I Got a Story to Tell achieves something notably slicker than your average Biggie murder story Photo: George DuBose At the heart of “ Juicy ,” one of hip-hop’s most indelible rags-to-riches anthems, is the world-beating joy of a Black boy from Brooklyn realizing his dreams are finally within reach. The lilt in the voice of the 21-year-old Notorious B.I.G. as he detailed quality of life improvements that new fame allowed — a Super Nintendo and a Sega Genesis, a nice television and a leather couch to watch it on, bottles of champagne at the ready — is perfectly infectious. The boasts are modest, signs of the bleakness of prospects for inner city youth who didn’t come from great means, many of whom would never find chances to experience the world past streets they grew up in. “Juicy” plays with a familiar formula: As with early rap gems like Sugar Hill Gang ’s “Rapper’s Delight,” the Treacherous Three’s “Feel the Heartbeat,” or the Funky 4 + 1’s “That’s the Joint” and “Rappin and Rocking the House,” “Juicy” lifts its unstoppable bounce off a popular cookout anthem, New York post-disco icons Mtume’s “Juicy Fruit,” reimagining the music of the artist’s childhood as a launchpad for more adult concerns. What sets the Ready to Die staple apart from similar moments of pride throughout hip-hop history is that at the time of recording, things weren’t yet “all good” for Biggie. He had cut his teeth doing an impressive array of guest appearances by the summer of 1994, when he released the lead single from his debut album, most notably on remixes to Bad Boy and Uptown Records affiliates Craig Mack and Mary J. Blige’s “Flava in Ya Ear,” “Real Love,” and “What’s the 411?” He’d already shined on 1993’s “Party and Bullshit” and stole the show on “A Bunch of Niggas,” the closer on the Heavy D and the Boyz highlight Blue Funk . He’d been in The Source , the bible of 20th-century hip-hop, in 1992 thanks to his impressive demo tape. He didn’t have a hit record … [Read more...] about Biggie’s Story Finally Gets a Proper Retelling