producers: mannie fresh, nashiem myrick, dj premier, p.diddy, deric "d-dot" angelettie, clark kent, others

guests: lil kim, puff daddy, eminem, hot boys, snoop dogg, busta rhymes, junior m.a.f.i.a., too short, redman, method man, g-dep, craig mack, mobb deep, ice cube, sadat x, others

While advertisements for Tupac's 17th album dominate the magazines and the 192nd edition of "Makiaveli" bootlegs dominates the street, the other of the two most famous deceased rappers, only drops his first 'real' posthumous album. You can't really count "Life After Death", cause he still did promotion for that, and was also present at listening parties. So "Born Again" is Biggie Smalls return with new material. Although the term 'new' is awfully wrong to use here. This album is made up of stuff he freestyled, stuff that was on his Demo, things that is from days, prior to his recording contract, and so to him blowing up. And one of the main questions is: do these rhyme still hold their weight in the 2-triple-0, where there are tons of hungry cats out there, ready to bust some of the dopest lyrics possible. And another thing: can Biggie save the sinking Bad Boy / Puffy ship, or will the P.Diddy not only destroy himself, but also the legend of this slain rapper with a mediocre or wack album? Let's see.

Things start up disastrous with a Duran Duran sample. Either you have to give Puff his props for not giving a damn about what everybody is saying, and still going out sampling the most corny source possible, or he's just out of his head, so much on his own ego trip, that he does not even listen to nobody no more. However, that "Notorious B.I.G." cut is straight up wack. "Dead Wrong", the next cut, falls short to relieve the "I Got A Story To Tell" magic, while Eminem pulls off an interesting addition to his usual flow and he does spits nice lyrics.

Mannie Fresh drops something dope on this record here. The team up of Biggie with the Hot Boys and Big Tymers is a money driven decision, but this sounds nice, so let's not front. "Dangerous MCs" with Mark Curry, Snoop and Busta is alright, and makes Biggie say "you see, the ugliest / money-hungriest, Brooklyn Loch Ness / nine millimeter cock test, wan fi' test? / and the winner is...". On "Would You Die For Me" Biggie rhymes in a Mase flow, or Mase used to rhyme in a Biggie flow. "Come On" was a sought after, Lord Finesse produced gem, that was recorded for "Ready To Die". Although with Clark Kent, there was a producer redoing the track with a back catalogue of tight material, but why even redoing that track? Even Premier comes somewhat tamed down on "Rap Phenomenon", so it seems like Puff tried his hardest to keep away any rough appeal of the streets.

Possibly the tightest moment on this album is when Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie returns to his ex-camp, and drops a Barry White sampling, and G-Dep, Craig Mack and Missy featuring "Let Me Get Down". Here Biggie get's his playboy on, rhyming: "a shy nigga but I ain't your fucking comforter / and if I ever fall in love, I bet I'm fucking her". Puffy proves that he knows how to put dramatic cuts together on "Tonight" which features Mobb Deep & Joe Hooker. And the next cut in this trilogy, another D-Dot track (along with Eric "Coptic" Matlock and Henri Charlemagne), gets the stamp of approval. Here Black Rob, Ice Cube and Beanie Sigel are in the studio, and Cube rhymes "cock my nine, and separate yo' head from yo' spine / so, "Grab yo' dicks if you love hip-hop" and / fuck you niggaz that shot Big Pop' / the conspiracy, of this nation, for assassination / of the young black male in this black hell". And after this cut, the much hailed b-side to the "Big Poppa" 12": "Who Shot Ya" resurfaces on this album.

"Money, hoes and clothes / blunt smoke coming out the nose, is all a nigga knows / flipping on foes, putting tags on toes / watching the stash grow, clocking the cashflow" ("Niggas"). And apparently this is also all he know to rhyme about. So Lil' Cease saying: "the best that ever lived, the best that ever did it / the best that ever lived it" ("Biggie") is just so not true.

Let's set it straight: there are too many cuts where there is a linernote saying: 'original production' by so and so. Let's face it: Puff spoiled this project with lifting off the possibly rugged production, and exchanging it with all those wack jiggy beats. A track with Biggie not even rhyming ("Biggie") is ridiculous too.

And the most disrespectful move that Puffy could have ever done, was fading out Ms Wallace, when she was speaking her heart on the outro. And so while we have to respect Bigge for touching so many people, we don't have to love his music, his lyrical content or this album. But maybe that's not the big man's fault at all, but it's the whining ass, self righteous, pistol packing, greedy Puffy who is to hold accountable for.