[youtube id=”AiwvPmRTv6M”]Big Pun debuted as a solo artist in 1998 with his album Capital Punishment. Gifted with dense wordplay and a nimble cadence, Big Pun was quickly recognized as one of the best of his generation. “Twinz (Deep Cover)” paired him with mentor and friend Fat Joe and together they reconstructed the song that introduced Snoop Dogg to the world and was also Dr. Dre’s first solo single. Pun rapped his most famous line on “Twinz (Deep Cover)” when he said, “Dead in the middle of Little Italy, little did we know that we riddled two middlemen who didn’t do diddily.” His high-speed execution of words flooded the ears of rap fans with ecstatic head-nodding sensations. Pun’s raw material provided a new anchor for hip-hop and classic lines for the future. The whole of Capital Punishment was only punitive to lesser rappers but nothing but awe and contentment for the fans. The album became the first to go platinum from a solo Latin hip-hop star, sped up the charts and had a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album in 1999. Big Pun’s Capital Punishment was the only project of his to be released while he was alive. His sophomore album, Yeeeah Baby, was also a great album but it was posthumously released in 2000 just two months after his passing. Eighteen years after his death, Big Pun’s lyrical potency is still felt in the hearts of Gen X, millennials discovering him for the first time on the internet and the hole he left in New York’s rap scene.Â
