Nas and The Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie) both were and still are to this day, huge music influences. Although Biggie is usually accredited with starting the era of East Coast hip hop with his album Ready to Die Nas came out with Illmatic four months before. To this day there is controversy over who started this trend and some speculators go as far as saying Biggie copied Nas on his style and cover artwork. Both albums share many things in common, the style of music, audience, but the one similarity that stands out the most is the album cover. Nas’ Illmatic pictures a young Nas, eight years old with a look on his face well beyond his years, the streets of his past neighborhood faded in the back. The focus of the album is on his childhood and …show more content…
Biggie went through life in stages. In his album, he describes these stages with phenomenal lyricism. It all starts with his childhood and that’s where the album cover comes into play. The main focus of his cover is a young toddler, believed to represent Biggie in his adolescence. Along with the child, Biggie put his name, the notorious BIG, at the top of the cover. He used small black font on a white back drop; however, for the last three letters, BIG, he used larger red font on top of a black rectangle. By doing this, it really brought out what Biggie was known for outside of rap, being big. The placement of the album name on the cover is in a spot, somewhat like Nas’, most rappers tend to avoid. Ready to Die is written at the bottom centered with his name on the top. Each letter is spaced evenly throughout the title, but every letter is thinner than the last. The thinning of the letters correspond with the story Biggie tells in his raps. The more you listen, the more Biggie explains. Details of his birth, childhood, adolescence, his life at the point of the release and his future are shown in each progressing song up until future Biggie is ready to die and finally commits suicide. Just like his will to live in his songs, the letters thin with every passing