Junior Mafia – Get Money (feat the Notorious BIG) (1996) Note the original lyrical twists – no how’s-your-father until Biggie has had his dinner! – and period detail: a pre-Auto-Tune, wildly off-key vocal on the hook.
Craig Mack’s debut album was duly eclipsed by the release of Ready to Die a week beforehand.īy most accounts, the making of Biggie’s debut album was a struggle between the rapper’s street instincts and Sean “Puffy” Combs’s commerciality. Craig Mack – Flava in Ya Ear (remix feat Notorious BIG, LL Cool J, Rampage & Busta Rhymes) (1994)īoth an incredible single and an object lesson in the perils of getting Biggie Smalls to guest on your track despite the stellar company, his verse turns the song into his show. Posthumously, it sounded like a self-penned eulogy, complete with epitaph: “Live the phrase ‘Sky’s the limit’”. One of several tracks that took on a different hue after Biggie’s death in 1997, aged 24, Sky’s the Limit was initially Life After Death’s equivalent of his breakthrough hit Juicy, an alternately wistful and dark account of his rise. The rapper elects to lie in wait: needless to say, it doesn’t end well for his would-be assailants. End result: a beautifully languid slow jam.Ī beautifully concise bit of storytelling, complete with an impressively naturalistic conversational interlude during which Biggie, in character as a friend, informs himself that someone has taken a hit out on him. If nothing else someone watching could sit back and say “Hey that was pretty cool.In its original version a nasty sex rhyme – “I got the cleanest, meanest penis” etc – the remix tones down the lyrics and smooths the music by way of DeBarge’s 1983 hit Stay With Me, drafting in a vocal from Biggie’s wife, Faith Evans, to spectacular effect. Some fans of classic rap may be drawn to the play through these references. In this way references allow important expression for the writer.įinally, references are opportunities to connect with the audience. If all of the references were analyzed so much meaning could be added to these lines.Īlso references give Miranda a chance to give some of his favorite artists sort of a respectful nod and pay tribute to them. An example is above where Miranda says Hamilton is just like Prodigy. Listing the similarities here would be kinda silly so I encourage you to listen to the songs.Īn important question to ask at this point is why do these references matter? These references can add additional meaning to the work. This song is so similar to Biggie Smalls’ “The Ten Crack Commandments” that it could almost be a parody. The easiest rap reference to spot in Hamilton is probably the whole song “The Ten Duel Commandments”. Hamilton spells out his name in “My Shot” just like The Notorious B.I.G. The second reference is to The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Going Back to Cali”. II” by Mobb Deep is one of my favorite hip-hop tunes period.” There’s a lot of ‘90s references in that opening tune it’s the stuff I grew up falling in love with. Speaking about this reference Miranda says, “It was a no brainer to put that line in because that is something Hamilton would absolutely say.
In “My Shot” Hamilton sings “Only nineteen but my mind is older” while in “Shook Ones Pt II” Prodigy sings “I’m only nineteen but my mind is old”. The first reference is to is to a song called “Shook Ones Pt II” by Mobb Deep. “My Shot” which gives a more in depth of Hamilton and his motivations contains two classic rap references.
Through a combination of Miranda’s love of theater and classic rap Hamilton contains several references to some older rap hits. Also, speaking at a White House event Miranda said that he thinks Alexander Hamilton “embodies hip hop”. He has said before that he was inspired by Eminem and Common. Lin-Manuel Miranda is a huge hip-hop and rap fan.
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