Celebrate Biggie's birthday with some of most underrated songs

Christopher Wallace aka Biggie Smalls aka Notorious B.I.G. was born on this day 43 years ago. To celebrate what would’ve been his 43rd birthday, I thought it would be cool to pay homage by reflecting on some of his most underrated tracks. Biggie opened up one of the most anticipated albums of all time with “Somebody Gotta Die.” There are several songs on Life After Death that would’ve been more obvious openers, but this is the perfect way to open his second and, unfortunately, last album.

It’s a slow-driving, tale about a petty crime gone wrong. It’s intricate, dark, and cinematic, like the album itself.

There really aren’t any “underrated” songs on what has become one of the most acclaimed hip-hop albums of all time, but “Everyday Struggle” is one of the best deep tracks on Ready to Die.

The track has an excellent bass line, over which Biggie raps some of his most relentlessly depressing verses.

Despite the album being released after his death, Life After Death was completed prior to Biggie’s untimely demise.

This of course, makes “You’re Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You)” one of the most eerie hip-hop songs ever recorded.

Again, you can hardly refer to “Who Shot Ya?” as underrated, but since it wasn’t included on an album, I’ll throw it on this list.

This is the peak of Biggie’s career, and it’s a rare moment in hip-hop when an emcee is on top of their game and are self-aware of that fact.

The penultimate track on disc one of Life After Death is a testament to Biggie’s subtle brilliance.

His writing is sharp and detail-driven as anything ever seen in hip-hop, and the additional string arrangements during the third verse makes this one Biggie’s best songs ever.