“Juicy” by Notorious B.I.G.

"Juicy" was the first single the Notorious B.I.G. put out from his 1994 debut, Ready to Die, and it's the whole rags-to-riches saga told by the man who lived it. Poke of the Trackmasters and Sean Combs built the beat on Mtume's 1983 "Juicy Fruit", lifted from its instrumental mix, and the chorus goes to Bad Boy labelmates Total, with Combs himself chiming in. Mario Rodriguez recorded and mixed it.

Combs directed the video too, which premiered in August 1994: B.I.G. rapping on the front steps of a house, fielding a reporter's questions, out on the street, behind bars and poolside, with scenes that act out the song, from the drug bust and the fights with his mother in the lean years to the flashy spoils of the present. It's routinely named among the greatest hip-hop records ever made.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.