7 / 10
The good die young, for sure, but not as young as the extremely obese. And Lord knows Latino New Yorker Big Pun (aka Big Punisher aka Christopher Lee Rios) was one huge boy.
Said to have weighed 700 pounds - that's around 50 stone! - when he died of a heart attack on February 7 of this year, he was practically housebound during his last days and gave his final interview by telephone, his answers barely audible beneath his huffing and puffing. He was 28.
Hard to credit, then, that he managed to polish this raucous final musical statement before passing away. 'Yeeeah Baby' (that's 5 for the title alone) is, musically, like a library of every cool contemporary hip-hop sound squeezed onto one compact disc. But we're not talking about the PC hip-hop of, say, Mos Def, Common or Q-Tip. We're talking about, ahem, "nigga shit" - as Big Pun describes it in a surprisingly nimble tone on the song of the same title.
.
The main problem for Pun, as he documents on the sweet Mase-alike 'It's So Hard', was that "Niggas want to fuck my wife/Niggas want to take my life" and, as he touchingly points out, "I paid for those titties"). But really, that's as close as Pun comes to documenting any inner turmoil here. Otherwise it's just stoopid juvenilia ahoy - and pretty groovy despite that (check out '100%' for the best Latino hip-hop blast currently available).
One for delinquent work experience boys everywhere. Rest in a big place, Pun.
NEW! For the latest music videos and backstage interviews, check out our brand new sister site, NME Video.
Comments do not always reflect the views of NME, or IPC Media, for guidelines visit our Ts & Cs page