The original tracklist for Biggie’s Life After Death has recently surfaced, offering a glimpse into unreleased songs and some unexpected collaborations.
Discovered by the Instagram account 92 Bricks, this tracklist comes from a January 1997 listening session for the legendary album, which was initially titled Life After Death… Til Death Do Us Part. During the event, 28 tracks were played, four more than the final version’s 24 tracks (though one song is listed twice in the original tracklist, potentially due to a printing error, indicating that the album might have initially been intended to have 27 songs).
The tracklist not only reveals a completely reorganized song order but also features five tracks that were never officially released. These include “Once Upon a Time” featuring Fat Joe, “Stayin’ Alive,” and untitled tracks produced by RZA, Easy Mo Bee, and DJ Clark Kent.
Additionally, there’s a track called “Spanish Fly,” which didn’t make the final cut—likely an earlier version of a song with the same name from Black Rob’s 2000 album Life Story.
Several songs that did appear on Life After Death are listed under different names on the original tracklist, such as “Comin’ Out” featuring Ma$e, which became “Mo Money Mo Problems” (sampling Diana Ross’ “I’m Coming Out”), “Bones Track” turning into the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony collaboration “Notorious Thugs,” and “Mo Bounce” evolving into “Going Back to Cali.”
It’s important to note that the authenticity of this tracklist has not been confirmed by Biggie’s estate or Bad Boy Records.
Fat Joe has previously shared stories of working with Biggie before his tragic death in 1997, revealing that the two had plans to create an entire album together.
The collaboration was rumored to include diss tracks aimed at Biggie’s rival, 2Pac. In a 2021 Instagram Live session with Timbaland, Fat Joe stated, “You know I say stuff, Tim, and they always say I lie or I say too much. You know I worked on an album with Biggie? We cut about five songs together.”
Fat Joe continued, “He was like, ‘You the Latino don, I’m the Black don.’ And we was in that studio going crazy. It’s verified by Puff Daddy and everybody.”
He also added, “I’mma keep it real: at the time, we were dissing 2Pac a lot and all that, and so that should have never seen the light of day. Which is respectfully so, because you know they both passed on. But yeah, I worked with the B.I.G. for real.”
