Big L

Yesterday marked the anniversary of Big L’s murder in Harlem in 1999. It’s been nine years since L was walking around this town. He was killed a couple days before my birthday and a couple months before his own 25th birthday. Big L is one of my favorite rappers, despite his limited discography. Few MCs can come with clever rhymes, a fantastically sharp wit, and sick flow – all in the same verse – and tell a great story while they’re at it. I could listen to The Big Picture or Lifestylez or D.I.T.C. all day, and I know “The Heist” by heart. Ah, my friend “The Heist.” What a fucking banger – a taut, relentless, chorus-free and guest-free embodiment of the core beats-and-rhymes aesthetic that most rappers either aspire to and fail or of which they aren’t even really aware. That track, in my opinion, says it all about Big L.

Sometimes it’s hard for me to write about a great rapper because I’m looking for that hook, that One Thing that separates them from everyone else. This guy has the best flow, this one guy really symbolized such-and-such, these cats is the realest, etc (although there’s a caveat to almost everything, and in this case, the caveat is that M.O.P is absolutely the realest dudes in the game. No, there's no period after the P).

The truth is, most of the time that One Thing isn’t there – it’s simply not shining in just one person. Sometimes you need to cobble together a few Things and claim that, based on these qualities, this guy or that guy was the greatest storyteller ever, or had the most flavorful flow ever, or whatever.

I can’t help but think Big L was special, though, and not because he happens to be dead (although I would be fooling myself if I claimed that the fact that he’s dead isn’t having an impact on my regard of him). Simply put, he epitomized hip-hop – hot beats, clever rhymes, freestyle skills, street cred, and flow. He was nice to the extreme – I can’t say that about a lot of rappers. Truth is, there are a few out there who personify the best and most essential elements of the genre in a similar fashion, but Big L just stands out, among rappers both living and dead. He was an MC, not a rapper - and like Jemini says, you gotta earn that title.

Believe me, I am completely aware of the fact that that I am passionate about this music to the point of being a bit immature about it. I get overwhelmed with pride when I look at the inlay photo on Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik or the back photo of In Our Lifetime and consider what these young dudes have done with their lives – here I am, filled with pride, and I never even met the guys. I claim that tracks like “Niggas Bleed” and “The Heist” are among the finest examples of storytelling in the history of storytelling. I want to track down Kweli and Field Mob and Jurassic and just thank them for writing with dimension and humanity, for just making me fucking happy on the worst day. I have daydreamed about running into Andre Benjamin in Fort Greene (did he ever even move there?) and thanking him for "Call of Da Wild" and "Synthesizer" and "Skew It" and "Crumblin' Erb" and "Growing Old" and a dozen other tracks until he tells me to get the fuck away from him.

Yeah. When it comes to my love of this thing of ours, I’m a dork. Straight up and down.

But I’m cool with that. I know I wear my heart on my sleeve, and as a result I can become an overemotional goofy mothafucka. I don’t really care, because I love all that shit. I love it. I feel no shame in welling up when I listen to Ghost’s “All I Got is You” or 40’s “The Story.” I love rapping to myself. I listen to guys like Dilla and Biggie and L and…I mean, I hate to go low-budg and bite from American Beauty, but I hear their music and I feel nothing but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life, simply because I’ve had these gems dropped on me. I feel so blessed to have been around when L was around, to hear his music, even if millions of others have heard it as well. I’m so thankful that guys like Big L left immortal pieces of themselves for me to enjoy over and over again.

He's so ahead of his time, you play his music in 0-6 - this nigga sound regular now
I heard that he was thugging, had a brother who was thugging
He was sitting on a stoop and he didn't see it coming
They crept up in front of ‘im and put the gun to ‘im and
Just rewinded ‘im