JAY-Z – Brooklyn’s Finest Lyrics

Two of “Brooklyn’s Finest,” Biggie and JAY-Z, collaborate over a DJ Clark Kent track built around a sample from “Ecstasy” by the Ohio Players. Clark detailed how the track came together in an interview with Complex, saying Biggie wanted the beat for himself but ended up coming to Jay’s studio session where they met and collaborated for the first time.

This song is one of the few Biggie and Jay-Z collaborations.

In an interview with Billboard, the co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records Kareem “Biggs” Burke recalled the studio session for this song:

This is something that we were dying to get done…Dame actually gave Clark [Kent] the sample for that song. Then, when Biggie and Jay sat at the board, the engineer came and dropped a pad and a pen right in between them. Jay looks at it and then he pushes it over to Big. Big looks at it and pushes it back. That’s the time they realized that neither one of them wrote lyrics [down on paper].

Jay actually went in and did everything in five minutes. He broke down the song and left all these parts [for Big]. It was a different type of beat at that time. Biggie was trying to really catch the beat and when he left, he said, “When I give you a song to rhyme on for my album, I’ma make sure it’s a regular beat so you could do a straight sixteen, not all this breakdown.”

Reggie “Combat Jack” Ossé, a former lawyer for Roc-A-Fella recounted the making of this song:

When I contacted Bad Boy for Big’s clearance, Puff wouldn’t, couldn’t grant us the full single rights. Big had been on almost everybody’s records and Arista didn’t want him to be overexposed. … I remember being on the phone once again begging for Puff to let Big rock on a single and video, and Puff asking me, ‘Yo, what the eff is a Jay-Z? I can’t get Clive Davis to clear Big on some unknown rapper’s record.’ To his credit, Puff did let the Roc keep the song on the album.

Brooklyn’s Finest Lyrics by JAY-Z

[Produced by Clark Kent]

[Intro: Pain In Da Ass, Clark Kent & JAY-Z]
Okay, I’m reloaded
You motherfuckers think you big time?
Fuckin’ with Jay-Z, you gon’ die, big time
Here come ”The Pain”
Jigga (Jigga)
Bigga (Bigga)
Nigga, how you figure? (How you figure?)
Yeah, yeah, yeah
[Verse 1: Jay-Z & The Notorious B.I.G]
A-yo, peep the style and the way the cops sweat us (Uh-huh)
The number one question is can the Feds get us? (Uh-huh)
I got vendettas in dice games against ass bettors (Uh-huh)
And niggas who pump wheels and drive Jettas
Take that wit’ ya!

[Verse 2: The Notorious B.I.G. & Jay-Z]
Hit ya! Back-split ya! (Uh)
Fuck fist fights and lame scuffles (Uh!)
Pillow case to your face, make the shell muffle (Woo!)
Shoot your daughter in the calf muscle (Mmm-hmm)
Fuck a tussle, nickel-plated
Sprinkle coke on the floor, make it drug-related (Haha)
Most hated

[Verse 3: Jay-Z & The Notorious B.I.G]
Can’t fade it (Uh)
While y’all pump, willie (What?), I run up and stunt silly (Uh-huh)
Scared, so you sent your little mans to come kill me (Uh)
But on the con-trilli, I packs the MAC-milli
Squeezed off on him, left them paramedics breathin’ soft on him
“What’s ya name?”

[Verse 4: The Notorious B.I.G.]
Who shot ya? Mob ties like Sinatra (Uh)
Peruvians tried to do me in (Word), I ain’t paid them yet
Tryna’ push 700’s, they ain’t made them yet
Rolex and bracelets is frostbit (Frostbit), rings too
Niggas ’round the way call me Igloo, stick who!?
Motherfucker!

[Chorus: Clark Kent & The Notorious B.I.G.]
JAY-Z and Biggie Smalls, nigga, shit ya drawers!
(Where you from?) Brooklyn, goin’ out for all!
(Marcy) That’s right, you don’t stop!
(Bed-Stuy) Uh-huh, you won’t stop! (Nigga!)
What, what, what?

[Verse 5: JAY-Z & The Notorious B.I.G & Both]
JAY-Z, Big Smalls, nigga, shit your drawers
Brooklyn represent y’all, hit, you fold
You crazy, think your little bit of rhymes can play me?
I’m from Marcy, I’m varsity, chump, you’re JV
Jigga JAY-Z
Biggie, baby (Uh)
My Bed-Stuy flow’s malicious, delicious
Fuck three wishes, made my road to riches
From 62’s, Gemstars, my mom’s dishes (Uh)
Gram choppin’, police van dockin’
D’s at my doors knockin’ (What?)
Keep rockin’, yeah!
No more Mr. Nice Guy, I twist ya shit
The fuck back with the pistols.. blazin’!
Hot like Cajun (Uh)
Hotter than even holdin’ work at the Days Inn
With New York plates outside
Get up out of there, fuck the ride!
[Verse 6: The Notorious B.I.G & Jay-Z]
Keep your hands high, shit gets steeper (Uh)
Here comes the Grim Reaper, Frank White
Need the keys to your InnKeeper (That’s right)
Chill, homie, the bitch in the Shoney’s told me
You’re holdin’ more drugs than a pharmacy
You ain’t harmin’ me, so pardon me
Pass the safe, before I blaze the place
And here’s six shots just in case
(Brooklyn-lyn-lyn)

[Chorus: Clark Kent & JAY-Z]
JAY-Z and Biggie Smalls, nigga, shit ya drawers!
(Where you from?) Brooklyn goin’ out to all!
(Crown Heights, uh) You don’t stop!
(Brownsville) You won’t stop! (Nigga!)
(Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn, haha)
JAY-Z and Biggie Smalls, nigga, shit ya drawers!
(Where we from?) Brooklyn goin’ out to all
(Bushwick) You don’t stop!
(Fort Greene) You won’t stop! (Niggas)
Yeah, yeah, yeah

[Verse 7: JAY-Z & The Notorious B.I.G & Both]
For ’96, the only MC with a flu
Yeah, I rhyme sick, I be what you’re tryin’ to do
Made a fortune off Peru, extradite, China White, heroin
Nigga, please, like short sleeves, I bear arms (Umm)
Stay out my way from here on (Clear?) Gone! (Uh)
Me and Gutta had two spots
The two-for-five dollar hits, the blue tops (Uh-huh)
Gotta go, Coolio mean it’s gettin’ too hot
If Faith have twins, she’d probably have two Pacs (Uh)
Get it? 2 Pac’s? (Uh, uh, uh)

[Verse 8: JAY-Z, The Notorious B.I.G. & Both]
Time to separate the pros from the cons
(And the..) The platinum from the bronze
That butter-soft shit from that leather on the Fonz (Uh)
A S1 diamond from a I class don
A Chandon sipper from a Rosé nigga, Huh?
Brook-Nam, sippin’ on
Cristal forever, play the crib when it’s mink weather (Uh)
The M.A.F.I.A. keep cannons in they Marc Buchanan’s (Uh)
Usually cuatro cinco, the shell sink slow
Tossin’ ya, mad slugs through your Nautica
I’m warnin’ ya! (Ha, what the fuck?)

[Chorus: Clark Kent]
JAY-Z and Biggie Smalls, nigga, shit ya drawers!
(Where you from?) Brooklyn goin’ out to all!
(Flatbush) You don’t stop!
(Red Hook) That’s right, you won’t stop! (Nigga!) Hahaha!
(Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn)
JAY-Z and Biggie Smalls, nigga shit your drawers!
(Where you from?) Brooklyn goin’ out to all!
(East New York) You don’t stop!
(Clinton Hill, uh-huh) You won’t stop! (Nigga!)
(Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn)
Is Brooklyn in the house?

[Outro: Clark Kent]
Uh, Roc-A-Fella, y’all
Junior M.A.F.I.A
Supermen clique
Brooklyn’s Finest, you rewind this
Representin’ BK to the fullest