Songoftheday 3/29/21 - No matter what we air tight, so when you hear somethin' make sure you hear it right...

 

 

"Victory" - Puff Daddy & The Family featuring the Notorious B.I.G. & Busta Rhymes

from the album No Way Out (1997)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #19 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 13

 

Today's song of the day comes from record label mogul turned rapper Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, whose first album No Way Out had already scored a pair of #1 pop/R&B hits with "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" and his tribute to Notorious B.I.G., "I'll Be Missing You". It also spun off a two top ten hits-for-one single with "Been Around The World" and "It's All About The Benjamins" in the beginning of 1998. The fourth single from the record was the album opener "Victory". Set upon a sample of the Rocky movie instrumental "Going The Distance", the track features Busta Rhymes and the last recorded verses from the late Biggie Smalls. The sample brings a sense of drama (and remarkably sounds like the Mandalorian theme now that I think about it) with the drums and horns, as it attempts to elevate the standard braggadocio lyrics (which regretfully insert the "f-word" slur therein) as it serves as a "call to arms" for his fans and associates to rally behind him, for what I don't know. Busta's crazy delivery on what would basically servce as a "chorus" entertains me more than the two others, as it usually would. The expensive music video is shot like a real movie, with the likes of Dennis Hopper and Danny Devito making cameos in the eight-minute extravaganza. Here's the edit...

"Victory" became the fifth song from No Way Out to make the pop top-40 in May of 1998. The song also climbed to #13 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart, while peaking at #2 on their Rap Songs list. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in New Zealand at #19. 

(4/10)

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Here's the extended eight minute version of the video, which is one of the most costly of all time, recreating the apocalyptic sci-fi future movie The Running Man...

In 2004, a "remix" of "Victory" with freestyle raps from 50 Cent and Lloyd Banks, retitled "Victory 2004", was included on the Bad Boy's 10th Anniversary - The Hits collection, and went to #61 on the R&B Singles chart...

Lastly, here's Combs performing "Victory" live in concert...

Up tomorrow: Alternative rock group lists a couple of vices.