Released 25 years ago , Big L’s The Big Picture is a triumph of immutable technique. It’s also a consolation prize. A year and a half before it dropped, the rapper born Lamont Coleman was shot and killed only a week after he began the process of signing a deal with Roc-A-Fella Records. Prior to his death, he’d been one of New York’s most renowned underground wordsmiths — a spitter that literally had Nas “scared to death.” There was always a feeling he was one project away from combining elite rap pyrotechnics and crossover success. But his death meant it would stay that way. The Big Picture is proof of why it shouldn’t have.

Excavating recordings L had planned for his sophomore LP, his Flamboyant label co-partner, Rich King, acted as an instrument of Big L’s will. Here, L’s vocals were paired with both frequent collaborators, dream collaborators, and the most acclaimed boom bap producers in rap history. Having been the first producer to connect with L, it was only right Lord Finesse framed L’s track, “The Heist Revisited” in sinister funk. For “Platinum Plus,” DJ Premier alchemized a Stylistics soul sample into a luminous crime caper fit for L’s spurts of acrobatic barking. Meanwhile, for “Holdin’ It Down,” Pete Rock supplies L with foggy flutes for a Breezy ode to staying true — a throughline for a project that did the same for Big L.

CHECK THE REST AT OKAYPLAYER