"Victory" is a song by American rapper and producer Sean Combs, under his then stage name
Puff Daddy. The song features vocals from rappers such as the late
Notorious B.I.G. and
Busta Rhymes. It features heavy use of
mafioso-style lyrics, as was popular at the time. The song also heavily sampled the
Bill Conti song "Going the Distance", which featured on the soundtrack to the movie Rocky making it a darker start to a rap album that featured many (at the time) club-standard singles. It also 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. Released as the fifth and final single from No Way Out in March 1998, it peaked at number 19 on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart, and was certified
gold by the
RIAA later that year.
Music video
The
music video for the song was directed by
Marcus Nispel 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 as a New World Order dictator ("President Victor Castiglione") and
Danny DeVito as a live action reporter. English socialites
Tamara Beckwith and
Tara Palmer-Tomkinson 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 "PD") runs through the dark streets of the year
3002AD, chased by armed
gestapo-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, 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.[1][2]
In 2010, another unofficial remix titled "Legends" leaked which featured
Diddy,
50 Cent,
2Pac and an unknown artist. The original "Victory" beat was replaced with a motivational-emotional Piano and String instrumental.
In 2010, British rapper
Lowkey used the instrumental for his diss track The Warning which was aimed at
Chip. The freestyle was a result of an altercation on Twitter between the pair.[4][5]
In 2019,
Shaquille O'Neal made a diss track against
Damian Lillard called Second Round Knockout. Victory was used as a sample song.[6]
Track listing
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adding to it. (July 2008)