Songfacts®:

• "Hypnotize" has one of the catchiest and most effective hooks in hip-hop history, with Pam Long from the group Total singing:
  
  Biggie, Biggie, Biggie, can't you see?
  Sometimes your words just hypnotize me
  
  "Biggie" (short for "Biggie Smalls") is one of the many monikers for The Notorious B.I.G., who had reached the pinnacle of the rap game by this point. He fills the verses with clever rhymes extolling his talents, but Long says it more succinctly in the second part of the chorus:
  
  I just love your flashy ways
  Guess that's why they broke, and you're so paid
• All of the music on this song comes from a sample of Herb Alpert's "Rise," a trumpet-driven instrumental that was a #1 hit in 1979. It's not the trumpet that was sampled though; it's a section of the groove with a sultry bassline and guitar stab that Biggie's producers, Puff Daddy, Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie and Ron "Amen-Ra" Lawrence, layered, effected and looped into the (appropriately) hypnotic track.
  
  By this time, hip-hop had extracted every imaginable sample from obvious sources like James Brown and P-Funk, but "Rise" was untapped. Getting it cleared was a boon for Biggie.
• The Notorious B.I.G. was the tentpole artist for Bad Boy Records, Puff Daddy's label, and it was Puffy who laced the track. The song it samples, "Rise," was written by Andy Armer and Herb Alpert's nephew, Randy Badazz Alpert, who told Songfacts how it happened. "I asked Puffy, in 1996 when he first called me concerning using 'Rise' for 'Hypnotize,' why he chose the 'Rise' groove," Alpert said. "He told me that in the summer of 1979 when he was I think 10 years old the song was a huge hit everywhere in New York and 'Rise' along with Chic's 'Good Times' were 'The Songs' that all the kids were dancing and roller skating to that summer. He had always remembered that summer and that song. When he first played the loop for Biggie, Biggie smiled and hugged him."
• "Hypnotize" was released on March 4, 1997, five days before Biggie Smalls was killed in a drive-by-shooting. It was the first single from his second album, Life After Death, which was released posthumously on March 25 and debuted at #1. The song hit #1 on May 3 and stayed at the top for three weeks.
  
  A bigger hit that year was "I'll Be Missing You," a tribute to The Notorious B.I.G. by Puff Daddy with help from various Bad Boy artists. It went to #1 on June 14 and stayed for 11 weeks.
  
  The next single from the Life After Death album was "Mo Money Mo Problems," which hit the top spot on August 30.
• This was the first time the "Rise" sample was cleared. Randy Badazz Alpert explained to Songfacts: "Over the years I was approached by Ice Cube, Easy E, Vanilla Ice, and maybe another 4-5 artists to use the song and I never said yes until I heard a rough version of Biggie's recording. I was sent a cassette from Puffy and when I cranked it up I not only immediately loved it but my gut thought that this could be a #1 record once again. The original 'Rise' record climbed the chart all summer and became #1 around the end of October. Biggie's version was released and charted its first week at #2 and went to #1 the second week."
• Biggie Smalls wrote the entire rap, including the female vocals. Alpert told us: "When I first met Biggie before they recorded 'Hypnotize' he played me a demo version with him doing the girl's part. I still have that cassette demo and it's definitely a classic piece of rap history."
• The Notorious B.I.G. listened to lots of hip-hop from the '80s, and for the hook to "Hypnotize," he borrowed from Slick Rick's line in the 1985 classic "La Di Da Di":
  
  Ricky, Ricky, Ricky, can't you see
  Somehow your words just hypnotize me
  And I just love your jazzy ways
  MC Rick my love is here to stay
• The music video, directed by Paul Hunter, was shot before Biggie was killed. It's shot like a big-budget action movie, with he and Puff Daddy outrunning authorities, first on a boat and then in a convertible. There are also mermaids.
• During Notorious B.I.G.'s somber funeral procession in the streets of Brooklyn, "Hypnotize" was suddenly blared from a nightclub's speakers at full volume, which prompted everyone to dance and sing along. It became no longer a mourning of his death, but a celebration of the rapper's life.