Avg Rating: 
3.6 ( 22 total votes )
Joell Ortiz - Too Soon (Biggie Tribute)
Artist: Joell Ortiz
Producer: DJ Khalil
Album: Untitled Joell Ortiz x DJ Khalil Project
Label: Lush Life/eOne
Just about everyone in the hip-hop community will agree that the March 9, 1997 shooting death of Biggie Smalls cut short what promised to be a long and illustrious musical career—in other words, his passing came Too Soon. If there’s a silver lining to that cloud, though, it’s that the legendary emcee was able to inspire so many during his short time in the game, from those who worked with him personally to his legions of devoted fans. On this new tribute record, Joell Ortiz addresses B.I.G. chiefly as a member of the latter category, expressing gratitude for the icon’s legendary contributions to hip-hop, and lamenting the fact that he wasn’t able to continue pushing the genre forward. In addition to contributing a mournful, piano-driven beat, DJ Khalil bookends the record with two poignant samples, the first taken from an interview with Biggie, and the second from a news report of his death. Too Soon is set to appear on a forthcoming collaborative project with Khalil. In anticipation of his Free Agent LP’s summer release, Ortiz also plans to drop a collection of freestyles entitled Covering the Classics and a Pre-Agent mixtape.
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Member Reviews and Ratings
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Tastemaker |
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This is a fire tribue song! The strings sound sad but they fit perfectly! Joell Ortiz is a beast on this and doesnt dissapoint. Hot track!
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| Posted on Mar 11, 2009 |
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DJ Booth Member |
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Joel Ortiz strikes again. Flames!
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| Posted on Mar 11, 2009 |
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Tastemaker  Total Ratings: 1077 |
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The production here is very sad, and with the subject matter it should be. Joell speaks his mind on here and really expresses why Biggie was so important to him and everyone else.
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| Posted on Mar 11, 2009 |
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DJ Booth Member |
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I like this song. Joel does a great job yet again.
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| Posted on Mar 11, 2009 |
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Tastemaker |
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The production on here fits the mood of the song and Joell Ortiz does his thing. I can't hate on this at all.
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| Posted on Mar 11, 2009 |
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DJ Booth Member |
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Yeah I can bump this. Not my favorite Biggie Tribute, but it's good.
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| Posted on Mar 11, 2009 |
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DJ Booth Crew  Total Ratings: 11674 |
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Today is minimal feedback day, people. Keep up the great feedback/comments!!!
Ortiz is no Biggie, but he is one of my very favorite NY emcees these days. Listen to what the man has to say, because he's doing like not many others... 
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| Posted on Mar 11, 2009 |
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DJ Booth Crew  Total Ratings: 1622 |
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Ortiz is fire, no doubt. This was pretty average but entertaining to me. Better than the other Biggie Tributes I've heard.
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| Posted on Mar 11, 2009 |
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Tastemaker  Total Ratings: 4267 |
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Rapping is on point dat keeps up throughout song witout losing any quality btw verses.Good...
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| Posted on Mar 11, 2009 |
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Tastemaker |
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dam, i been lookin all around the internet for new songs, and there are so many biggie tribute songs out, that just recently got put out... i dont know if its whats in style now? cuz everybody is doin it.. otherwise joell is nasty, he speaks the truth and he got a great message and pulls it off perfectly
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| Posted on Mar 11, 2009 |
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DJ Booth Crew  Total Ratings: 7999 |
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BIG definitely died LONG before his time! And what's worse is that he didn't have any exclusive tracks so his library is VERY limited at only 2 albums and a few features/remixes. It is because of this that Biggie's Judgement is flawed. If DMX died after his first two albums, then he would be labeled as one of the greatest of all time too! On the other hand, we have 2PAC that continually got better and better with each passing album (about 5 or 6 of them before his death). In summary, Biggie was hot and would have been even Bigger, but NYC people build him up more than necessary. If, in 1996 you went to NJ/NY, all you heard was Biggie, while the entire rest of the country was rocking 2pac tracks off of the greatest selling rap album of all time! Since I lived in NJ I missed out on a lot of Pac because of Biggie and its still the same way today...We only hear Pac tracks at the time of his death/birth; but Biggie bangs all year around. Anyway...
Its a cool tribute track and Ortiz does his thing. Nice beat too...I'm just not a huge BIG fan, so its AAAIIGHT
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| Posted on Mar 11, 2009 |
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Tastemaker  Total Ratings: 868 |
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this song is a cool tribute to BIG, LIKING THE BEAT
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| Posted on Mar 11, 2009 |
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Tastemaker |
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Solid track, I'm a fan of Joell, guy attacks his verses and does a good job on this tribute.
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| Posted on Mar 11, 2009 |
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Tastemaker  Total Ratings: 490 |
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This is that type of song that makes your spine tingle. Joell does his thing, the production and lyricism are on point.
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| Posted on Mar 11, 2009 |
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| Posted on Mar 11, 2009 |
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DJ Booth Member |
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straight fire..great biggie tribute joell ortiz is a beast
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| Posted on Mar 11, 2009 |
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DJ Booth Member  Total Ratings: 136 |
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Love the beatt....seems one never know what to expect when looking at the name "Joell Ortiz"...good production tho, but i feel records like these afre out of place because he died a while ago.
WOW, @ DJ Blaze...i think the DMX comment was ALOT of exaggerating, but everything else he saidd was soooooooo true..................... |
| Posted on Mar 12, 2009 |
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DJ Booth Member |
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One of the better Biggie tribute tracks I've heard. Joell rarely disappoints one of my favs from NY.
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| Posted on Mar 12, 2009 |
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Tastemaker  Total Ratings: 424 |
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Sad Sad song. But its true Biggie is missed a lot. I'm feelin' this too much
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| Posted on Mar 12, 2009 |
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DJ Booth Member  Total Ratings: 115 |
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damnn so sad so true, and blaze i get what your saying too nice comment
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| Posted on Mar 14, 2009 |
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Tastemaker |
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ok am i weird or does nobody else notice that the second news sample is from TUPACS DEATH? ruins the tribute 4 me. also@ blaze: i'm from the wast coast and we were like Notorious who? until pac started rappin about him
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| Posted on Mar 14, 2009 |
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| Posted on Oct 20, 2012 |
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