It took 17 years for another posthumous single to reach #1 after John Lennon in 1980, and then it happened twice to the same artist.
Rapper The Notorious B.I.G. was shot to death in his car in March of 1997 following a Soul Train Awards after-party. Two weeks later, his sophomore studio album — eerily titled Life After Death — was released and became an instant smash.
Now that I’ve counted down my personal top ten albums of 1994, it’s time to feature some of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful releases of that year.
The Notorious B.I.G.’s debut album, Ready To Die, has been hailed as one of the best hip-hop albums of all time. Recorded by the Brooklyn rapper when he was 19 going on 20, the record is a semi-autobiographical account of the gangster life he never really escaped.
Half of this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees died before their time. In the case of Christopher George Latore Wallace (aka The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls), he was gunned down in his car following an after-party for the Soul Train Music Awards in 1997. He was 24 years old.
Biggie is the seventh rap act inducted into the Hall of Fame, and he made it the first year he was eligible. The other rap inductees are Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Run-DMC, the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, N.W.A and Tupac Shakur.
Meet Me In Montauk 