A South Philly rapper who documented street life with unflinching directness.
If you need one track to frame him, put on 'Feel It In The Air.' For something a little different, there's that unexpected team-up with James Blunt on 'Dear Self.'
Beanie Sigel mattered because he never polished the edges off his stories. Songs like 'Feel It In The Air' and 'What Your Life Like' gave you the view from the pavement, not the penthouse. He was part of that early-2000s State Property crew with Jay-Z and Freeway, but he always sounded like he was rapping for the block first.
He started putting out music in the early '90s and dropped his first solo album, 'The Truth,' in 1999. That same year he was shot in a drive-by but kept recording. The work that followed, like 'Remember Them Days,' stayed rooted in Philadelphia even as his path had its share of stops and starts.
Keep it compact: a lyric you come back to, a live memory, or the part of the catalog you would point someone toward first.
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