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Still fresh: why Mtume’s Juicy Fruit underpins generations of rap classics


Thirty years ago this week, Notorious BIG released Juicy and turned an 80s funk sample into hip-hop history. Its creators and fans explain its enduring, sensual appeal

Notorious BIG’s Juicy, released 30 years ago this week, is the story of a rapper coming out of Brooklyn, New York, and rising to the top – a self-fulfilling prophecy that gave Biggie his breakout hit. Olivier ended up living and recording with Sean Combs – then known as Puff Daddy, now facing a string of sexual misconduct lawsuits – for two months during the winter of 1993 in Scarsdale, New York, where they produced hits for Mary J Blige, Faith Evans, Total, Craig Mack, Usher and Notorious BIG. That nostalgia runs deep, attests Harry Fraud, the producer behind one of the more offbeat later uses of Juicy Fruit: Action Bronson’s Strictly 4 My Jeeps, which strips away the more familiar parts of the original and leaves only some of the drums, surrounding them with three other samples.

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Photo of Mtume’s Juicy Fruit

Mtume’s Juicy Fruit