But this album was made for Christopher's children, yes and for me, and for Faith. "Everybody that's on this album makes money," admits Wallace. But while she has crusaded for her son's murder to be solved (Los Angeles was recently ordered to pay her $1.1m for withholding evidence during their civil lawsuit), as well as running the Christopher Wallace Foundation for inner-city youth, she doesn't hide the fact that releasing another album has its financial benefits. Wallace's involvement in the new record has come as a surprise to many, considering her recent memoir Biggie, in which she criticised Combs and others for "exploiting" her son's work through the constant re-use of his lyrics.
She says she came up with the idea for the duets album, along with Biggie's ex-wife and R&B singer Faith Evans, and his mentor Diddy. Wallace has been the primary caretaker of her son's estate since he was fatally shot in Los Angeles on 9 March 1997. "The people want to hear Christopher," she reasons. But suggest that this could be another example of hip-hop's obsession with the posthumous cash-in, and Voletta Wallace, Biggie's mother, is indignant. Duets is merely another rehash of the rapper's most recognisable lyrics, from tracks like the infamous "Beef" and "Suicidal Thoughts", taken from his 1994 debut Ready to Die and the 1997 follow-up, Life After Death. Unsurprisingly, hip-hop-savvy teens in most major cities have already claimed the single as their ringtone du jour.īut for all the album's hype, that bad news is that we've heard it all before. "I think that it shows that in the people who have come out to be on the album, and even now in his rhymes that you hear so many years later - he's still the greatest." As for the UK, the second single "Nasty Girl" went to No 2 this month after receiving heavy rotation on the likes of MTV and Kiss and being playlisted on Radio 1. and his artistry," the Bad Boy label-head Sean Combs told the rap website. "It's a true representation of the love that people have for B.I.G. On the US rap charts, it has been No 1, and has sold nearly 700,000 copies to date. On its release, the album went straight into the US Billboard charts at No 3, and four weeks on it had yet to drop out of the Top 10. While a duet between two deceased legends seems more ghoulish than ground-breaking, it has succeeded in making the rapper a massive presence in the music world yet again.
Tupac makes an appearance for a second B&T duet, but the biggest surprise collaborator comes in the form of Bob Marley, whose poignant track "Johnny Was' was sampled for the lead single "Hold your Head", and kicked off the album's promotional campaign.
Duets: The Final Chapter is 22 tracks featuring the most renowned artists of an urban and rock kind, including Jay-Z, Mary J Blige, Missy Elliot and, oddly, Korn. also known as Biggie Smalls - and yet another posthumous record has managed to force its way onto the high street. It's been eight years since the unsolved murder of Notorious B.I.G.
"People just love Biggie," says the manager ,Danaia Thompson. And at Beat Street Records, the biggest music shop in Biggie's home borough, staff say they are struggling with the weight of orders. On a street-stall, a man is hawking screen-printed short-sleeved T-shirts of the rapper in a variety of sulky, ominous poses for $25, although it's the middle of the winter. The exotic melody of his current single, "Nasty Girl", resonates throughout a busy clothes-store. On a winter's day in Brooklyn, New York, Fulton Street is a-buzz with anticipation over the new album from the borough's slain son, Notorious B.I.G.
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