Puffy is also featured on the song trying to call Biggie and talk him out of harming himself. No, I'm not saying Biggie had either, I'm saying the song could represent a character suffering from either, or both. You can also look at it in the fashion of a case study on Mental Health and possibly Substance Abuse. This is honestly one of those songs that you almost wished was never recorded. Even with the emotional ride that Pac, Eminem and DMX took listeners on, I don't recall ever having chills like I did hearing "Suicidal Thoughts". Both of these artists talked the pain and pleasure of life. In the years following Ready to Die, we were introduced to DMX and Eminem. Of course prior to Ready to Die you had Tupac talking about life and death, Scarface and eventually Bone Thugs on the track "Crossroads". Personally it would take years for another MC to talk about death in this fashion. Hip Hop is known for storytelling and for better or worse, this was graphic to say the least. The album Ready to Die covers the life of a character (some of it based on Biggie but most of it is fiction) that lives a street life and at the end of the story, he commits suicide. As I listen to this track tonight, I honestly don't remember a more vivid track in regard to the subject matter at hand. He talked about his life of crime, family dysfunction and an ugly world in general. In the song he talked about heaven being too strict because of God and his rules/laws.
I mean, he starts the song off with the line "When I die, f**k it I want to go the hell cause I'm a piece of sh*t, it ain't hard to f**king tell". I had to think "What the hell was this dude smoking and drinking when he wrote this song?". I was a college freshman and listened to rap music every single day. Looking back at it in 2018, I had to be amazed by the boldness of this song in 1994. As for the song, I attempted to remember the first time I heard it and my initial reaction.