The vivid dream Jay-Z had about Biggie Smalls
“It was all a dream,” Jay-Z says as he opens up his seventh studio album, The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse. “It was all a dream.”
This opening track of The Blueprint 2, ‘A Dream,’ was produced by Kanye West, and it features the vocals of Faith Evans. It serves as Jay’s tribute to his friend, the Notorious BIG, who had been gunned down in 1997, which was only five years before this album’s release. The loss, in other words, was still raw.
‘A Dream’ is in direct dialogue with Biggie’s hit track ‘Juicy’—in the most literal way possible. Biggie’s rapping on the entire first verse of ‘Juicy’ serves as the second verse of ‘A Dream,’ meaning Big’s presence on the song is very tangible.
But it’s not just that Biggie’s voice is heard on the song, as Jay’s own verse concerns his lost friend, too. Presented as a conversation between Jay and someone else, the verse describes a dream that Jay had in which Biggie appeared to him.
“‘Had a dream,’ I said, ‘’Bout who?’ he said / ‘’Bout BIG,’ I said, ‘That’s big,’ he said.” Jay then breaks down the dream, which he said “came to me like a whisper last evening.”
Jay, rapping over Kanye’s dramatic rock-inflected beat, says, “‘What’s the deal, playboy?’ was the greeting he said / First thing I wanted to know was the reason he was dead.”
This phrase, “What’s the deal, playboy?” is something that Jay has elaborated on in interviews. The day Biggie was murdered, Hov had actually been in contact with him over the phone—and Big had used that phrase to greet him.
“He was in great spirits,” Jay recalled on Big Boy’s Neighborhood on Power 106 in 2013. “He was like, ‘Yo, playboy! Why you not out here, playboy?’”
Biggie was in LA that day, while Jay was back in New York. That call, across the distance of the country, was the last time that Jay ever heard from Biggie. He was shot later that night.
The rest of the dream that Jay describes in The Blueprint 2’s opener revolves around this vision of Biggie offering Jay advice, as his own career had blown up and reached—or even surpassed—the commercial heights that Biggie himself had achieved during his lifetime.
“‘Careful what you wish for, you might receive it,’ he said / ‘I see,’ I said, ‘jealousy,’ I said.”
The song is an expression of Jay’s grief for his friend, but it also shows the influence that Biggie still had upon him, several years after his death. Jay had become as successful as Biggie had, if not more so, and he still looked to him for advice on how to handle it.
Jay spoke about Biggie’s continued influence upon his life during that same radio interview in 2013. “I take him everywhere I go,” he said. “I’ve taken him on every step, every accomplishment. He’ll be there in some sort of way, whether that be live in concert or on record, or some acknowledgement.”
As that track from 2002 proved, he remained in his dreams, too.