Total

Lil Cease: "Juicy" was done later. That was a 'need-to-do' record. You gotta understand, that was way back in like '94 or '95. Niggas would start rhyming over R&B beats. That "Juicy" beat, that's an R&B beat. We used to listen to that shit a lot. Like, we have this one Enuff tape, and he did like this old-school mix that had all that old shit on it. And this CD went from the house to the car to another muthafuckin' house to the studio. That was the CD we used to listen to all day. That's what I listen to right now, but I got that shit from Big. Like, Big listened to a bunch of old shit. And a bunch of old school shit too, like old school hip hop shit.

Matt Lyphe: Both me and Big wanted "Machine Gun Funk" to be the first single. That's what we both agreed on. And slowly, he was being swayed otherwise. I can remember a conversation with him trying to tell me "Matt, I understand now that this Juicy is the record that is going to make me have commerical successs."

"Prince" Charles Alexander: That fear. That "I don't know if I can succeed" was driving Puffy. It was driving Biggie. Biggie says it in the lyrics of "Juicy": If it didn't work out, he was going to go back to slinging crack on the street. It was a time when everybody was not too sure if the public was going to get it.

11. "Everyday Struggle" Produced by Norman & Digga \ The Bluez Brothers

Lil Cease: The story line of it, that shit is just a real mission for some people. Like, just that whole rundown, it was so detailed. Just that struggle, just that life, moving that way. He just broke that shit down, detailed it. It's telling something about his life or somebody else's life. That shit is like watching a series or watching a movie.

Digga: Big was getting antsy, like "Yo, I gotta get this song off! I want that song bad." I could just see him just like sitting at the board, he wasn't saying nothing. He was just bobbing his head. When I was picking out the instruments, he would make a face like "Yeah, I want something similar to that." The guy was always thinking about how he wanted to make something better.

12. "Me & My Bitch" - Produced by Norman & Digga \ Bluez Brothers, Chucky Thompson and Sean "Puffy" Combs...Instruments by Chucky Thompson

Nashiem Myrick: That was a remix because we already had a track for that. I don't know why Puffy ain't use the original track. Either he couldn't clear the sample, or I don't know what happened. I forget the original song. It was probably an Al Green record, but I don't know. I can't remember. We did it over. Chuck played the guitar. He used original instruments. I guess that was another sample problem.

Digga: The original sample that we used was from a Minnie Riperton song that Stevie Wonder wrote. When they sent it out to him, he was like 'I love the song, but this is cursing. I'm not with it, you can't use it.' So they got Chucky to come in and add some bars here and there and take some bars there. He just had to change up the music so that Big could use it. Big started to record "Me & My Bitch" at the end of a session and he didn't like it. So he kind of like erased it and went into another studio, wrote some more stuff and then he came back out. It probably took him a good 20, 30 minutes. He ate before he went in, and then he comes out looking like he just fucking walked to Russia. "Ain't no more chicken wings? Order some more wings!" Like, "Yo, we just finished eating, you was in there for like 20 minutes." He just burnt all that shit off. Big was just a real funny-ass dude at all times. The only time he had a little grimace on his face was when Puff tried to be an asshole. When that was going on, Big was like "This fucking guy! He's trying to rule me. I can't rock like that."

13. Big Poppa - Produced by Chucky Thompson and Sean "Puffy" Combs

Nashiem Myrick: Puff said he wanted to use "Between The Sheets". He said loop it. Me and Chucky went in - that's when he moved the studio to the Hit Factory, and we produced it in there. That song was actually supposed to be for Mr. Cheeks, the Lost Boyz. We gave that song to the Lost Boyz. And then something happened and Puff was like, "Get that song back, get it back from him." We traded them for another track. Remember that song "Jeeps, Lex Coups, Bimaz & Benz?" That track Easy Mo Bee did for Craig Mack. That was going to follow up "Flava In Ya Ear", but Craig didn't like it. He couldn't rhyme to it or something. So we ended up trading that track to the Lost Boyz for "Big Poppa". Both of those songs became hits, so I guess it was a good trade.

Chucky Thompson: Knowing Biggie, as a person, he's bigger than New York. He's a real universal artist. His style reminded me of Ice Cube. So I was like, "Let me see if I can put him on a bigger page." And that's why I came with that little West Coast line. I just kind of took him out of the New York vibe and took him a little more out West, and he carried it. At the time, we were listening to Snoop's album. We knew what was going on in the West through Dr. Dre. Big just knew the culture, he knew what was going on with hip hop. It was more than just New York, it was all over.

Matt Lyphe: I think another important misconception about the making of that album, the production of that album, is that Puffy was coming up with creative, catchy loops for Big to rhyme on. Big was very savvy himself in thinking of creative, catchy loops to rhyme on. I can remember specifically him telling me: "I'm going to rhyme over that 'Bonita Applebum' ( A Tribe Called Quest's 1990 single that sampled the Isley Brother's -Between The Sheets- ) That was his idea. That's "Big Poppa". That's "Between The Sheets."

14. "Respect" - Produced by Jean "Poke" Oliver and Sean "Puffy" Combs \ Additional Vocals by Diana King

Banger: "Nineteen Seventy something \ Nigga I don't sweat the date \ My moms is late!" That shit was ill. How he'd do our situation on our conversation - he'd analyze it and absorb it and suck it up and then make a song about it. He absorbed his whole life.

...I'll type up the remainder sometime tomorrow, it's like a full page's worth, but I got it...

[TuKer Says: Angeles Records is the truth!!]

much props to you larra, you rock 

[Larrabee]

No problem homie, sorry about the delay again, these last 2 weeks been hella busy. I got a few days off now though, so I'm up for posting another "Making Of..." Any requests? ( Life After Death, All Eyez On Me or  Makaveli: 7 Day Theory )