Recently, on the Southern mixtape standbys—your Gangsta Grillz, Southern Smokes, Purple Codeines—the deceased Bed Stuy legend has been making some aberrant appearances. Notorious B.I.G.’s unlikely weigh-ins on the Southern circuit anticipate the release of the latest Bad Boy Ent. cash-in, Duets: The Final Chapter, which, amongst many prospective duets, pairs Christopher Wallace with the South. To say the least, the legacy of Notorious B.I.G. and the rise of Southern rap have an uneasy relationship. In discussions of influences, Southern rappers are quick to cite West Coast luminaries such as Tupac, Too $hort, and E-40, and if pressed for East Coast sources, will throw in a Boogie Down Productions or a Run DMC. But Biggie? Rarely a mention. Biggie and his west coast foil have always been put on equal footing by the hip-hop press, but discrepancy abounds in the dirty-dirty.

Nor did Biggie, or many of his New York contemporaries, ever give the South much consideration. Perhaps chalk it up to timing—there’s only one year separating Outkast’s rise at the 1995 Source Awards and Biggie’s 1996 slaying. Maybe Biggie would have followed fellow Brooklynite Jay-Z and score huge hits with Southern guest artists like UGK. At least, that’s what Duets.: The Final Chapter would have you think. The cryogenically frozen Biggie, thawed in his 1996 glory, can’t quite get crunk, and his Southern collaborators either flounder in his wake or struggle to pull up the old man with them.

Lil’ Wayne, the soon to be lyrical-king of the south, joins Dipset’s Juelz Santana and Jim Jones to duet with Biggie for the album’s most appealing billing, “I’m Wit Whatever.” The Michael Meyers creep is laid down, and Lil’ Wayne again inspires the hip-hop crit-cliché of the year (“Yo, Weezy is actually tight now!”) with “I love that summer breeze, I stand there until it freeze / I’m from another creed of s-s-southern g’s.” Juelz throws some passable lines, paraphrases “Hit ‘Em Up,” and relegates Jim Jones’ role to hypeman. Maybe it’s Dipset’s ubiquity that’s to fault, but how many times have Santana and Capo dropped over a B-movie horror theme? It’s a bit of a rehash of J.R. Writer’s “Y’all Ain’t Ready” and with Biggie’s throwaway verses you’ve either heard it before or wish you hadn’t. “I’m Wit Whatever” would do better as just another top-shelf Harlem exclusive.

If you listen to Lil’ Wayne’s upcoming Tha Carter II, the sound is often not far removed from his oft-collaborators in Dipset, so when The Final Chapter sees Southern kings and bosses like T.I. and Slim Thug packaged with a bigger bounce, we get closer to a country-fried Biggie track. “Breakin Old Habits” has got T.I. on the hook, and the Rubberband Man again confuses dealing crack in the present-tense and the past-tense. Slim Thug tops B.I.G.’s baritone, and it’s the standard rollin’-strapped, glock-40-in-his-lap wrapped in his always redemptive languorous drawl.

Bottom line, though, is that The Final Chapter is not just an attempt satisfy what-ifs and relocate Biggie’s legacy south of the Mason-Dixon. The presence of Snoop Dogg, Nelly, and Korn betray the albums true interests. There’s going to be a lot of filler on this Bad Boy, let mixtape DJs like Smallz, Drama, and Envy filter it for you.

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