"Flava in Ya Ear" is a song by American rapper

Craig Mack Craig Jamieson Mack (May 10, 1970 – March 12, 2018) was an American rapper and record producer. He is best known for his tenure with Bad Boy Records, during which he released his 1994 single " Flava in Ya Ear" (1994), which peaked within the ' ...

. It was released on July 2, 1994, by

Bad Boy Records Bad Boy Entertainment, doing business as Bad Boy Records, is an American independent record label. The label was founded in 1993 by rapper and record producer Sean Combs. During the mid-1990s, the label signed hip-hop and contemporary R&B, R&B a ...

and

Arista Records Arista Records ( ) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music G ...

as the lead single from his debut studio album, '' Project: Funk da World'' (1994). The song was remixed with the addition of rappers The Notorious B.I.G., Rampage,

LL Cool J James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), known professionally as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James), is an American rapper and actor. He is one of the earliest rappers to achieve commercial success, alongside fellow new school hip ho ...

and

Busta Rhymes Trevor George Smith Jr. (born May 20, 1972), known professionally as Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, singer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the moniker Busta Rhymes, after National Football League, NFL and Canadian Football Lea ...

. The single peaked at number nine on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It was certified

Platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

and has sold over 1,000,000 copies in the United States. The song received a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 37th Grammy Awards in 1995, losing to " U.N.I.T.Y." by

Queen Latifah Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970), known professionally by her stage name Queen Latifah, is an American rapper, singer, and actress. She has received various accolades, including a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe ...

. It was ranked as the 422nd greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine in 2021. The beat of the song was also ranked as the fourth greatest hip-hop beat of all time by Rock the Bells in 2024.

Background

Easy Mo Bee has stated that the instrumental was originally intended for

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

, who was unable to record the song due to being on tour with the group Naughty by Nature at the time, and was not sure of future recordings at the time. As a result, Mo Bee gave the instrumental to

after

' founder

Sean Combs Sean John Combs (born November 4, 1969), better known by his stage name Diddy, and formerly Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, record producer, and record executive. Born in Harlem and raised in Mount Vernon, New York, Mount Ve ...

gave him a substantial amount of money for the instrumental.

Music video

The accompanying music video for the song was directed by Craig Henry. It was filmed in and outside of the

New York Hall of Science The New York Hall of Science, branded as NYSCI, is a science museum at 4701 111th Street, within Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, in the Corona, Queens, Corona neighborhood of Queens in New York City, New York. It occupies one of the few remain ...

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, as well as in front of the nearby

Unisphere The Unisphere is a spherical stainless steel Globe, representation of the Earth at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, New York. The globe was designed by Gilmore D. Clarke for the 1964 New York World's Fair. Commissione ...

. The video was nominated for New Artist Clip of the Year in the category for Rap at the 1994 ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Music Video Awards.

Remix

The remix of "Flava in Ya Ear" features American rappers the Notorious B.I.G., Rampage,

and

. It also contains a new verse by

himself as well as ad libs by

Puff Daddy Sean John Combs (born November 4, 1969), better known by his stage name Diddy, and formerly Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, record producer, and record executive. Born in Harlem and raised in Mount Vernon, Combs worked as a ...

and brief singing by Keisha Spivey. The remix was included in '' Bad Boy's 10th Anniversary... The Hits'' album. The music video for the remix was directed by

Hype Williams Harold "Hype" Williams (born August 1, 1970) is an American music video and film director, film producer, and screenwriter. Early life Williams was born in Queens. He is of mixed African-American and Honduran descent. He attended Adelphi Univ ...

, and was filmed on a soundstage in black-and-white by Isidro Urquia. It features all the artists from the song, as well as guest appearances by Das EFX, Mic Geronimo, Irv Gotti and

Funkmaster Flex Aston George Taylor Jr. (born August 5, 1967), professionally known as Funkmaster Flex, is an American DJ, rapper, record producer, and host on New York City's Hot 97 radio station. In 1992, he became host of the first hip hop radio show on Ho ...

, although none perform on the song.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flava In Ya Ear 1994 debut singles 1994 songs Craig Mack songs The Notorious B.I.G. songs LL Cool J songs Busta Rhymes songs Arista Records singles Bad Boy Records singles Music videos directed by Hype Williams Music videos shot in the United States Song recordings produced by Easy Mo Bee Songs written by Paul Williams (songwriter) Songs written by Roger Nichols (songwriter) Black-and-white music videos Remix singles