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Jay-Z · S2 E3
Brooklyn's Finest
The Notorious B.I.G. collaboration, two Brooklyn kings on one track, and a friendship that won't last long enough
A recording studio in Manhattan, late 1995. Jay-Z and The Notorious B.I.G. stand face to face at two microphones, trading bars about Brooklyn like two boxers sparring for fun. Neither of them knows that Biggie has less than two years to live.
"The City Is Mine" (Jay-Z feat. Blackstreet, 1997). Built on the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive," this is Jay-Z claiming New York for himself. After Biggie's death, the throne was empty. This song is the sound of a man who didn't want to sit in it but knew he had to.
Two Kings, One Borough
Jay-Z and Biggie met through the Brooklyn rap circuit in the early '90s and became genuine friends, not just industry acquaintances. Biggie was already the biggest rapper in New York when Jay-Z was still selling records out of his trunk. But Biggie respected Jay's skill enough to appear on Reasonable Doubt, lending his star power to an unknown artist's debut. That kind of gesture doesn't happen out of obligation. It happens out of recognition.
Sources
Carter, Shawn. "Decoded." Spiegel & Grau, 2010.
Greenburg, Zack O'Malley. "Empire State of Mind." Portfolio/Penguin, 2011.
“Biggie thought Jay-Z was the better rapper. Lil' Cease, who was in Biggie's crew, has said that Biggie told him directly that Jay-Z was more skilled than he was. For the biggest rapper alive to say that about an unknown artist on his debut album tells you everything about what Biggie heard when Jay-Z stepped up to the mic.”
— Lil' Cease, interview with Complex, recounting Biggie's assessment of Jay-Z
TAP TO REVEAL: How was "Brooklyn's Finest" actually recorded?
The City Is Mine, Jay-Z feat. Blackstreet (1997)
"The City Is Mine" samples the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" through Teddy Riley's production, transforming a disco classic into a hip-hop coronation. Blackstreet's R&B hook gives the track a polished sheen that Reasonable Doubt never had. Jay-Z's flow is more commercial here, reaching for radio in a way his debut deliberately avoided. Listen for how confidently he rides the beat: this is not the underground rapper from Reasonable Doubt anymore. This is someone who's decided to go big.
Sources
Greenburg, Zack O'Malley. "Empire State of Mind." Portfolio/Penguin, 2011.
Brooklyn, New York
The borough that produced both Jay-Z and The Notorious B.I.G. Jay-Z grew up in Marcy Houses in Bed-Stuy; Biggie grew up on St. James Place in Clinton Hill. The two neighborhoods are less than two miles apart. Brooklyn made them both, and after Biggie's death, Brooklyn belonged to Jay-Z alone.
Brooklyn's Finest: The Details
You Must Love Me, Jay-Z (1997)
The closing track of In My Lifetime Vol. 1, "You Must Love Me" is Jay-Z at his most emotionally exposed. Over a sparse piano loop, he raps about the people in his life who stuck around through the years of dealing, the years of rejection, and the early years of fame. For an episode about a real friendship between two Brooklyn rappers, this song captures what loyalty actually sounds like when it's not performed for cameras.
You Must Love Me, Jay-Z (1997)
"You must love me" is both a statement and a question. The lyrics cycle through the people who've stayed in Jay-Z's corner: his mother, his friends, the ones who believed in him when he had nothing. Coming after an album full of bravado, this closing track is a crack in the armor. It's the one moment where Jay-Z stops selling and starts thanking. The fact that it was recorded the same year Biggie died gives every line an extra weight it didn't have when it was written.
How did Jay-Z and Biggie record their verses on "Brooklyn's Finest"?
The collaboration cemented Jay-Z's credibility, but the friend who made it possible is about to be taken away. On March 9, 1997, The Notorious B.I.G. is shot and killed in Los Angeles. Next: the murder that shakes hip-hop, and the moment Jay-Z inherits a throne he never wanted.
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