"Juicy" is released

Why it matters

"Juicy" came out as a single on August 8, 1994, the first single from Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die. Sean "Puffy" Combs produced (with Pete Rock contributing). The beat samples Mtume's "Juicy Fruit" almost wholesale and just lets the song run on the original loop. Then Biggie raps the most famous autobiographical opening verse in 1990s rap. "It was all a dream, I used to read Word Up magazine." The line is one of those bars that has detached from the song and become a cultural shorthand. The verse describes Biggie's specific Brooklyn upbringing (the family poverty, the corner-hustling, the long climb to the radio-station hour where his first demo got played) with the kind of specificity that, like Nas on "N.Y. State of Mind," gave the listener every detail. The chorus, an interpolated Mtume hook, is one of the warmest moments in 1990s rap. "Juicy" is the song that introduced Biggie to America as a star. The album, the dream-of-a-life-changed structure, would be everywhere by January 1995. You can put the song on and the dream still works.