Debut album by Lamont "Big L" Coleman, rapper from Harlem, Manhattan. Production is realized by DITC producers Lord Finesse, Buckwild and Showbiz, with Craig Boogie that provides one beat. The guests are Kid Capri, Lord Finesse, Jay-Z, Grand Daddy I.U., Microphone Nut, Party Arty, Terra, Herb McGruff, Buddah Bless, Big Twan, Killa Cam, Trooper J. & Mike Boogie. In the early nineties, Big L starts writing rhymes, joins the DITC founded by Lord Finesse and founds his own group, the Children of the Corn, together with Murda Mase, Killa Cam, Bloodshed and Herb McGruff. In 1993, Columbia listens to a tape of Devil's Son and signs him.
Big L made his debut in 1995 and he starts very strongly with three absolute classics: "Put It On", "MVP" & "No Endz, No Skinz". "Put It On" was born for Columbia radio reasons, Buckwild does an undeniably amazing rhythm: he takes a couple of excerpts from Buster Williams' "Vibrations" that give the beat a glossy and refined look and puts a dirty and dusty drum on it, which gives it an underground and street feel. If you can even think that this is a normal rhythm for the level of quality expressed by the 1995 hip-hop season, after thirty seconds Big L arrives with a space entrance to elevate the whole track and make it a huge classic. The emcee runs smoothly and he delivers the first song of a long series with a terrifying number of puns, internal rhymes, multisyllabic rhymes, rhetorical figures and frighteningly quotable lines. This radio-friendly track works brilliantly.
2. "MVP"
"MVP" is another classic of his discography, composed by Lord Finesse. Finesse remembers that Kid Capri used DeBarge's "Stay With Me" sample in one of his songs ("Billy", from his 1991 album) and wants to use the same sample for the Big L track, because the Harlem rapper is looking for a commercial rnb song that listeners can remember more easily. With this track, Big L opens a tour date for Biggie Smalls, who later subtracts the beat from "MVP" (recorded before and released after the Notorious BIG song) for use in his platinum "One More Chance". On sweeter and softer music, with a slow and accessible drum and melodic samples, Big L delivers with a calmer, slower, more elegant flow and offers an iconic hook. Buckwild realized two remixes for this song, one better than the other.
3. "No Endz, No Skinz" (ft. Show, uncredited)
In "No Endz, No Skinz", Coleman starts and you never join him again, Showbiz does a huge job with a rhythm that reaches the heights of the previous ones.
4. "8 Iz Enuff" (ft. Big Twan, Buddah Bless, Cam'ron, McGruff, Mike Boogie, Terra & Trooper J, all uncredited)
The quality of the record starts to fall slightly with "8 Iz Enuff", where Big L decides to give a spot to some of his ghetto fellas from Harlem (including Killa Cam aka Cam'ron), with his crew NFL: they're not at his height, they're rather mediocre and that's why the quality drops. Buckwild confirms himself as one of the best on the circuit with a tight rhythm. Big L still kills the track and he voluntarily excludes Mase from the posse cut for "technical choice", I mean, Coleman doesn't consider him as good enough as the other seven to be part of his song. There's the future obscure Wu-affiliate Buddah Bless, among others.
5. "All Black"
It follows the mostly-underrated "All Black", where what Lord Finesse pulls out here goes beyond everyone's expectations with a simplistic loop and good drums.
6. "Danger Zone" (ft. McGruff, uncredited)
Big L delivers with intense anger and with some of his best rhymes on a catchy dark Buckwild rhythm, beautiful. This cut is horrorcore, is like the "Devil's Son" son, so, the "devil's nephew". It's that dark. One of the best choices of the LP in any case.
7. "Street Struck"
The seventh track "Street Struck" is the last one with an excellent production, top-tier, props to Lord Finesse, that realized a wonderful musical carpet still playing with the horns, along with good dry drum, dope piano keys and xmas bells in background.
8. "Da Graveyard" (ft. Grand Daddy I.U., Jay-Z, Lord Finesse, Microphone Nut & Party Arty, all uncredited)
On a harsh and minimal boom bap from Buckwild comes the album's second posse track, "Da Graveyard", with Big L at the first verse ("The Source" Hip-Hop Quotable of March), Lord Finesse, Microphone Nut, a young and raw Jay-Z delivering a verse with style and precision, Party Arty and Grand Daddy I.U.
9. "Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous"
The title track has a gaunt boom bap rhythm with dry drum and a single verse by Big L, which offers other quotables describing his life on the street.
10. "I Don't Understand It"
It boasts a tight beat provided by Showbiz, perhaps not as good or accessible as the best of this selection, but still good and functional for supporting Big L's loaded bars, which after years of struggling to get a contract, denounces the "garbage rappers" who flood hip-hop with no merit, talent or any ability, get promoted by the industry while talented artists are ostracized and neglected.
11. "Fed Up Wit the Bullshit"
This is a track of denunciation against police brutality and racism of taxi drivers, on a vibrant soundscape of Lord Finesse, after Sony executives asked him for something more positive to promote his image.
12. "Let 'Em Have It 'L'"
The last track on the LP is created by Craig Boogie who pulls out a dark and captivating soundscape with a Bob James' "Nautilus" loop for "Let 'Em Have It 'L'", where the rapper delivers a braggadocio track and there's an uncredited outro by Mase.
Final Thoughts
His debut has several amazing tracks and shows that Big L was an exceptional lyricist, one of the best that hardcore hip hop has puts out. He was equipped with well-considered rhyming schemes, an impressive flow, untouchable and very ill for speed, technique and control and a precise delivery, effective, strong and made great by his war-horse, a style of very fast freestyle and extremely well designed punchlines that arrives at the end of intelligent, obscure, powerful and creative lines composed also by internal and multi-syllabic rhymes. The lyrics remain within gangsta rap/hardcore themes, passing from regular braggadocio to conscious.
Released by Columbia, the album doesn't get much commercial attention and, despite a major distribution through Sony, isn't promoted properly, with sales results not living up to the Big L name. The singles don't have a good radio rotation and the album doesn't go beyond the top 25 among rap records: Sony asks and partially gets radio-friendly and positive songs, however, is disappointed with the final result and decides to dump the emcee. The following year, the roads of Big L and Columbia separate permanently. As for the critical reception, the project is ignored in the period of the release, and is rediscovered in retrospect by fans, who rightly consider it a «classic».
The LP is flawless, lyrically, it's at the pinnacle of the New York hardcore hip-hop scene, the rapping is impressive and the production fully embraces the Big L style, it might be better in the second part, but there's very little to complain about it. It's a hard, dirty, dusty, cold and bright record, where even the most commercial songs are wonderful and the hooks are well thought out and performed better. Overall, it's one of the hardest boom bap albums ever released with some of the greatest verses you can hear. For East Coast fans it's an absolute must-listen. Sometimes, it's good to believe the hype.
Rating: 9.3/10.
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