Capital Punishment

iTunes Review

While Biggie and Tupac may get more album sales, memorial films, and XXXXL t-shirts in the hood, when it comes to straight rapping ability, Big Pun towers above them both. A Puerto Rican super-MC from the Bronx, Pun was blessed with a lightening-fast flow despite his massive girth. Fellow Latino heavyweight Fat Joe featured him on Jealous One's Envy, mentored him in the ways of the industry, and helped score him a record deal, resulting in his classic 1998 debut Capital Punishment. Like Biggie before him, Pun was an expert in hardcore street rap but unafraid to make jams catering to the ladies as well. This album spawned the crossover hits "Still Not a Player" and "You Came Up," but also included devastatingly rugged selections like "Boomerang," and the "Deep Cover" update "Twinz." The guestlist reads like a who's-who of late ‘90s NYC, featuring Prodigy, Nore, and Busta Rhymes. A landmark album that went double platinum and was nominated for a GRAMMY, it was also the last to be released in his lifetime; Big Pun died of obesity-related heart failure in 2000, just 28 years old.