"Victory" is a song recorded by American hip hop recording artist

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 * ...

. The song was originally written by

The Notorious B.I.G. Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), better known by his stage names the Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or simply Biggie, was an American rapper. Rooted in East Coast hip hop and particularly gangsta ...

, Jason Phillips and Steven Jordan for his debut studio album '' No Way Out'' (1997). It features heavy use of mafioso-style lyrics, as was popular at the time. It features

, who raps two verses, and

Busta Rhymes Trevor George Smith Jr. (born May 20, 1972), known professionally as Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the moniker Busta Rhymes, after NFL and CFL wide receiver ...

, who raps the song's chorus. The song also heavily sampled the

Bill Conti William Conti (born April 13, 1942) is an American composer and conductor, best known for his film scores, including ''Rocky'' (and four of its sequels), ''The Karate Kid'' (and all of its sequels), '' For Your Eyes Only'', ''Dynasty'' (and its ...

song "Going the Distance", which featured on the soundtrack to the movie ''

Rocky ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burges ...

'' making it a darker start to a rap album that featured many (at the time) club-standard singles. The song was released as a single in 1998, peaking at number 19 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. This song featured the last verses recorded by The Notorious B.I.G. before his 1997 death as these verses were recorded a day before his shooting. The song was used for the EA Sports video game, ''

Fight Night 2004 ''Fight Night 2004'' is a 2004 boxing video game developed by NuFX, Inc. It features ''Roy Jones Jr.'' on the cover. It is the successor to EA's previous boxing series, '' Knockout Kings''. Four sequels followed, ''Fight Night Round 2'' in 2005, ...

'', and the 2K Sports video game, ''

NBA 2K13 ''NBA 2K13'' is a 2012 basketball video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports. It was released on September 19, 2012 for the Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii and Xbox 360. A versi ...

'' by Puff Daddy and the Family featuring The Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes. This was re-used for the soundtrack of '' NBA 2K18''. It was also used on

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

, for

Masahiro Chono is an American-born Japanese-American retired professional wrestler and actor best known for his 26 year stint with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). As the leader of nWo Japan, Team 2000 and Black New Japan, he was the promotion's top heel for ...

's Team 2000 faction in

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Nakano, Tokyo. Founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, the promotion was sold to Yuke's, who later sold it to Bushiroad in 2012. TV Asahi and Amuse, Inc. own minority sha ...

Music video

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 ...

for the song was directed by

Marcus Nispel Marcus Nispel is a German film director and producer, Fulbright Scholar, best known for several high-profile American remakes such as '' The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'', as well as an extensive career in television commercials and music videos. ...

on March 31, 1998 (although he was supposed to remain anonymous at the time of premiere) and is an homage to '' The Running Man''. The almost eight-minute-long video featured cameos from

Dennis Hopper Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in '' Giant'' (1956). In the next ten year ...

as a New World Order dictator ("President Victor Castiglione") and

Danny DeVito Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. (born November 17, 1944) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He gained prominence for his portrayal of the taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in the television series ''Taxi'' (1978–1983), which won him a Gold ...

as a live action reporter. English socialites

Tamara Beckwith Tamara Jane Beckwith (born 17 April 1970) is an English socialite and television personality. In the 1990s, she was regarded as one of the " It girls" of the London social scene. Early life The daughter of property developer Peter Beckwith, Be ...

and

Tara Palmer-Tomkinson Tara Claire Palmer-Tomkinson (23 December 1971 – 8 February 2017), also known as T P-T, was an English socialite and television personality. She appeared in several television shows, including the reality programme '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me ...

were also in the video. Hopper and Devito reportedly appeared in the video ''pro bono'' as a favor to Combs. Sean Combs' character (known as "Contestant #5" or

codename A code name, call sign or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in industrial c ...

"PD") runs through the dark streets of the year

3002 While the future cannot be predicted with certainty, present understanding in various scientific fields allows for the prediction of some far-future events, if only in the broadest outline. These fields include astrophysics, which studies how ...

AD, chased by armed

gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

-esque forces of Chase TV. At one point, Contestant #5 is cornered on a rooftop, where he decides to leap off instead of submitting to the armed troops. Footage from Biggie's " One More Chance" video was used in "ghost" images, representing a flashback for Sean Comb's character. Busta Rhymes, dressed in black feathers, raps atop a statue representing

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, the goddess of victory. The Victoria statue overlooks the chase scenes. Biggie appears in the video only through archive footage due to his death a year earlier. The production costs ran upwards of $2,700,000. It is listed as one of the most expensive music videos ever made.

Remixes and Freestyles

*In 2002,

50 Cent Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and businessman. Born in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 2000, when he produced ...

and

Lloyd Banks Christopher Charles Lloyd (born April 30, 1982), better known by his stage name Lloyd Banks, is an American rapper. He began his career as a member of East Coast hip hop group G-Unit, alongside childhood friends 50 Cent and Tony Yayo. After th ...

freestyled over the instrumental for their mixtape, ''

No Mercy, No Fear ''No Mercy, No Fear'' is the second mixtape by hip hop group G-Unit. It was recorded after de facto leader 50 Cent had signed a $1 million deal with Aftermath Entertainment and Shady Records following the release of his 2002 compilation album ''Gu ...

'', which Diddy used a year later as the official remix, "Victory 2004", for '' Bad Boy's 10th Anniversary... The Hits'' album. This remix also has a new verse from P. Diddy. *In 2002, Mike Jones freestyled over the instrumental for

Swishahouse Swishahouse is an independent southern rap record label and hip hop collective based in Houston, Texas. History Swishahouse was founded in North Houston in 1997 by founder and CEO Michael "5000" Watts and OG Ron C as a response to the popula ...

's Before Da Kappa 2K2 mixtape. *In 2003, while not remixed, the song was used as the main theme in

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...

''. *In 2009, there was an unofficial remix leaked that featured

, Diddy,

, and also features

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one o ...

rapping over Diddy's first lines. *In 2010, another unofficial remix titled "Legends" leaked which featured Diddy,

2Pac Tupac Amaru Shakur ( ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Shakur is among the b ...

and an unknown artist. The original "Victory" beat was replaced with a motivational-emotional Piano and String instrumental. *In 2010, British rapper

Lowkey Kareem Dennis (born 23 May 1986), better known by his stage name Lowkey, is a British rapper and activist from London. He first became known through a series of mixtapes he released before he was 18, before taking a hiatus from the music bus ...

used the instrumental for his diss track ''The Warning'' which was aimed at

Chip Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is a type of immunoprecipitation experimental technique used to investigate the interaction between proteins and DNA in the cell. It aims to determine whether specific proteins are associated with specific genom ...

. The freestyle was a result of an altercation on Twitter between the pair. *In 2019,

Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), known commonly as "Shaq" ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program '' Inside the NBA''. O'Neal is regarded as one of the greate ...

made a diss track against

Damian Lillard Damian Lamonte Ollie Lillard Sr. (born July 15, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Weber State Wildcats and earned ...

called Second Round Knockout. Victory was used as a sample song.

Track listing

;Victory (Remixes)'

#Victory (Album Version) (4:58) #Victory (

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN and stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor was the only permanent member of the band ...

Remix) (5:33) :*Producer, Featuring -

Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, wh ...

:*Remix - Nine Inch Nails #

Victory (Drama Mix) (4:58) :*Vocals - Ron Grant, Terri Hawkins #

Bad Boy's "Been Around The World" (Remix) (5:30) :*Co-remix - Jay Garfield Additional Production By: Jesse Wilson :*Featuring - Mase :*Producer - Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie, Ron "Amen-Ra" Lawrence :*Remix - Nashiem Myrick :*Vocals - Carl Thomas

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Victory (Puff Daddy Song) 1997 songs 1998 singles Sean Combs songs The Notorious B.I.G. songs Bad Boy Records singles Songs written by Sean Combs Songs written by the Notorious B.I.G. Songs written by Jadakiss Songs written by Nelly Songs written by Bill Conti Music videos directed by Marcus Nispel Mafioso rap songs Songs written by Stevie J