Beanie Sigel’s cult classic ‘The B.Coming’ turns 20
The Broad Street Bully may have turned his attention to cheesesteaks for now, but maybe a comeback isn't too far away
In 2005, Beanie Sigel was the unmistakable face of Philly rap.
With fiery guest verses on Jay-Z and Scarface album cuts, and two critically acclaimed LPs, the menacing, hard-nosed lyricist had sprung to rap stardom and was shaking up Philly summer block parties with “Roc the Mic.”
The Broad Street Bully became the de facto leader of the State Property supergroup, which spawned the careers of fellow Philly spitters like Freeway, Peedi Peedi, and the Young Gunz. The collective expanded to a clothing line and a film series.
Sigel cashed in on that momentum and released his third album, The B.Coming, 20 years ago in 2005, and it remains his crowning achievement.
But there were no release parties. While the album peaked at No. 3 on Billboard and sold north of 130,000 units in the first week, Sigel was incarcerated in a federal prison in South Jersey. “I wasn’t Beanie Sigel then,” the rapper told The Inquirer in a 2007 interview. “I was 57613-066.”
He watched the video of his lead single, “Feel It in the Air,” for the first time from prison. “I couldn’t tour on that album or do nothing,” he said.
The South Philly native, born Dwight Grant and nicknamed Beanie by his grandmother Margaret Grant, was arrested on gun and drug charges stemming from a 2003 Philadelphia traffic stop, where he threw a .45-caliber pistol out of his Cadillac Escalade.
He was sentenced to one year and a day, which delayed the original October 2004 release date for The B.Coming under Roc-A-Fella Records. Its eventual March 29, 2005, release was amid the disbandment of the music label, with heightened tensions among cofounders Jay-Z, Damon “Dame” Dash, and Kareem “Biggs” Burke.
Following the sale of Roc to Def Jam, Dash launched Dame Dash Music Group, which eventually released The B.Coming.
It was Sigel’s first album in four years, but if he had had it his way, the album would have released even later.
“I actually wanted The B.Coming release date to be the same day I got released out of prison,“ Sigel said in a January 2025 interview with The Art of Dialogue. “They put out ‘Feel It in the Air,’ and three months later, I’m walking [to my prison tier] and see the video. And then they tell me they put the album out.”
The B.Coming didn’t salvage Dash’s label, but .the project became a cult classic that highlighted Sigel’s snarling delivery, lyrical depth, and stories about his upbringing in South Philly’s Drug Row.
“I come from South Philly,” Sigel said in a 2023 interview with Brooklyn rapper Papoose. “You had to say what you mean, and mean what you say. Watch your mouth, only talk when being spoken to … You had to know the rules, you couldn’t guess them.”
The slow burn “Feel It in the Air,” produced by Heavy D, depicted a man overwhelmed by the looming presence of powerful unseen forces. In Sigel’s case, it was his run-ins with law enforcement. He turns his fear and suspicion into a lyrical performance that mirrored the Geto Boys’ iconic song, “Mind Playing Tricks on Me.”
“Ready to go bananas/Two vests on me, two TECs, extra clips one me/I know my mind ain’t playing tricks on me,” he rapped.
Sigel’s vulnerability continues to peek through The B.Coming. On “I Can’t Go on This Way,” he talks of his actions threatening the well-being of those closest to him.
“My baby mama give me drama on the daily/Like she making it barely, and my kids is eating rarely,” he rapped.
He addresses his failed romantic relationships on “Bread & Butter,” his substance abuse and family dysfunction on “Look at Me Now,” and the unrelenting goal to never go back to a life of struggle on “Wanted (On the Run).”
There is a jolt of optimism with “One Shot Deal,” and he even tries a popish track with the Neptunes and Snoop Dogg-assisted ”Don’t Stop." He shifts from somber and mournful tracks like “Change” and “Lord Have Mercy,” to bangers like “Flatline,” featuring Peedi Peedi.
The B.Coming remains one of Sigel’s masterworks. It was a project that sustained his buzz long after his release from prison in the fall of 2005.
Going to prison “was a good thing for me at the time,” he said to The Inquirer two years later. “Just to be away. Ever since I got signed in 1998, I was just always going, going, going. I never had the chance to be normal, even for a second.”
The last two decades haven’t been too kind to Sigel. After arrests in 2005 and 2006, a 2015 shooting left him without a lung and the booming voice he possessed as a young, fiery emcee. His last mainstream release was 2012’s This Time.
But there have been hints at a comeback. He celebrated his 50th birthday and the 25th anniversary of The Truth at the Met in March 2024, and was seen in a viral video working at his Grab & Roll, Wings & Bowls food truck at 2400 Passyunk Ave. It serves cheesesteaks, chicken wings, fried seafood, and desserts. Some are even named after his lyrics.
He also appears to be back in the studio. A video surfaced of him playing new music, using AI-technology to replicate his old, resonant voice.
“I want to get off that bad-guy thing,” Sigel said in 2007.
While there’s no set date on the upcoming release, the return of one of Philly’s most prolific emcees could be the beginning of the redemptive path he rapped about back in 2005.