Upon release, the album was met with widespread critical acclaim, with Pitchfork giving it a 10/10 rating along with various other critics praising it for its brutally honest depiction of gang violence and conflict as opposed to the often-glorified portrayal in the genre and the wider media. In 2003, they ranked it number 133 on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, [35] 134 in a 2012 revised list, [36] and 22 in a 2020 revised list. However, for younger fans like me that have never heard the og release, this record is more than enough. Former Impressions singer Lee Hutson slaps hip-hop mogul Diddy, Bad Boy Entertainment and estate of Notorious B. The lyrics on Ready to Die tend to deal with violence, drug dealing, women, alcohol and marijuana use, and other elements of Notorious B.

Now with a massively successful US tour opening for sweet soul darlings Thee Sacred Souls behind him, 2023 is sure to be a propitious year for Daptone's newest signee. On March 24, 2006, Bridgeport Music and Westbound Records won a federal lawsuit against Bad Boy Records for copyright infringement, with a jury deciding that Combs and Bad Boy had illegally used samples for the production of the songs "Ready to Die", "Machine Gun Funk", and "Gimme the Loot". Although a fair use issue, Combs and Bad Boy never raised the legal concept of the fair use doctrine in their defense.The album features productions by Bad Boy founder Sean "Puffy" Combs, Easy Mo Bee, Chucky Thompson, DJ Premier, and Lord Finesse, among others. on October 16, 1995, only a year and one month after its release the album was certified double Platinum. Q magazine gave Ready to Die three out of five stars, and stated "the natural rapping, clever use of sound effects and acted dialogue, and concept element (from a baby being born at the start to the fading heartbeat at the end) set this well apart from the average gangsta bragging".

proclaiming that he stood out from other rappers because "his lyrics mix autobiographical details about crime and violence with emotional honesty, telling how he felt while making a living as a drug dealer". In April 2018, Ready to Die was certified 6× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album contains a loose concept starting out with an intro that details his birth, his early childhood, his adolescence and his life at the point of the album's release.

He also went on to mention that his lyrics are "firmly rooted in reality, but play like [a] scene from a movie". In 2006, Time magazine included it on their 100 Greatest Albums of All Time list, and stated "On Ready to Die, Wallace took his street corner experiences and filtered them through his considerable charm.

In these sessions, XXL magazine describe an "inexperienced, higher-pitched" Biggie sounding "hungry and paranoid". The estate countersued in turn, claiming the sample as used was short, adapted, and supplemented, and thus subject to fair use, [14] a legal tactic not pursued previously. This x2LP re-issue featuring the iconic artwork of an infant bearing a resemblance to the rapper has been out of the marketplace for over a decade and also features all 19 tracks from the Ready to Die Sessions. Coker stated " Ready to Die is the strongest solo rap debut since Ice Cube's AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted. This decision was questioned by some legal experts: Anthony Falzone of the Fair Use Project at Stanford Law School criticized Combs and Bad Boy for not defending the legality of sampling and suggested that they might have refused to raise such a defense because they feared it could later imperil their control over their own music.Featuring production by Combs and Chucky Thompson of The Hitmen, it samples " Between the Sheets" by The Isley Brothers.

Side A features "Juicy," "Gimme The Loot," "Machine Gun Funk" and "Warning"; Side B features "Unbelievable," "The What," "Respect," "One More Chance" and "Big Poppa. It has been ranked by many critics as one of the greatest hip hop albums, as well as one of the greatest albums of all time. for copyright infringement, alleging that his song " Can't Say Enough About Mom" was illegally sampled in the production of the song "The What". Steve Huey from AllMusic gave it five stars, stating "The album that reinvented East Coast rap for the gangsta age, Ready to Die made the Notorious B.Big Poppa" was released as the second single on December 24, 1994, and like the previous single, it was a hit on multiple charts. Robert Christgau from The Village Voice commented "His sex raps are erotic, his jokes are funny, and his music makes the thug life sound scary rather than luxuriously laid back. in punitive and direct damages to the two plaintiffs, and federal judge Todd Campbell enacted an immediate sales ban on the album and tracks in question. Like others said this doesn't have the og samples, so if you're looking for that you'll still want the VMP version.