Sunday Night Sample - The Notorious B.I.G. - Juicy
One thing I've learned over the past couple of months posting stuff here is stoolies have surprisingly great taste in music. Across the board.
Keeping the solid music coming let's take a walk and talk classic songs that used samples of classic songs. Well known and unknown.
To start things off I figured it was a no brainer to use one of the all-time greatest songs ever - "Juicy" by The Notorious B.I.G.
There is controversy surrounding the production of Juicy which not many people are aware of.
Puff Daddy received credit along with Poke from the iconic Trackmasters for producing the legendary hit, but all-time great Pete Rock alleged that Puffy (Sean Combs) stole it from him.
In an interview with Wax Poetics
Biggie and Sean came to my house one day and the beat was playing on my drum machine. Biggie thought I was making it for C.L. When I told him I was just making it for myself, he immediately wanted it. I said sure, but didn’t think much of it. Then, next thing I know, I heard it playing somewhere. I’m over it now though.
They came to my house, heard the beat going on the drum machine, it's the same story. You come downstairs at my crib, you hear music. He heard that shit and the next thing you know it comes out. They had me do a remix, but I tell people, and I will fight it to the end, that I did the original version of that. I'm not mad at anybody, I just want the correct credit
Leave it to Puffy to jack the idea and the beat for the song, then throw Pete Rock a bone by letting him do a remix that nobody even knew existed. (Pete Rock's remix of "Juicy" uses the same sample as the original.
The beat in question is the one we all know and love from the original "Juicy" version and it samples to iconic songs from the 80s, Mtunes - Juicy Fruit
and "Rappin Duke" by Shawn Brown.
The track describes Biggie’s rise to fame in Biggie's classical storytelling form. (There really has never been anybody better, #1- B.I.G., #2 - Nas)
He details his tough childhood being raised in poverty and his lifelong dream of making it as a rapper.
The track opens up with Big's famous line:
“Yeah, this album is dedicated
To all the teachers that told me I’d never amount to nothin’
To all the people that lived above the buildings that I was hustlin’ in front of”.
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The song is a clear message to all those who doubted him. He reminds the listener that “you know very well / who you are”, which is sung in the chorus by Total and Puff Daddy.
Puffy would go on to make a name for himself and build an empire on sampling classic songs as well as paving the way for future producers who did the same.