"It's All About the Benjamins" is a song by American rapper and producer

Puff Daddy Puff may refer to: Science and technology * Puff, a small quantity of gas or smoke in the air ** Puff, a light gust of wind ** Exhalation ** Inhalation * Puff model, volcanic ash tracking model developed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks * ...

. It was released as the third single from his debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...

'' No Way Out''. "Benjamins" is a slang word for money, referring to

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading int ...

's image on the US $100 bill. The song featured an uncredited vocal arrangement by Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, and featured a signature guitar hook played by Marc Solomon.

Background

The song debuted in 1996 on

DJ Clue Ernesto Shaw (born January 8, 1975), better known as DJ Clue, is an American disc jockey (DJ), record producer, radio personality and record executive. Early life DJ Clue was born in Queens, New York City to Panamanian and Jamaican immigran ...

's ''Holiday Holdup''

mixtape A mixtape (alternatively mix-tape, mix tape or mixed tape) is a compilation of music, typically from multiple sources, recorded onto a medium. With origins in the 1980s, the term normally describes a homemade compilation of music onto a cassette ...

. The mixtape version of the song only featured Puff Daddy and the rap act

the Lox The Lox (stylized The LOX or The L.O.X.) is an American hip hop group from Yonkers, New York, formed in 1994. The group is composed of East Coast rappers Sheek Louch, Styles P and Jadakiss. They had originally signed to Puff Daddy's Bad Boy ...

(excluding

Styles P David R. Styles (born November 28, 1974), better known by his stage name Styles P (also known mononymously as Styles), is an American rapper, best known as a member of hip hop group the Lox, alongside childhood friends Sheek Louch and Jadakiss ...

who still appears in the video). The song was later added to Puffy's debut album, ''No Way Out'', in a remix, "It's All About the Benjamins (Remix)", which added two new verses by

Lil' Kim Kimberly Denise Jones (born July 11, 1974), Those giving 1974 include: * * * * * better known by her stage name Lil' Kim, is an American rapper and reality television personality. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, she lived much of h ...

and Notorious B.I.G. Missy Elliot also provided the song with a chorus which the original version lacked. This version of the song also omitted the word "Hebrews" out of

Jadakiss Jason Terrance Phillips (born May 27, 1975), better known by his stage name Jadakiss, is an American rapper from Yonkers, New York. He began his career in the 1990s as a member of the rap trio The Lox, managed by Ruff Ryders and signed with B ...

' verse; however, the word was left in on the first pressing. Subsequent pressings removed the word. Additionally, when it was released on the ''Bad Boy's Greatest Hits Vol. I'' album, it retained the word. The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

won a Viewer's Choice award at the 1998

MTV Video Music Awards The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...

show. Due to the rarity of the obscure mixtape version, the remix featured on ''No Way Out'' is often considered the song's definitive version to avoid confusion. The song samples two pieces of music. The first sample heard up to the end of Lil' Kim's verse is taken from the song " I Did It for Love" performed by the

Love Unlimited Love Unlimited was a female vocal trio that provided backing vocals for American singer-songwriter Barry White on his albums and concert tours. They also found success with their own recordings. Career Formed in 1969, the group included Barry ...

written by Linda Laurie and Terry Etlinger. The verse performed by Notorious B.I.G. contains a sample from

the Jackson 5 The Jackson 5 (sometimes stylized as the Jackson 5ive, also known as the Jacksons) are an American pop band composed of members of the Jackson family. The group was founded in 1964 in Gary, Indiana, and for most o ...

song "It's Great to Be Here." This latter sample is exclusive to the ''No Way Out'' remix. After the final verse, the song reverts to the first sample and ends shortly after. In 2008, "It's All About the Benjamins" was ranked number 32 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip-Hop. Puffy also released a

rap rock Rap rock is a fusion genre that fuses vocal and instrumental elements of hip hop with various forms of rock. Rap rock's most popular subgenres include rap metal and rapcore, which include heavy metal and hardcore punk-oriented influences, res ...

version of the song, "It's All About the Benjamins (Rock Remix)". This collaboration, also known as "Shot-Caller Rock Remix" and "Rock Remix I", features

Tommy Stinson Thomas Eugene Stinson (born October 6, 1966) is an American rock musician. He came to prominence in the 1980s as the bass guitarist for The Replacements, one of the definitive American alternative rock groups. After their breakup in 1991, Stins ...

Fuzzbubble Fuzzbubble was an American rock/power pop band from Long Island, New York, active from 1995 to 2001. It consisted of Jim Bacchi on guitar, Mark DiCarlo on vocals, Jason Camiolo on drums, and Brett Rothfeld on bass. They were signed by Sean "P ...

Rob Zombie Rob Zombie (born Robert Bartleh Cummings; January 12, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, filmmaker, and voice actor. His music and lyrics are notable for their horror and sci-fi themes, and his live shows have be ...

, and

Dave Grohl David Eric Grohl (born January 14, 1969) is an American musician. He is the founder of the rock band Foo Fighters, in which he is the lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter. Prior to forming Foo Fighters, he was the drummer of gru ...

on drums. This remix added guitar riffs and live drums, as well as a more "in your face" approach to the song's chorus. This version had its own music video, directed by

Spike Jonze Adam H. Spiegel (born October 22, 1969), known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes commercials, film, music videos, skateboard videos and television. Jonze began his ca ...

, which was nominated for Best Video of the Year on MTV Video Music Awards in 1998 which was won by

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

with "

Ray of Light ''Ray of Light'' is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released in early 1998 by Maverick Records. A stylistic and aesthetical departure from her previous work, ''Ray of Light'' is an electronica and techno-pop reco ...

". In 1999, Puffy performed this remix with a live band at the Giants Stadium for the

NetAid NetAid was an anti-poverty initiative. It started as a joint venture between the United Nations Development Programme and Cisco Systems. It became an independent nonprofit organization in 2001. In 2007, NetAid became a part of Mercy Corps. Laun ...

benefit concert. The performance featured

Slash Slash may refer to: * Slash (punctuation), the "/" character Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Slash (Marvel Comics) * Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'') Music * Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band * Nash ...

on guitar as well as

Lil' Cease James Lloyd (born August 20, 1977), better known by his stage name Lil' Cease, is an American rapper and former member of hip hop group Junior M.A.F.I.A. Early life, family and education James Lloyd was born in New York City. Career As par ...

and

on vocals. There is also a slightly different alternative to this remix called, "It's All About the Benjamins (Rock Remix II)." This lesser known version adds

Size 14 Size 14 was an American rock band in the late 1990s based out of Hollywood that gained some notoriety with the novelty song "Claire Danes Poster". This song appeared on the '' Dude, Where's My Car? soundtrack''; other Size 14 songs appeared on mov ...

to the song's already long collaboration line-up. Both rock remixes of the song were released as edited versions; the explicit versions were only released on promo CDs.

Music videos

Three music videos were released for the song and two of its remixes. The first music video was directed by

Paul Hunter Paul Alan Hunter (14 October 1978 – 9 October 2006) was an English professional snooker player. He was a three-time Masters champion, winning the event in 2001, 2002, and 2004, recovering from a deficit in the final to win 10–9 on a ...

. It featured Puff Daddy, the LOX, Lil' Kim, and Biggie (who appears on a television screen, through archive footage of the Hypnotize music video) and took place in a dimly-lit concert venue and in a forest where the rappers are either running (except Biggie) or rapping. The second music video (for the remix) is similar to the first one, except Biggie's verse and appearances are removed, replaced by a tap dancing battle between Puff Daddy and

Savion Glover Savion Glover (born November 19, 1973) is an American tap dancer, actor, and choreographer. Early life The youngest of three sons, Glover was born to a white father, who left the family before he was born, and a black mother. Glover's great grand ...

, with the latter winning. The third music video (for the "Rock Remix I") is entirely different. Puff Daddy arrives at a high school prom to see a lackluster band (with the band leader being played by Puff Daddy) performing for a bored audience. He goes to the stage and sings a rock version of his song to the pleasure of the audience. He is joined by Lil' Kim and the LOX. Biggie doesn't appear in the video. During his verse, the rappers and the audience are seen running in the high school.

Covers, samples, and in popular culture

In 1999,

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specific ...

performed a parody of the rock remix of "It's All About the Benjamins". Yankovic's version, "

It's All About the Pentiums "It's All About the Pentiums" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of " It's All About the Benjamins (Rock Remix)" by Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and focuses on the narrator's obsession with his computer's hardware. The name of the song ...

", features himself boasting about the superiority of his computer hardware. Diddy sampled the song in the remix to "Shot Caller" by

French Montana Karim Kharbouch (Arabic: æɾiːm χɑɾbuːʃ born November 9, 1984), better known by his stage name French Montana, is a Moroccan-American rapper. Born and raised in Morocco, he emigrated to the United States with his family when he was 13. ...

. The remix of

Mariah Carey Mariah Carey (; born March 27, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Referred to as the " Songbird Supreme", she is noted for her five-octave vocal range, melismatic singing style and signature use of the whi ...

's "Miss You", originally recorded for Carey's ''

Charmbracelet ''Charmbracelet'' is the ninth studio album by American singer Mariah Carey, released on December 3, 2002, through MonarC Entertainment and Island Records. The album was Carey's first release since her breakdown following the release of her fi ...

'', samples the song and also features Jadakiss.

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

played the song on the "Money: Part 1" episode of his ''

Theme Time Radio Hour ''Theme Time Radio Hour'' (''TTRH'') was a weekly one-hour satellite radio show hosted by Bob Dylan that originally aired from May 2006 to April 2009. Each episode had a freeform mix of music, centered on a theme (such as "Weather", "Money" or "F ...

'' show in 2008. The song has also been covered by the Ballas Hough Band who performed the song with rapper

in 2009. In 2019, U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar quoted the song title in a tweet about American politicians' support for Israel, which was subsequently criticized as antisemitic.

Commercial performance

"It's All About the Benjamins" was sold as a maxi-single with the Mase and Notorious B.I.G. collaboration "Been Around The World". "It's All About the Benjamins" reached its peak of number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 on January 3, 1998, behind the million-selling single, "

Candle in the Wind 1997 "Candle in the Wind 1997", also known as "Goodbye England's Rose" and "Candle in the Wind '97", is a song by English musician Elton John and songwriter Bernie Taupin, a re-written and re-recorded version of their 1973 song "Candle in the Wind". ...

" by

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

, and its peak of number 1 on the Hot Rap charts on December 3, 1997.

Formats and track listings

;Been Around the World (Single) # Been Around the World (Radio Edit) # It's All About the Benjamins (Shot-Caller Rock Remix) ;Been Around the World (Maxi-single) # Been Around the World (Radio Edit) # It's All About the Benjamins (Rock Remix I) # It's All About the Benjamins (Rock Remix II) # It's All About the Benjamins (Album Version) ;Single (U.K. and Canada only) # It's All About the Benjamins (Rock Remix I) # It's All About the Benjamins (Album Version) # It's All About the Benjamins (Rock Remix II) # It's All About the Benjamins (DJ Ming (DJ) & FS Drum N' Base Mix)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control 1996 singles Sean Combs songs Music videos directed by Paul Hunter (director) Music videos directed by Spike Jonze Bad Boy Records singles Songs written by Sean Combs Lil' Kim songs Songs written by Lil' Kim Posse cuts