Older Brehs, was Jay-Z's "Imaginary Players" considered a "Dreams & Nightmares"-type hit back in the day?

[InGodWeTrust]

hell no.

It needs to be permanently etched on a mountain or some shyt so people stop trying to make it all something it wasnt.

"Hov was respected musically by purists and put out good to great music, but he was NOT popping like that until Money Aint A Thang/Can I Get A.../Hard Knock Life".

It dont matter how many times you show us him doing shows with bigger names, how much you saw him on Rap City, how much your few boys in your east coast hood was liking his music, how much brooklyn older nikkas quote him, how much you point out how he threw his name in with Biggie and Nas.

Quotable? Yes. "Big" record? No.



Do any of you know how annoying is to be trying to sleep, and knowing Dreams and Nightmares musta came on because everybody shouting the shyt a few houses down? IN THE SOUTH?

This.

I’m from the Midwest and my first time knowing about Jay Z was the colorful Sunshine video that I paid no attention to.

Then he was in a video with Foxy and I found it strange that it seemed like she was deferring to him like he was some big deal.

I thought he was Foxy Browns big brother

All of a sudden Money Ain’t A Thang comes out and shyt is history.

 

[satam55]

I'm young, but from what I vaguely remember I don't think Jay had a nationwide hit until "Can I Get A…", and even that got a major push from being on the Rush Hour soundtrack.

Ain’t no nikka was a gold single on the Nutty Professor soundtrack. That was one of the biggest movies of 96

Facts...nikkas act like Jay was some unknown underground artist. Feelin' It was on Rap City all the time.

LOL, does that really mean anything? I wasn't following Hip-Hop in the late 90's yet, so I can't speak of Rap City's impact back than. But in the 2000's, if a music video regularly got played on Rap City, but didn't get much play on the rest of BET's line-up & MTV/MTV2, that track wasn't a mainstream or national hit.

 

[Tommy Gibbs]

LOL, does that really mean anything? I wasn't following Hip-Hop in the late 90's yet, so I can't speak of Rap City's impact back than. But in the 2000's, if a music video regularly got played on Rap City, but didn't get much play on rest of BET's line-up & MTV/MTV2, that track wasn't a mainstream or national hit.

Hold up, we’re basically giving you the answers of times we lived through and remember well, you say you wasn't listening to hip hop back then, and then you question the validity of our correct answers even more? . For the record, I turned 19 in '96. A lot of hip hop that was platinum in the 90s wasn't mainstream. Wutang's first album was NOT mainstream. The first time I ever heard Wutang on our popular radio station in the area (KISS 102), and not college radio, was the SWV 'anything' remix. Before that, none of 36 Chambers was ever on the radio.This was the late 90s. In my part of the country back in the 90s, you only heard a few hip hop songs on the radio(not college radio) throughout the day. From about 7-9 weeknights they played a bit more hip hop songs. Friday nights and all day Saturday they'd play hip hop and all day Sunday was gospel starting at midnight on Saturday. Monday started everything over. So saying a hip hop song wasn't mainstream in the 90s is basically for a lot of classic joints. Everyone didn't get the Hammer treatment. I can still remember hearing "nightmare on my street" for the first time on the radio back in 88 on a friday night. I can remember hearing "ya moms in my business" on Kiss 102 around 7 pm leaving soccer practice going home back in 1990. You don't forget stuff like that.

 

[Playaz Eyez]

Thst

Yeah, I know "Imaginary Players" wasn't an official single. But the way Ray Daniels described it in the clip, I'm thinking the track was a very popular album cut that every normie casual rap fan was familiar with even if they hadn't listened to whole album.

That’s cause lately Ray Daniels has pivoted into being an engagement farming rage baiter

 

[vdfebduderocks]

I'm still trying to figure out Ray Daniels' claim to fame.....

 

[shopthatwrecks]

speaking of imaginary players who the hell thought cristal was beer in the first place

shiiit thats almost the same as mc eiht...callin st ides.. st it*ts

 

[shopthatwrecks]

I'm still trying to figure out Ray Daniels' claim to fame.....

i asked sophia's ghost ...n she said

nikka just popped up babbling

 

[shopthatwrecks]

No… nobody knew Jay until 1998.. Can I Get A & Money Ain’t a Thing put him on the map

nah pac gave em a stimulus check on hit em up....n ppl started checkin for em...

 

[TrapHouse Rock]

People who weren't around back then dont know how big "Aint No nikka" was

Foxy really got him hot

I was shocked when I seen Jay preform it on MTVs "spring break" early 97 he killed it

6 months before that he wasn't anywhere near that level that would have been like seeing AZ on TRL

 

[Ethnic Vagina Finder]

Imaginary Players wasn't a single. Jay Z even regretted it not being a single instead of Sunshine. And honestly, that misstep almost killed his momentum had Vol 2 not been a home run.

 

[iceberg_is_on_fire]

No, it was not. I love this song but it's best remembered for the part at the end of the song where he's talking about a 4.0 vs a 4.6 Range Rover. Dreams and Nightmares is a gotdamn anthem.