Little Homie (Interlude) Producer – Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie, Harve "Joe Hooker" Pierre Voice – Lil' Cease Kelly Producer – DJ Green Lantern Vocals – Ebony Black Mi Casa Co-producer – J Dub, Mario Winans Featuring – Charlie Wilson, R. Ultimate Rush Featuring – Missy Elliott Producer – Scott Storch Instruments – Chink Santana Producer – Chink Santana Hustler's Story Co-producer – J Dub, Mario Winans Featuring – Akon, Big Gee (2), Scarface (3) Producer – Reefa, Suga Mikeīreakin' Old Habits Bass – That Nigga Keez Featuring – Slim Thug, T.I. My Dad (Interlude) Producer – Wayne Barrow Voice – T-yanna Dream Wallace I'm With Whateva Featuring – Jagged Edge (2), Jim Jones (2), Juelz Santana, Lil' Wayne* Producer – Stevie Jīeef Featuring – Mobb Deep Producer – Havoc (3) Vocals – Karen Anderson
Nasty Girl Featuring – Avery Storm, Jagged Edge (2), Nelly, Diddy* Producer – Jazze Pha The Greatest Rapper (Interlude) Producer – Faith Evansġ970 Somethin' Featuring – Faith Evans, The Game (2) Producer – Dre & Vidal Living The Life Featuring – Bobby Valentino (2), Cheri Dennis, Faith Evans, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg Producer – Coptic Get Your Grind On Co-producer – LV (2) Featuring – Big Pun*, Fat Joe, Freeway Producer – Sean Cane Whatchu Want Featuring – Jay-Z Producer – Danja Vocals – Capricorn Clark, Makeba Riddick Spit Your Game Featuring – Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Twista Producer – Swizz Beatz It Has Been Said Featuring – Eminem, Obie Trice, Diddy* Guitar, Bass – Steve King Keyboards – Luis Resto Producer – Eminem Producer – Luis Resto If I’m harsh on this collection, it’s because Biggie clearly deserves better.B.I.G. Blige duet “Living In Pain,” all of which exude a bittersweet grief in contrast to most of the surrounding album’s bluster. There are a few (presumably accidental) high points: Chief among these is the low-stakes stretch of tunes including the Kanye/Common-lite “1970 Somethin’” (featuring B.I.G.‘s widow Faith Evans), the club grinder “Nasty Girl,” and the Lamont Dozier-cribbing Mary J. As it stands, it’s more like an inadequate argument on behalf of memorializing Biggie’s birthday as a new national holiday, just because he wrote a whole ton of premonitory lyrics about his own demise. If only it had been conceived with a fraction more attention to structure (for instance, it could’ve been assembled like a hip-hop storybook biographical replay of Biggie’s life and times), it could’ve been a sweet (albeit still misguided) coda, a single-disc Past Masters.
Taking that appropriate credit into consideration, is anyone surprised the entirety of Duets: The Final Chapter sounds D.O.A.? Not even the necrological perversity of hearing Biggie’s tight-throated chuckles weaving in and out of the tracks (egging on a lot of rappers who didn’t even break until well after Biggie’s death, starting with an overweaningly abrasive Eminem on the opening salvo “It Has Been Said”) can elevate the morbid affair. He is, after all, listed as one of the album’s executive producers. So, what exactly does it say about your career if your performance is upstaged by the long-ago recorded outtakes of an MC who’s been six feet under for nearly a decade? And, conversely, what does it say if you’re a dead artist for whom the two or three dozen guest stars collated for an album in your honor can barely muster half a decent verse? Diddy predictably aside, though, Biggie has no one to blame for this overwhelming cavalier negligence but himself.