One Of Hip Hop’s rising stars died on Feburary 15th in 1999 at the age of 24 from multiple gunshot wounds.
The man was super talented more than willing to hit you with punchlines, play up to the ladies or hit your ears with some street tales.

A lot of people thought he was on his way to Roc A Fella Records and was bringing Flamboyant Entertainment with him. It would have been a nasty marriage indeed but it wasn’t to be.

Big L, the Harlem, New York native came out with only one solo album before dying, Lifestyles Ov Da Poor and Dangerous on Columbia Records but he made his mark underground and with his crew of Deejays and producers, Diggin In The Crates (DITC). L, Showbiz, A.G. Fat Joe, Diamond D., O.C., Buckwild and Lord Finesse were arguably the best ensemble of talent on wax never to get their true credit and they even had an album forced out on Tommy Boy, DITC. Their beats were hard and not one person cared to spit on trash beats and sell out for a different fanbase.

His posthumous album The Big Picture put out on Rawkus Records (R.I.P. Rawkus) let the world know who L was but a lot of his verses were used from previous songs. Big L was influential in the careers of former or current stars Camron, Mase, McGruff and Jay Z who all appeared on L’s first album. You can listen to Jay spit Twista style in Da Graveyard.

L killed songs like The Enemy, Thick and Street Struck but his best song was Ebonics, a song in which he broke all slang down for non-urbanites. Here is a sample of L’s nastiness:

Check these Big L songs out at your local music supplier.

“Ebonics” (Lifestyles Ov Da Poor and Dangerous)

“The Enemy” featuring Fat Joe (The Big Picture)

“Put It On” ” (Lifestyles Ov Da Poor and Dangerous)

“Danger Zone” ” (Lifestyles Ov Da Poor and Dangerous)

“’98 Freestyle” (The Big Picture)

“Casualties Of A Dice Game” (The Big Picture)

“Platinum Plus” featuring.Big Daddy Kane (The Big Picture)

“Still Here” featuring C-Town (Lyricist Lounge, Vol. 2)

“Way Of Life” with Diamond, Lord Finesse, O.C. and A.G. (DITC)

“Street Struck” ” (Lifestyles Ov Da Poor and Dangerous)

Have any questions and/or comments hit me at clayton@geoclan.com. One!

Any comments, suggestions, questions feel free to contact me at music@geoclan.com.

Remember Big L on GeoBoards