The Way A Tribute Is Supposed To Sound

"Everybody's the king now/you ain't gotta be nice, getting shot is the thing now"- Jadakiss

Before I even start this post, how ill is that the guy who's playing Christopher Wallace (Gravy) in Notorious is one of the dudes Jadakiss might be referencing in one of the lines from the just-leaked tribute track, "Letter to BIG." Crazy.

Obviously, with the release of Notorious only a about two and half weeks away (January 16th), soundtrack and/or unsanctioned mixtape songs are starting to pop up.

Let's not sugarcoat things here. BIG would be turning in his grave if he saw the buffoonery going on in rap right now. Sure, this is the same guy who started all that "pop champagne" rap shit in 90s, but far be it to say that on the flip side of the coin he was also one of the best lyricists ever. The guy was just 24 years old when he died. Think about how many 24 year old dumbasses are running around in the current rap game, and I'll let you draw your own conclusions about where things have gone since BIG left us.

So when I saw this Jadakiss/Faith Evans track over at the best hip-hop site in the history of the internet , I figured, what are the odds of a rapper and singer teaming up and making a tribute song that is actually good? Usually the people involved with these thing try too hard to make something epic, and end up making a total shit sandwich (Biggie Duets, anyone?)

But "Letter to BIG" is different. It's not epic. It's simple, and it works. Jada came with the lyrics, and for a change, some real conviction in his delivery. And Faith, well she's always had a very distinguishable voice, she doesn't sound like anyone else.

Check it out though, this is how a tribute is supposed to sound. This makes me like rap music.