Jay Z’s, “Big Pimpin” was released 17 years ago today.

The last single from Vol. 3: The Life & Times of Sean Carter, this song got the Making The Video treatment. It was shot in Trinidad during Carnival.

This is my favorite Jay Z songs of all time.  The fun lyrics.  The cadence.  The beautiful music video and its use of white in contrast to the color of Carnival.  This song was the introduction to the opulent rap that Jay would soon be known for.

This song is also named the best rap song of 2000 by Shea Serrano in The Rap Year Book.

There was actually a lot of drama behind this song. As discussed in this article, Pimp C originally did not like the beat, and refused to travel to be in the video. Jay Z also said in his Decoded after reading these lyrics, he regretted some of the lyrics.

Despite all of this, still one of my favorite songs. Check out the video below.