Big L is legendary for a few reasons. His punchlines, his freestyles, and his legendary album Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous are the basis to his influence.
His aforementioned debut album was the Big L's introduction to much of the world, and, frankly, many weren't ready for it. He rapped about dark subject matter, and his effort was often overshadowed by legendary output like Nas' Illmatic and The Fugees' The Score.
But these days, Lifestylez is just as highly regarded as the best of '90s hip-hop, in the right circles at least. To celebrate the album's 20th birthday, we're going to enlighten you on some things you may not know about Livestyles ov da Poor & Dangerous.
Item #1
"Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous" peaked at 22 on the Hip-Hop/R&B charts, and 149 overall on the Billboard 200.
[via AllMusic]
Item #2
"Put It On" contains elements of two James Brown songs, Buster Williams' "Vibrations", Skull Snaps' "It's A New Day", and Naughty By Nature's "Hip-Hop Hooray".
[via whosampled]
Battle rap had a huge influence on the album.
Lord Finesse had an interesting tale about Big L's battling days in an interview with HipHopDx.
"Jay was running around battling people [back then], and somebody set them up to battle each other and… I really know [Jay-Z] didn’t know what he was getting into battling this dude. I don’t [remember the exact date of their battle], I just remember L telling me about it. He was sitting on the stoop getting his hair braided, and [according to L] they set up this battle and he went to battle this dude. [Big L] was also there when Jay-Z battled DMX. L was heavy into the battling thing."
Big L released three singles off "Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous": "Put It On", "M.V.P.", and "No Endz, No Skinz".
The first two broke the top 25 on Billboard's Hot Rap Tracks, but "No Endz" didn't chart. It should have, right?
"M.V.P." samples “Stay With Me” by DeBarge, which was also used on Biggie’s “One More Chance (Remix)".
"M.V.P." samples “Stay With Me” by DeBarge, which was also used on Biggie’s “One More Chance (Remix)".
Dipset's Cam'Ron features on "8 Iz Enuff" as Killa Cam.
The album had sold 200,000 copies as of the year 2000.
Big L’s crew was the 139th Street NFL (Niggas For Life).
[via Genius]
The word "kill" is said 16 times on the album.
Item #10
"Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous" was one of Jay Z's first big-time features.
Prior to the album, Jay had only done a few features.