The story behind Jay-Z and Biggie Smalls’ ‘Brooklyn’s Finest’
Jay-Z and The Notorious BIG are bound together in history as two of Brooklyn’s Finest, immortalised in a song titled with that very phrase.
Jay and Biggie grew up near each other in Brooklyn, went to the same high school, and were fairly close in age. But despite all that, they never actually met until a bit later in life. As a matter of fact, it was only through collaborating on the ‘Brooklyn’s Finest’ track from Jay’s debut album Reasonable Doubt that they first crossed paths.
DJ Clark Kent, who produced ‘Brooklyn’s Finest,’ claimed to Complex in 2011 that he introduced Biggie and Jay, having previously befriended both of them. He had been putting together the beat for ‘Brooklyn’s Finest’ for Jay alone to use, but, during an entirely different session, Biggie ended up hearing it. “I want that record,” Clark recalled Biggie saying to him. “That beat is for me!”
The producer refused to give Biggie the beat, insisting that he’d made it for Jay alone. But Biggie was still eager to rap on it, even if it meant appearing as a featured artist. This, too, was complicated, though, given that Biggie was signed to Diddy’s Bad Boy Records. Jay was obviously on Roc-A-Fella, and its co-founder Damon Dash didn’t want to have to pay Diddy for Biggie’s appearance on a song.
But Clark pushed ahead to try and make it happen anyway. He decided to carry on with the collaboration, bringing Biggie into the studio to lay down some vocals. The business details could be sorted out later, which, in the end, worked out fine.
Biggie and Jay didn’t know each other yet, so Clark wanted to make sure Biggie was onside. He let him hear some of the work he’d been doing with Jay, proving that he was an artist worth working with. “So once he got to the point where he knew how crazy Jay was,” Clark said of Biggie, “he was like, ‘Yeah, I’d rhyme with this guy.’”
Biggie and Jay met each other, and they apparently got on well. Then it came down to work. Jay requested to hear the beat from Clark for about 20 minutes, before stepping into the recording booth. He worked out his verses then and there, knowing he was going against Biggie in the track.
Biggie was taken aback by the fact Jay had come up with his verses without writing them down, and he didn’t feel up to tackling Jay on the spot. He asked for some time and left, ultimately returning two months later to do his parts. He’d needed the space to respond to Jay’s quick-thinking, but it proved worth it in the end.
The track was structured in such a way as to make it seem like a rap battle, with the MCs trading bars instead of completing full verses. Clark Kent himself had to step in at the last minute to create the song’s hook, but, all in all, everything fell into place. The track is considered legendary today, a real anthem for Jay and Biggie’s shared home of Brooklyn.