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. But the song it sampled, the synth-laden Juicy Fruit by funk group Mtume, has its own rich history in hip-hop after initially topping the Billboard R&B chart for two months in 1983. The track has underpinned Warren G’s g-funk opus Do You See in 1994, Faith Evans’s Faithfully in 2001, Let It Go by Keyshia Cole, Missy Elliott and Lil’ Kim in 2007, and Saweetie’s empowerment anthem Pussy in 2022. All told, more than 100 songs, largely rap tracks, have used Juicy Fruit in one way or another, thanks to a blend of nostalgia, sensuality and utterly brilliant drum programming.
“Juicy Fruit was on the cusp of R&B and hip-hop,” says Mtume band member Phil Field, who played keys and sang backing vocals on the original track, recorded at Ears Recording Studios in New Jersey. Before his death in 2022, bandleader James Mtume described putting the track together in under two hours during a late-night session – he then frantically called Mtume vocalist Tawatha Agee in London where she was singing backup on Roxy Music’s Avalon tour. Summoned back to the US, Agee laid down her steamy vocals – “I’ll be your lollipop – you can lick me everywhere” – in one night before flying back to the UK.