"Heaven or Hell" is a good one.
I know its cliche as a hip-hop fan to say this, but certainly the first time I heard "They Reminisce Over You"
There are quite a few Notorious B.I.G. moments, I have to say
"My mother got cancer in her breast/ don't ask me why i'm mothafuckin stressed, things done changed."
Whole portions of "Sky is the Limit"
Everyday struggle - "I don't wanna live no mo, sometimes i hear death knockin' at my front door / i'm livin' every day as a hustle, another drug to juggle/ another day another struggle."
Big did an amazing job translating that sort of limitless sadness about the parodox of modern life, growing up poor in a world that doesn't understand - even the introduction to juicy, "this album is dedicated to all the teachers that told me I'd never amount to nothin', to all the people that lived above the buildings that I was hustlin' in front of that called the police on me when I was just tryin' to make some money to feed my daughters..."
In the album he robs pregnant women, shoots people effortlessly, fucks girls left and right, and yet makes you sympathize with every moment...one of Christgau's best lines was about this album (which is saying something, considering his poor record w/r/t hip-hop in the early 90s) even if it is a bit "what am I doing listening to hip-hop":
xgau said:
As a white person in an integrated, how do we say it, nabe, I should breathe a sigh of relief that pithy Christopher Wallace seems content to exploit his own people--"I been robbin' motherfuckers since the slave ship," or, if you prefer, "I be beatin' motherfuckers like Ike beat Tina." As a male person, I should be grateful he doesn't want to pimp my kind either. But because I live a lot farther from the edge, these things don't make me feel better at all--I'm outraged when anyone gets robbed, beaten, or pimped, descendants of slaves especially. Hence I'm not inclined to like this motherfucker. But the more I listen the more I do. Wiping the cold out of his eyes at 5:47 a.m. or pulling his gat as the wrong guy comes down the street, he commands more details than any West Coast gangsta except carbetbagging Ice-T. His sex raps are erotic, his jokes are funny, and his music makes the thug life sound scary rather than luxuriously laid back. When he considers suicide, I not only take him at his word, I actively hope he finds another way.
Also, "Live at Dominoes" by the Avalanches.
) was Fennesz's remix of the Junior Boys' 'Birthday'. When the waves of distortion roll in... cue keanu "woah"