DETROIT – The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Ready To Die" turned 25 last month.
Biggie's Sept. 13, 1994 release has been referred to as one of the best rap albums of all time in numerous articles and music lists. The rapper has been nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame next year.
Recommended Videos
Other albums celebrating milestones in 2019:
Here's some facts about the rapper's debut album:
1) It's the only album released while he was alive.
"Ready To Die" is the only Biggie album released in the rapper's lifetime.
His second album, "Life After Death," was released two weeks after he was shot and killed in March 1997.
2) Samples were removed years after the album's release due to legal issues.
A 2006 lawsuit against the record company behind the album, Sean Combs' Bad Boy Records, alleged three tracks,"Ready to Die", "Machine Gun Funk" and "Gimme the Loot," illegally used samples.
Re-released versions of the album don't have the samples.
3) "Ready To Die" is certified 6x Platinum.
The Recording Industry Association of America has certified the album 6x Platinum.
4) One track was nominated for a Grammy.
"Big Poppa" was nominated for Grammy in 1995 in the Best Rap Solo Performance category.
It lost to Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise."
5) Some of the songs were freestyled from memory.
According to an interview published in XXL, Biggie would memorize lyrics he wrote and would freestyle them when recording the album.
6) The baby on the cover is not the rapper.
There was speculation that the baby on the cover of "Ready To Die" was Biggie, but it wasn't.
Some people also thought it could have been one of the rapper's children.
In 2011, it was revealed that Keithroy Yearwood was found through a modeling agency to be on the cover of the album.
Here's what he looks like now: