How D-Dot Helped Shape Biggie’s 'Life After Death'
How D-Dot Helped Shape Biggie’s 'Life After Death'
Published Fri, March 25, 2022 at 9:00 AM EDT
The Notorious B.I.G. was on a roll. By early 1997, the Brooklyn, New York rapper’s debut LP, 1994’s Ready To Die, had sold more than 2 million copies. He’d penned, appeared on, and overseen Conspiracy, the gold-selling debut album from his proteges Junior M.A.F.I.A., as well as Lil’ Kim’s gold-certified Hard Core LP.
When Biggie started working on what would become his second LP, his life had changed dramatically since Ready To Die arrived in stores via Puffy’s Bad Boy Entertainment and “Juicy” became his first hit single. His musical mind was in a different place.
“Now he gets it,” says Deric “D-Dot” Angelettie, who served as A&R on Biggie’s Life After Death and produced three songs on the LP. D-Dot is working on Black Rob’s forthcoming posthumous LP, a documentary on The Hitmen, and a few projects for his Crazy Cat company.
“Now he understands," D-Dot says of Biggie's mindset going into his sophomore project. "From what he went through from Ready To Die to Junior M.A.F.I.A. to Lil’ Kim, by being around me, by being around Nashiem [Myrick], and Puffy and the different producers that he was around and then going out in the world and seeing what was resonating with the people. Now he's able to pick the music that satisfies the street element, but he's comfortable going to the ‘Juicy’ side. Now he's making it comfortable for where he feels like it should go. So there's no need for Puffy to force the ‘Juicy’ type of samples on him anymore.”
Indeed, the resulting album, 1997’s 24-cut, double disc Life After Death, showed how much Biggie had evolved. There was the optimistic single “Sky’s The Limit,” the drug-dealing manual “Ten Crack Commandments,” the funk-drenched “Going Back To Cali,” the cinematic “I Got A Story To Tell,” and the smash single “Hypnotize,” among others.
“The subject matter was broader,” says D-Dot, who produced “Hypnotize” with longtime collaborator Ron “Amen-Ra” Lawrence and Puffy. “Ready To Die was a real first chapter. There was wishful thinking in it, but Life After Death is actually the culmination of what he experienced in the four years [since he started working on Ready To Die]. So, the tone changed. The flows changed. The records changed. It was an upgrade. We took Ready To Die and made that a small piece of Life After Death. So when listen, there's a couple of joints on Life After Death that easily could have been on Ready To Die. So Ready To Die was still there and we surrounded it by the upgrade.”
For “Hypnotize,” in particular, D-Dot showed up 20 minutes late to the recording session because he thought Big was going to be tardy, too. As D-Dot entered the studio, the beat was already blasting and Biggie was already in the room nodding his head. Big told D-Dot to come over to him.
“He said, ‘Listen to this,’” D-Dot says today. “He just sung the hook in my ear and I gave him a pound, walked out the room casually, and closed the door behind me. I called my A&R from Crazy Cat. His name was Smiles. And I was like, ‘Yo. I got one.’ We getting ready to be outta here.’”
Ron punched up D-Dot’s original drums on “Hypnotize” and replayed the keyboard bassline on the track. Puffy helped orchestrate the song’s overall vibe, guiding the ship and helping make it into a hit. As soon the song was finished, Biggie knew what was in store.
“It was out of Biggie’s mouth,” D-Dot says. “‘This is my first single.’”
“Hypnotize” quickly became a platinum single and helped propel Life After Death to diamond status in less than three years.
With Biggie, D-Dot also produced “B.I.G. Interlude,” a remake of Schoolly D’s “P.S.K. (What Does It Mean?).” On “The World Is Filled…” D-Dot and Puffy produced the cut that also features Too $hort and Puffy on vocals. Big wanted to do the former because of his love of hip-hop, but the latter didn’t move him initially. D-Dot made the “The World Is Filled…” beat during a trip to Trinidad. Biggie would balk every time it was played, though.
During a studio session, D-Dot went with Stevie J and others to a nearby bar. As they were enjoying themselves, a performer at the bar’s open mic caught their attention. Everyone mesmerized the unknown crooner belting in front of them. The singer was Carl Thomas. D-Dot and his crew invited Thomas to the studio. Thomas amended a poem he had and wrote the chorus for “The World Is Filled…” on the spot. D-Dot recorded Thomas singing the hook and later played it for Big.
“Adding the chorus took the record to a whole nother level,” D-Dot says. “Now Biggie got it. He needed to be produced for that particular record. I had to do my job as a producer to make this person love this beat the way I loved it.”
“The World Is Filled…” is one of many album cuts that is as popular as other artist’s singles. The same can be said for the DJ Premier-produced “Kick In The Door,” the sexually raw “#!*@ You Tonight,” and the Bone thugs-n-harmony collaboration “Notorious Thugs.” It all adds up to Life After Death being heralded as a classic by virtually every Hip-Hop fan of the era.
As D-Dot prepares for the forthcoming Black Rob LP and his other projects, the producer is resolute in his conviction about Biggie’s final studio release.
“In my humble opinion, it's one of the greatest albums ever made,” he says. “It's visual. I'm sure there's plenty of albums and people could argue about beats and the commercialization and get into all types of debates, but there's nothing on that album that no genre of hip-hop would not have on theirs.
“From the visual standpoint, it's one of the greatest movies in hip-hop history,” D-Dot continues. “You saw how ‘Hypnotize’ looked. Imagine if we would've got to make the movies from the records that we were planning on going with. We were going at least eight videos in. It was incredible what we saw once the album was done.”
