10 Things You Didn't Know About Big L's "Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous"

Big L is legendary for a few reasons. His punchlines, his freestyles, and his legendary album Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous are the basis to his influence.

His aforementioned debut album was the Big L's introduction to much of the world, and, frankly, many weren't ready for it. He rapped about dark subject matter, and his effort was often overshadowed by legendary output like Nas' Illmatic and The Fugees' The Score.

But these days, Lifestylez is just as highly regarded as the best of '90s hip-hop, in the right circles at least. To celebrate the album's 20th birthday, we're going to enlighten you on some things you may not know about Livestyles ov da Poor & Dangerous.

[via AllMusic]

"Put It On" contains elements of two James Brown songs, Buster Williams' "Vibrations", Skull Snaps' "It's A New Day", and Naughty By Nature's "Hip-Hop Hooray". 

[via whosampled]

Lord Finesse had an interesting tale about Big L's battling days in an interview with HipHopDx. 

"Jay was running around battling people [back then], and somebody set them up to battle each other and… I really know [Jay-Z] didn’t know what he was getting into battling this dude. I don’t [remember the exact date of their battle], I just remember L telling me about it. He was sitting on the stoop getting his hair braided, and [according to L] they set up this battle and he went to battle this dude. [Big L] was also there when Jay-Z battled DMX. L was heavy into the battling thing."

The first two broke the top 25 on Billboard'​s Hot Rap Tracks, but "No Endz" didn't chart. It should have, right?

"M.V.P." samples “Stay With Me” by DeBarge, which was also used on Biggie’s “One More Chance (Remix)". 

[via Genius]

"Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous" was one of Jay Z's first big-time features.  

Prior to the album, Jay had only done a few features.