The Notorious B.I.G.’s ‘Ready to Die’ Is Getting a 30th Anniversary Limited-Edition Reissue
The Notorious B.I.G.’s acclaimed Ready to Die debut album, which turns 30 years old in September, is getting some special treatment for the big anniversary: A limited-edition 2-LP reissue is set to mark the occasion.
Ready to Die (30th Anniversary) will arrive on the album’s original Sept. 13 release date, and will feature a reimagined cover art featuring a photo of Biggie Smalls, the late Brooklyn rapper’s G subway stop and the Brooklyn Bridge.
The limited-edition reissue will be available commercially as a double album on black vinyl sold on Rhino and Biggie’s official online shop. Select retailers such as Barnes & Noble will also have a color vinyl edition for sale on the same day.
Ready to Die landed in 1994, and gave the East Coast an instant classic while shaking the cages of the ’90s rap landscape. Powered by singles “Juicy,” “Big Poppa” and “One More Chance,” Biggie’s set of street tales reached No. 15 on the Billboard 200. “Juicy” peaked at No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 while “Big Poppa” (No. 6) and the “One More Chance/ Stay With Me (Remix)” (No. 2) impacted the top 10 of the all-genre chart.
Ready to Die came in at No. 24 on Billboard‘s Best Rap Albums of All-Time list and he could have another entry in the top 10. “The rapper was ready to leave behind years of drug dealing, his mother was battling breast cancer, and his girlfriend was pregnant with their first child,” William E. Ketchum wrote of the album. “But Christopher Wallace was up to the task: he wrote ruthless hood dramas and delivered them with both menace and charm, whichever was the right fit for the variety of speaker rattlers and smooth samples steered by Sean ‘Puff Daddy’ Combs.”
Find the Ready to Die (30th Anniversary) cover art below.
Michael Saponara
Billboard
