In December 1999, during the week between Christmas and New Year’s, Jay-Z released his fourth studio album Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter. With hits like “Things That U Do” with Mariah Carey and “Big Pimpin'” with UGK, the LP debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 462,000 units sold. “Big Pimpin,'” the biggest story to come out of this album, would not only make the most headlines when the album dropped, but would also continue to brew controversy in the years following its release, whether it be in interviews from Jay-Z or UGK, or in the courtroom.
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The Making of “Big Pimpin'”
While New York and the East Coast as a whole were a dominating force in hip-hop in the 1990s, the end of the decade saw acts from the South begin to gain traction, such as OutKast and UGK. So, when Timbaland produced the beat for “Big Pimpin'” and Jay-Z began to put together ideas for it, he knew UGK’s Pimp C and Bun B would be perfect additions as features.
However, neither of the two seemed too keen on joining in on the fun. When reaching out to Pimp C about being on the song, the now-deceased icon had reservations about the instrumental. Inversely, once Pimp C eventually agreed to be on the song, Hov felt weary about the verse he recorded. Soon, though, both of their worries were quelled.
“That was my third single. Took the album to three million,” Jay-Z said in a quote provided in the album booklet for Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter. “Kyambo ‘Hip-Hop’ Joshua was with me in the studio with Timbaland; he knew I was a UGK fan and he suggested we put them on the record. We called Bun and then Pimp C was like, ‘The horns, them shits are too fruity.’ He was concerned with alienating his audience. When Pimp first sent his verse, I didn’t get it—but then the genius of his cadence hit me.”
Bun B also had the same qualms Pimp C had at first. According to his 2005 interview with MTV, Bun B thought the song was too radio-friendly.
“It sounded like a pop record to me,” he said. “I didn’t want to do it. It scared me because I didn’t know how people was going to take us going in that direction. But I remember Jay telling me, ‘Look, family: It’s going to be the biggest record of your career. If you don’t do it for yourself, just do it for me.’ That was good enough for me, so I jumped on it.”
Jay turned out to be right, as the song peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100, UGK’s highest-charting song ever. But, when it came time to film the now-iconic music video for “Big Pimpin” in Trinidad during Carnival, Pimp C once again got cold feet. Refusing to travel to the Caribbean country, Pimp C instead filmed his parts in Miami, while Hov and Bun B shot their scenes in Trinidad. Still, though, most viewers probably wouldn’t even be able to tell, and the visuals did an excellent job capturing the essence of the track.
The Lawsuits
When Timbaland crafted the aforementioned beat for “Big Pimpin,'” he sampled a 1957 song titled “Khosara Khosara,” performed by an Egyptian man named Hossam Ramzy and composed by another Egyptian named Baligh Hamdi. In 2007, Hamdi’s family came for retribution.
Claiming Jay-Z and Timbaland used the loop unjustly, Hamdi’s relative Osama Ahmed Fahmy filed a lawsuit with Los Angeles Federal Court. In the suit, Fahmy insisted that in order to clear the sample, Jay-Z would need permission from all four of the children Hamdi had before his death in 1993.
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In 2011, with the case still unresolved, mainstream rock band Linkin Park would be folded into the lawsuit, as they remixed “Big Pimpin'” with Jay-Z on their 2004 collaborative EP Collision Course. In 2015, Jay-Z was called to testify about his knowledge of the sample, claiming he didn’t have any vetting process for the instrumentals he was given. “That’s not what I do. I make music,” he said.
In 2018, The United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Jay-Z, as Fahmy “lacked standing to bring the copyright claims.”
Hov’s Current Take on “Big Pimpin'”
In the midst of all the hoopla surrounding the song, even though he would end up winning the case, Jay-Z still felt like “Big Pimpin'” did not age well. Referencing the song’s raunchy lyrics and themes, he wrote in his 2010 memoir Decoded that he simply did not like listening to the song anymore.
“Some [lyrics] become really profound when you see them in writing,” he said. “Not ‘Big Pimpin.’ It was like, ‘I can’t believe I said that. And kept saying it. What kind of animal would say this sort of thing?'”
Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
