"Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" is a single from rapper Jay-Z's third album Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life. It samples the song "It's the Hard Knock Life" from the Broadway musical Annie. The song was produced by The 45 King and at the time of its release, was the most commercially successful Jay-Z single. The RIAA certified it as a gold single in March 1999. In addition, it was nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 41st Grammy Awards in 1999.
It was ranked number 11 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip-Hop.
The song was parodied by Mike Myers' character Dr. Evil in the 2002 movie Austin Powers in Goldmember.
"Hard Knock Life" was Jay-Z's first single to achieve success outside the U.S., reaching the top 10 in several countries. Commercially, its biggest success came in the United Kingdom, where it reached #2 on the UK Singles Chart in December 1998.
Famous quotes containing the words hard, knock and/or life:
“Have you never been moved by poor men’s fidelity, the image of you they form in their simple minds? Why should you always talk of their envy, without understanding that what they ask of you is not so much your worldly goods, as something very hard to define, which they themselves can put no name to; yet at times it consoles their loneliness; a dream of splendor, of magnificence, a tawdry dream, a poor man’s dream—and yet God blesses it!”
—Georges Bernanos (1888–1948)
“However much you knock at nature’s door, she will never answer you in comprehensible words.”
—Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818–1883)
“The work of adult life is not easy. As in childhood, each step presents not only new tasks of development but requires a letting go of the techniques that worked before. With each passage some magic must be given up, some cherished illusion of safety and comfortably familiar sense of self must be cast off, to allow for the greater expansion of our distinctiveness.”
—Gail Sheehy (20th century)