Foxy Brown - I'll Be ft. JAY-Z

What this video is

Released March 4, 1997 as the second single from Foxy Brown's debut LP Ill Na Na (1996) on Violator/Def Jam Recordings, 'I'll Be' arrived at a pivotal moment in East Coast hip-hop when female MCs were asserting commercial parity with male counterparts. The track samples René & Angela's 1985 R&B classic 'I'll Be Good,' grounding its explicit content in a recognizable soul tradition and bridging generations of Black…

Why it matters

A landmark of mid-90s East Coast hip-hop crossover, 'I'll Be' cemented Foxy Brown's persona as an unapologetically explicit female rapper operating within a male-dominated luxury-rap framework. The Trackmasters production and Jay-Z feature positioned the track as a bridge between street-credible…

The director

Brett Ratner (born March 28, 1969) is an American film director and producer who began his career directing rap and hip-hop music videos in the early 1990s, making over 100 videos for artists including Jay-Z, Wu-Tang Clan, D'Angelo, Puff Daddy, Mariah Carey,…