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

[Long Live The Kane]

A DJ dropping Imaginary Player and the entire spot reciting that shyt at the top of their lungs like they do Dreams and Nightmares actually sounds dope as fukk….but is some shyt that never fukking happened …literally fan fiction….shyt sounds like a scene from a poorly made Jay Z biopic like Straight Outta Compton when Dre punked a room full of Mob Piru hitters dolo

 

[L $ C]

super weird comparison. lol

 

[Mr. Negative]

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?

 

[JustCKing]

They were hits in my household and I was a kid from Augusta Georgia. Again, thank God for Yo mtv raps and rap city.

I'm also from GA and remember those. Even got played on Hot 97.5ATL and V-103ATL. I still remember Jay retiring after Vol. 1 being a discussion.

 

[Barney Rubble]

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?

Jay in my top 5 and this is facts

 

[iLLusoYuN_Da_Adidas_King]

According to Ray Daniels that was the case:

No it was a smooth album cuts that real nikkas played.

 

[Tommy Gibbs]

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

 

[HollywoodP]

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.

 

[lib123]

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

Understood but were stations in LA playing that song heavily on the radio? It peaked at 50 on Billboard.

 

[Braman]

I never been to a party 1997 through today where the DJ played Imaginary Players

And I'm from Philly, where nikkas loved Jigga & Rocafella since 96

Slight tangent but this stopped being a relevant barometer YEARS ago.

If nothing else the Lox Versuz should have shown you that.

Or how I see just as many bytches as nggas playing Larry June on their IG stories. Yet y’all still on that outdated ‘at a party’ and ‘for the ladies’

 

[Harleminthe80s]

PSA is the comparison

 

[MajesticLion]

 

[Braman]

I get his point but as usual he puts his ray Daniels weird twist to it

But there is actually a lot of parallels to jay and meek. Obviously jay eclipsed Meek’s fame level but ‘97 Pre Hard Knock Jay was somewhere around Meek’s level.

The more accurate comparison would be Imaginary Player = House Party, the somewhat Indy favorite. Hard Knock Life = Dreams and Nightmare, the crossover hit

 

[OaklandCertified]

Nobody played that shyt on the West Coast

 

[Tommy Gibbs]

Nobody played that shyt on the West Coast

I can’t disagree with that cuz I wasn’t on the west coast at the time. I mean, hip hop still wasn’t on the radio during the day all day in my city back in 97. I asked this question up here before as well about WC. I love WC but never heard any of his music on the east coast or south but I was still buying his shyt in the 90s and 2000s.