![]() It’s an image corroborated by the man himself in talks like the November 1994 Interview magazine feature where he tells rap journalist Havelock Nelson he’s “immune” to hearing about people getting killed, both a powerfully grim thing for a 22-year-old to say and a shrewd, almost political assessment of the universality of inner city suffering in an era when New York City averaged 2,500 homicides a year (a rate roughly five times what it is today). ![]() We see Biggie as a poet of the determined and the downtrodden, a former stick-up kid who captured the bleak realities of the street in novelistic detail and for whom death was merely another fact of life. There are those who feel that he must’ve had premonitions that he wasn’t long for the earth (although this doesn’t explain why he would put himself in the city where he would be most hated just months after his friend-turned-rival 2pac was killed at the peak of all-consuming war between hip-hop’s east and west coasts). He rapped with chilling candor about suicidal ideations and threats against his life. We see Biggie as a poet of the determined and the downtrodden, a former stick-up kid who captured the bleak realities of the street in novelistic detail, for whom death is merely another fact of life.īiggie was only 24 years old when he was gunned down in Los Angeles in early 1997 on the night of that year’s Soul Train Awards, and the circumstances of his death have long haunted the story of his life. Really, “Juicy” is a self-fulfilling prophecy. ![]() Listening back to “Juicy” in retrospect, it’s easy to forget that the rap phenomenon born Christopher Wallace was still dealing drugs between sessions for Ready to Die, so convincing was his confidence and presence. He didn’t have a hit record yet or any certainty that rap would be a lucrative career decision. He’d been in The Source, the bible of 20th-century hip-hop, in 1992 thanks to his impressive demo tape. Blige’s “Flava in Ya Ear,” “Real Love,” and “What’s the 411?” He’d already shined on 1993’s “Party and Bullshit” and stole the show on “A Bunch of Niggas,” the closer on the Heavy D and the Boyz highlight Blue Funk. He had cut his teeth doing an impressive array of guest appearances by the summer of 1994, when he released the lead single from his debut album, most notably on remixes to Bad Boy and Uptown Records affiliates Craig Mack and Mary J. What sets the Ready to Die staple apart from similar moments of pride throughout hip-hop history is that at the time of recording, things weren’t yet “all good” for Biggie. “Juicy” plays with a familiar formula: As with early rap gems like Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” the Treacherous Three’s “Feel the Heartbeat,” or the Funky 4 + 1’s “That’s the Joint” and “Rappin and Rocking the House,” “Juicy” lifts its unstoppable bounce off a popular cookout anthem, New York post-disco icons Mtume’s “Juicy Fruit,” reimagining the music of the artist’s childhood as a launchpad for more adult concerns. The boasts are modest, signs of the bleakness of prospects for inner city youth who didn’t come from great means, many of whom would never find chances to experience the world past streets they grew up in. as he detailed quality of life improvements that new fame allowed - a Super Nintendo and a Sega Genesis, a nice television and a leather couch to watch it on, bottles of champagne at the ready - is perfectly infectious. ![]() The lilt in the voice of the 21-year-old Notorious B.I.G. I Got a Story to Tell achieves something notably slicker than your average Biggie murder storyĪt the heart of “ Juicy,” one of hip-hop’s most indelible rags-to-riches anthems, is the world-beating joy of a Black boy from Brooklyn realizing his dreams are finally within reach.
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