In the half-decade between getting his demos peeped by Sean "Puffy" Combs (who was A&Ring for Uptown Records at the time) in ‘92 and his ignominious death in ‘97, Christopher Wallace – a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G – made one hell of an impact on the rap scene.

With Uptown he kicked ass on tracks by Heavy D & the Boyz, Craig Mack and Mary J. Blige before finally delivering his debut solo track "Party and Bullshit" in 1993. By ‘95 he was hitched to R & B singer Faith Evans, signed full time to Bad Boy (Puff Daddy’s new venture) and being heralded as “The Undisputed King of New York" for grabbing attention away from the domineering West Coast with platinum hits like "Juicy," "Big Poppa" and "One More Chance".

Up until now it’s mostly been the life and career of his arch-rival Tupac Shakur – murdered the year before Biggie – that has filled magazine columns and generally hogged the posthumous limelight, while Wallace’s legacy has been left, more or less, to fade gradually from the scene.

But the release in 2007 of a (largely predictable) Greatest Hits compilation, put out by Bad Boy to mark the 10th anniversary of his death, and 2008’s Hollywood biopic “Notorious” – which has received ambiguous reviews to say the least – have served to re-focus attention on one of 90s hip hop’s most dynamic figures.

The questions this current OST provokes are twofold: a) do we really need another anthology so soon after the Greatest Hits release? And b) did we ever really need the Greatest Hits at all given Biggie only ever released two albums (Ready To Die and Life After Death) and most of his best tunes can be found on them?

This project’s creators have at least considered these potential objections and done their best to create some points of difference. Notorious only shares half a dozen or so tracks with Greatest Hits, mostly obvious choices such as “Juicy,” “Hypnotize,” “Warning,” and the posthumously produced “Notorious Thugs” (with Bone, Thugs & Harmony) and “Notorious B.I.G.” (with Lil Kim & Puff Daddy).

The remaining cuts are a mix of rare/lesser known tracks, nascent demos and new/unreleased material. Of the rarities, early tunes like the boisterous, Last Poets-sampling “Party & Bullshit” are a boon for any Biggie fan, though the Premier-produced “The What?”, “Kick In The Door” and “What’s Beef?” - while tight, energetic examples of Biggie’s lucid style - can be found on his original albums.

Instead of rolling out the classic version of “One More Chance” again, Notorious includes the Legacy remix, where Biggie’s pre-pubescent son Christopher “CJ” Wallace Jr duets with his papa on verses written back before he was born. The results are curious but ultimately less than impressive - the same with the drippy R&B track “Letter To B.I.G.” featuring his ex-wife Faith Evans, and the horrible Duran Duran-sampling “Notorious B.I.G.” (with Lil Kim & Puff Daddy).

The only new track that stands out in fact is the club banger “Brooklyn Go Hard,” which sees Jay-Z turn in a suitably tough performance – payback no doubt for the various Biggie breaks and lyrics that lurk in his own discography - over a decent beat conjured up by Kanye West.

Luckily the decision to include early demos proves more inspired. Despite the fact they’re full of static hisses, analogue pops and even, in one case, DJ shouts, it’s nonetheless a genuine thrill to hear Biggie flow over classic b-boy breaks like Big Daddy Kane’s “Ain’t No Half Steppin’” (“Microphone Murderer”), Take 6's "Spread Love" remix (“Guaranteed Raw”) and Tom Scott’s “Sneakin’ In The Back Door“ – the same tune Massive Attack used for “Blue Lines” - for “Love No Ho”.

These cuts create an immediate nostalgia not only for Biggie’s monumental talents but for a ‘golden age’ of hip hop where matching vocal skills to dope breaks was still valued as the ultimate goal for artists and DJs. As for the rest of Notorious, it seems only right to wonder why they didn’t include alternative hits like " M o M o n e y M o P r o b l e m s " , " G o i n g B a c k t o C a l i " , " P l a y e r ' s A n t h e m " a n d " S k y ' s t h e L i m i t ".

While it’s perhaps a valiant attempt to create something meaningful, and though it serves as a vaguely nostalgic microcosm of the rapper’s oeuvre, anyone seriously interested in the hip hop colossus that is Biggie Smalls should really just invest in both his legendary albums.