A swan song and prophecy, the Notorious B.I.G.’s second and final album, a double-disc titled “Life After Death,” changed the face of hip-hop. It was the first time so-called “gangster rap” planted itself firmly into the mainstream, with the biggest East Coast rapper in the early 90s coastal hip-hop beef recruiting top musicians across rap and R&B as unexpected collaborators. Jay-Z, Faith Evans, Lil Kim, 112, Kelly Price, Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony, Mase, Angela Winbush and many more are featured prominently across B.I.G.’s twenty-five “Life After Death” tracks.

The album’s first single, “Hypnotize” was merely the first of many “Life After Death” tracks to leave its mark. Five days after its release, on March 9, 1997, B.I.G. died at the hands of a still unidentified assailant and “Hypnotize” became the first song to posthumously reach #1 on American charts since John Lennon’s death in 1980, and the fifth ever. That July, the album’s second single, “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems” became the sixth. “Life After Death” would officially live forever.

“Hypnotize” was B.I.G.’s last video, and the performance that he & Sean “Puffy” Combs deliver is tremendous. The video pulled inspiration from Bond movies and 1995’s Will Smith and Martin Lawrence buddy action comedy, “Bad Boys,” which in itself is a nod to Puff’s record label Bad Boy Entertainment. There’s layers to these things, just like in the song.

The reason it sounds so damn familiar is that Puff brilliantly sampled a couple of hit-makers to create this one. The beat is taken from Herb Alpert’s “Rise,” a Grammy-winning single from the summer of 1979, and the hook from Slick Rick’s “La Di Da Di.” Over all of that, B.I.G.’s signature effortless flow shines, as do all of his “flashy ways.” It was one of the first music videos to feature rappers surrounded in luxury instead of flexing their street cred. In fact, between the wardrobe, cars, yachts, helicopters, and special effects, the budget for “Hypnotize” was closer to that of a 90s small film than a music video.

It’s also the prime example of a banger of a song and an epic video becoming greater than the sum of their parts. Ask any hip-hop fan one of the most memorable moments in rap video history, and they will absolutely tell you that it’s B.I.G. and Puff fleeing their pursuers backwards while B.I.G. raps “Escargot, my car go one-sixty swiftly.” But it’s only one of many incredible moments and clever lyrics you’ll find here. Honestly, “Hypnotize” is all around eye and ear candy, but still just a taste of 24-year-old Christopher Wallace’s potential as the man who in death gave rap a whole new life.

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