In 2011, Rolling Stone also placed it at number eight on their 100 Best Albums of the Nineties list, and described it as 'mapping out the sound of ' cool'. In 2003, they ranked it number 133 on their list, and one year later, they re-rated it to five stars. In their original review for Ready to Die, gave it four-and-a-half out of five 'mics', stating 'Big weaves tales like a cinematographer, each song is like another scene in his lifestyle. Magazine gave Ready to Die three out of five stars, and stated 'the natural rapping, clever use of sound effects and acted dialogue, and concept element (from a baby being born at the start to the fading heartbeat at the end) set this well apart from the average gangsta bragging'. In presenting the downside of that life, Ready to Die offers perhaps the most balanced and honest portrait of the dealer's life of any in hip-hop'. His raps acknowledge both the excitement of drug dealing and the stress caused by the threat from other dealers, robbers, the police and parents, sometimes one's own. Wrote 'Though drug dealing carries tremendous heroic value with some young urban dwellers, he sacrifices the figure's romantic potential. When he considers suicide, I not only take him at his word, I actively hope he finds another way'.
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