Big Willie Style - Background

Background

The first single from the album "Men in Black", was not released in the U.S. as a physical single, and was therefore unable to chart in Billboard. "Men in Black" enjoyed a worldwide release, and reached No. 1 in many countries. The song spent an entire month at the top of the UK singles charts, becoming the 6th biggest hit single there in 1997. The follow-up, "Gettin' Jiggy wit It" was a big hit, spending two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 from March 14, 1998 to March 28, 1998, Smith's first No. 1 hit in his homeland. The track became a Top 5 elsewhere.

As a fourth single, "Just the Two of Us" was released in August 1998, and was another big hit, reaching No. 2 in the UK and making the U.S. Top 20. The final single was "Miami" was accompanied with an expensive, ambitious music video, and released in November 1998. The track also made an impressive performance in the charts, reaching No. 3 in the UK and No. 17 in the U.S. In the U.S., the album debuted at No. 31 and then began to lose position until "Gettin' Jiggy wit It" was released, rising to No. 10. Then the album began to fall again, but, in the wake of the release of the very well received "Just the Two of Us", the album reached a new peak position of No. 8, where it spent three weeks.

In the U.S., Big Willie Style spent a total of seven weeks on the Top 10, 69 weeks on the Top 40 and 99 weeks on the whole Billboard 200. The album was eventually certified 9x platinum by RIAA on July 20, 2000, denoting 9 million shipments in the U.S alone. Meanwhile, the album debuted in the UK charts at No. 63 and then fell positions very quickly, but it gained new chart power with the release of "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It", reaching No. 11 in March 1998. Then the album began to fall again on the list, but was revitalised several times in 1998 following the subsequent single releases.

In late January 1999, in the wake of the release of the final single "Miami", the album finally reached its peak position of No. 9, and then began its final fall on the charts. This unusual chart run from the album materialized on just one week on the Top 10, 38 weeks on the Top 40 but a total of an impressive 108 weeks on the UK albums charts, making 3 re-entries on it. Worldwide sales are over 14 million, making it one of the best-selling rap albums of all time.

Smith won two Grammy Awards in the Best Rap Solo Performance category for the songs "Men in Black", in 1997, and "Gettin' Jiggy wit It", in 1998, making him the only artist in history to receive two Grammys from this category for two songs from the same album. Nas was also a co-writer on this album with Smith. He is credited under his real name, Nasir Jones, and worked on five songs on the album, including the hit singles "Miami" and "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It".