Duets: The Final Chapter

Duets: The Final Chapter
Remix album by Notorious B.I.G.
Released	December 2, 2005
Recorded	1995 – 2005
Genre	Hip hop
Length	73:30
Label	Bad Boy
Producer	Tido Fresh, Eminem, Faith Evans, Swizz Beatz, Jazze Pha, Scott Storch, among others
Notorious B.I.G. chronology
Born Again (1999) Duets: The Final Chapter (2005) Greatest Hits (2007)
Singles from Duets: The Final Chapter
"Nasty Girl" Released: October 11, 2005 "Spit Your Game" Released: April 24, 2006

Duets: The Final Chapter (sometimes referred as The Biggie Duets) is a remix posthumous album featuring hip hop icon The Notorious B.I.G.. The album was released by Bad Boy Records on December 20, 2005 and charted at #3 selling 438,000 copies, beaten by the extremely high sales of Jamie Foxx's Unpredictable and Mary J Blige's The Breakthrough[1]. In the UK it climbed as high as #13 after the release of the album's first single "Nasty Girl". It is his third posthumous album that went platinum and is said to be his last album of mainly new material.

The album featured orchestrated duets between Biggie and a number of popular rappers and singers, much like the previous LP Born Again (1999). Biggie's lyrics come from studio pieces of some of the songs he created during his life (his verse from "Notorious Thugs" in "Spit Your Game"), along with some less common lyrics (a freestyle from a promotional tape on "Hustler's Story"), & unreleased material (Biggie's verse in "Living in Pain" comes from an unreleased song from Ready to Die called "House of Pain") all remixed into duets. The package also included a DVD featuring previously unreleased performance footage and several of Biggie's music videos.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllHipHop	[1]
Allmusic	[2]
CANOE	[3]
Entertainment Weekly	(B+)[4]
IGN	[5]
PopMatters	[6]
Rolling Stone	[7]
Slant Magazine	[8]
Stylus Magazine	(B-)[9]
Virgin Media	[10]

The album was generally received poorly by critics; Peter Relic of Rolling Stone gave the album only 2 stars out of 5 and commented that the title was wrong because of the major presence of other artists, not The Notorious B.I.G. Relic also pointed out the appearances by artists who he believed not to contribute much substance.^[11] Andy Kellman of allmusic rated the album 2.5 out of 5.^[12] Method Man in particular was a huge critic of the album, who stated "They got niggas on that album Big would have never rocked with, for real.^[13]" He also brought up the fact that he was the only other rapper that Biggie chose to have on his debut album Ready To Die.

Track listing

Track	Song	Producer	Featuring Artists	Original Lyrics	Album
1	B.I.G Live In Jamaica (Intro)	Jeffery "J-Dub" Walker for The Hitmen	-	-
2	It Has Been Said	Eminem	Eminem, Obie Trice & Diddy	-	-
3	Spit Your Game	Swizz Beatz	Twista & Krayzie Bone Remix version also features 8Ball & MJG	Notorious Thugs Spit Your Game (Original): Only on remix	Life After Death
4	Whatchu Want (The Commission)	Danja	Jay-Z	What You Want (Freestyle) (Verse 1 & 2)	Unreleased
5	Get Your Grind On	Sean Cane & LV for The Hitmen	Freeway, Big Punisher & Fat Joe	My Downfall	Life After Death
6	Living the Life	Coptic Sounds	Faith Evans, Cheri Dennis, Bobby Valentino, Ludacris & Snoop Dogg	Let Me Get Down	Born Again
7	The Greatest Rapper (Interlude by Christopher Wallace, Jr.)	-	-	-	-
8	1970 Somethin'	Dre & Vidal, Static Major	Faith Evans & The Game	Respect	Ready to Die
9	Nasty Girl	Jazze Pha	Diddy, Jagged Edge, Nelly & Avery Storm	Nasty Boy	Life After Death
10	Living In Pain	Just Blaze	Mary J. Blige, 2Pac & Nas	House of Pain	Unreleased
11	I'm With Whateva	Steven "Stevie J" Jordan for The Hitmen	Jim Jones, Lil Wayne & Juelz Santana	Ready To Die	Ready To Die
12	Beef	Havoc	Mobb Deep	What's Beef	Life After Death
13	My Dad (Interlude by T-yanna Wallace)	-	-	-	-
14	Hustler's Story	Jeffery "J-Dub" Walker & Mario Winans for The Hitmen, Reefa, Suga Mike	Scarface, Akon & Big Gee of Boyz n da Hood	You'll See	Bad Boy Promotional Tape
15	Breakin' Old Habits	Chink Santana	Slim Thug & T.I.	Young G's	No Way Out
16	Ultimate Rush	Scott Storch	Missy Elliott	Why You Trying to Play Me/Drugs	Baller's Story/ Hard Core
17	Mi Casa	Jeffery "J-Dub" Walker & Mario Winans for The Hitmen, DJ Green Lantern	R. Kelly & Charlie Wilson	Friend of Mine	Ready to Die
18	Little Homie (Interlude)	Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie for The Hitmen, Harve "Joe Hooker" Pierre	-	-	-
19	Hold Ya Head	Clinton Sparks	Bob Marley	Suicidal Thoughts	Ready to Die
20	Just a Memory	Scram Jones	Clipse	You're Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You)/Come On	Life After Death/ Born Again
21	Wake Up	Jonathan Davis, Atticus Ross	Korn	If I Should Die Before I Wake/Kick In The Door	Born Again/Life After Death
22	Love Is Everlasting (Outro)
Bonus Disc-1	Want That Old Thing Back	?	Ja Rule, Ralph Tresvant	One More Chance	Ready to Die
Bonus Disc-2	Running Your Mouth	Soopafly	Snoop Dogg, Fabolous, Nate Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Foxy Brown	Freestyle	Unreleased

Credited Samples

"It Has Been Said"

• "Victory" by Puff Daddy featuring Notorious BIG

"Spit Your Game"

• "My Ship Is Coming In" by Walter Jackson

"Living the Life"

• "Take Time To Tell Her" by Jerry Butler

"Living in Pain"

• "Blue Sky Silver Bird" by Lamont Dozier

"I'm With Whateva"

• "Halloween" by John Carpenter

"Ultimate Rush"

• "Drugs" by Lil' Kim

"Beef"

• "My Other Love" by Bunny Sigler

"Hold Ya Head"

• "Johnny Was" by Bob Marley

Singles

The album's first single was "Nasty Girl", featuring Diddy, Nelly, and Jagged Edge. It took Biggie's vocal samples from his song "Nasty Boy". The single climbed to #1 in the UK in its second week of release, where it stayed for 2 weeks and became his first and only #1 single there. The single also helped the album climb to #13 and therefore, Duets: The Final Chapter became his highest charting album to date there, out peaking the #23 position of Life After Death. In the US, "Nasty Girl" made #45 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the single also made the top 20 in Australia.

The second single from the album is "Spit Your Game", featuring Twista and Krayzie Bone, a double A-side single with "Hold Ya Head", a duet with Bob Marley, which was originally the b-side to "Nasty Girl" in the UK and Australia. "Spit Your Game" is a remake of the Biggie song "Notorious Thugs". "Hold Ya Head" was produced by Clinton Sparks, and features a sample from the Marley song "Johnny Was". It features Biggie's vocal samples from "Suicidal Thoughts".

Bonus Disc Track Listing

"Want That Old Thing Back" (featuring Ralph Tresvant and Ja Rule) "Running Your Mouth" (featuring Foxy Brown, Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, Busta Rhymes and Fabolous)

Songs that didn't make the final cut

• "The Grind" (featuring 50 Cent) — Later released on 50 Cent's 2006 mixtape "The Empires Strikes Back Mixtape" with Statik Selektah & G-Unit Records.
• "The Funk" (featuring Redman, Busta Rhymes & Nate Dogg) — Later released on Redman's 2010 mixtape "Pancake & Syrup - Da Mixtape" without Busta Rhymes as a feature.
• "Make It Hot" (featuring Ness & Aasim)
• "Here We Go" (featuring Q-Tip, Babs & Aasim)
• "Bust A Nut" (featuring Too Short & Webbie)
• "Three Bricks" (featuring Ghostface Killah & Raekwon) — Later released as a bonus track on Ghostface Killah's 2006 album "FishScale".
• "(Unknown track)" featuring Lil Cease

Charts

Year	Chart	Peak Position
2006	Australian ARIA Albums Chart	#63[14]

References

1. ^ AllHipHop review
2. ^ Allmusic review
3. ^ CANOE review
4. ^ Entertainment Weekly review
5. ^ IGN review
6. ^ PopMatters review
7. ^ Rolling Stone review
8. ^ Slant Magazine review
9. ^ Stylus Magazine review
10. ^ Virgin Media review
11. ^ Relic, Peter (2006-01-12). "The Notorious B.I.G. - Duets: The Final Chapter". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/notoriousbig/albums/album/8937550/review/9132679/duets_the_final_chapter. Retrieved 2009-08-28. 
12. ^ Kellman, Andy (2005-12-20). "Duets: The Final Chapter, Overview". allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r803930. Retrieved 2009-08-28. 
13. ^ Method Man Artict Biography, lala.com.
14. ^ http://ariacharts.com.au/pages/chartifacts.htm

External links

• http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/search/google/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001771325
• http://www.biggieduets.com/
• http://rapcityz.com/albumreviews5.htm