It’s about the ingenuity of the poor in the face of subpar housing, education and opportunities. Juicy is a triumphant song of overcoming – a true ‘rags to riches’ story. The young Liverpudlians who’ve fallen in love with Juicy since its release may well relate to Biggie’s memories of homes without heating and disappointing birthdays.

Indeed, child poverty is still an issue that the city still struggles with. During the ’70s and ’80s child poverty in Liverpool was rife, as our port economy dissolved seemingly encouraged the state. Still the illest: Biggie Smalls and the legacy of Ready To Die Juicy opens with Biggie stating, “ this album goes out to all the teachers that told me I would never amount to nothing … and to all my n***as in the struggle“.īorn Christopher Wallace to West Indian parents in 1972, childhood inequality is a theme Biggie returns to throughout his writing.

Its message seems to transcend race and speaks to many a white scouse experience also. Yet through the years I’ve heard Juicy in cars from Toxteth to Walton and Kirkby to Croxteth. It was his immediate success, some have argued, that singularly brought the world’s attention back from the west to the east-coast rap scene. Juicy was Biggie’s first single, released in August 1994. Review: Bishop Nehru, MC Nelson, Remi and Society of Alumni: 24 Kitchen Street It’s a track that I would argue is a Scouse anthem and one that feels like home. Juicy being played loudly by a scally is to me a proclamation of good cheer or even a bit of a protest. You had a goal but not that many” …then faded off. The car slowed as it turned a corner and part of the chorus revealed itself “ Don’t let ‘em hold you down, reach for the stars. Only weeks ago coming out of a local shop I was greeted by a boy no less than 14 sporting baby ket wig, playing Juicy on his mobile phone.Ībout six months before this, walking down towards West Derby village of all places, I heard it coming up behind me like a siren. “ It was all a dream….”! Granted, this doesn’t happen as much as it did 25 years ago, but it still does and I listen for it intently.

That may sound a little bizarre but from the mid 1990s onward my memories of living in this city are peppered with Juicy fragments of it from moving vehicles or local youths barking out the lyrics with pride. For this writer, one of those sounds is Juicy by The Notorious B.I.G blaring out of a passing car. The sound of music has the power also to trigger warm feelings with its familiarity. Like wind rustling through the leaves or a distant lawn mower on a summer afternoon, some sounds are particularly homely. Remembering the sounds of East Coast rap flooding 1990s Liverpool, Getintothis’ Janaya Pickett reflects on whether The Notorious B.I.G.’s Juicy can be considered the real Scouse anthem of the decade.

When did biggie smalls juicy come out