evidence: Released in September 1994, The Notorious B.I.G’s debut album provided a slice of Brooklyn life. But what made it a work of art was its master class showcase of hip-hop’s key elements at play: beats, rhymes, and storytelling. It had a coterie of the genre’s esteemed beatsmiths: Easy Mo Bee, DJ Premier, and Trackmasters, among many others. They all had the greatest voice to lyrically lace up their tough-as-Timbs production. The combination of these ingredients blurred the lines between fiction and documentary, bringing raw vulnerability and behind-the-roving-lens realism to the stories from the underbelly of the beast, or as Big referred to it, "the everyday struggle." [...] This is the heart of Ready to Die. Here, we get a brutally clear snapshot of the conditions — Reagan era, poverty, crack, the ’94 federal crime bill — that made the Notorious B.I.G. "I know how it feels to wake up, f—ked up," he raps, capturing the gravity of life at the tattered edges of the American underside and the by-hook-or-by-crook mentality that comes as a result. Though he’s rapping from his own Brooklyn-bred experiences, it feels universal. The line "another day, another struggle" is as much a relatable sentiment as "good morning."