"Street Dreams" is a 1996 single by American rapper Nas. The song was It Was Written

It Was Written

It Was Written is the second studio album by American rapper Nas, released July 2, 1996 on Columbia Records in the United States. Following the moderate sales success of his acclaimed debut album, Illmatic , Nas chose to focus his efforts in a more mainstream direction...

's second hit, following the success of "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)

If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)

"If I Ruled the World " is a 1996 hit hip hop single by Nas featuring Lauryn Hill of The Fugees. It is based on the 1985 hit of the same name by rapper Kurtis Blow and samples the beat of "Friends" by Whodini. The single was Nas's first Top 20 R&B hit, and was also nominated for a 1997 Grammy Award...

". "Street Dreams" contains an interpolation from the Eurythmics

Eurythmics

Eurythmics were a British pop rock duo, formed in 1980, currently disbanded, but known to reunite from time to time. Consisting of members Annie Lennox and David A...

 song "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (song)

Marilyn Manson released a cover version of "Sweet Dreams " as the first single from the EP, Smells Like Children. This version became an MTV staple and helped to establish the band in the mainstream. It also appears on the band's greatest hits album, Lest We Forget: The Best Of...

" and a sample

Sampling (music)

In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...

 from Linda Clifford

Linda Clifford

Linda Clifford is an American R&B, disco and house music singer and actress, who scored hits from the 1970s to the 1980s, most notably "If My Friends Could See Me Now", "Bridge over Troubled Water", "Runaway Love" and "Red Light"....

's "Never Gonna Stop". A remix, including an appearance by R. Kelly

R. Kelly

Robert Sylvester Kelly , better known by his stage name R. Kelly, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. A native of Chicago, Kelly began performing during the late 1980s and debuted in 1992 with the group Public Announcement. In 1993, Kelly went solo with the album 12 Play...

, was released shortly after the original. It featured samples from the Isley Brothers' "Choosey Lover".

The song's big-budget video, directed by Hype Williams

Hype Williams

Harold "Hype" Williams , previously known as HYPE, is an American music video and film director of African-American and Honduran descent. His nickname "Hype" comes from his hyperactive nature as a child....

, was an allusion to the Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese

Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...

 film Casino

Casino (film)

Casino is a 1995 crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Nicholas Pileggi, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Scorsese...

. It was filmed in Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

 around the time Tupac Shakur was murdered and featured a cameo appearance

Cameo appearance

A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

 by Frank Vincent

Frank Vincent

Frank Vincent is an American actor, musician, author and entrepreneur. He is a favorite performer of director Martin Scorsese, having played important roles in three of Scorsese's most acclaimed films: Raging Bull , Goodfellas and Casino . He often plays a gangster and works both in features and...

. Perhaps as a show of appreciation, Scorsese later used Nas's "Thief's Theme

Thief's Theme

"Thief's Theme" is a single from Nas' double album Street's Disciple. The single contains vocals from Nas' song "The World Is Yours" from his first album Illmatic:...

" in a scene from his 2006 gangster/cop drama The Departed

The Departed

The Departed is a 2006 American crime thriller film, fashioned as a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. The film was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan...

.

The song was Nas's first to enter the Top 50 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

, reaching #22. It is his fourth-highest-charting single to date and, based on its gold certification by RIAA, his most popular.

A-Side

1. "Street Dreams" (Album Version) (4:08)
2. "Street Dreams" (Bonus Verse) (4:08)
3. "Street Dreams" (Instrumental) (4:08)

B-Side

1. "Affirmative Action" (Remix) (4:09)
   • Produced by Poke & Tone
2. "Affirmative Action" (Album Version) (4:19)
   • Produced by Dave Atkinson
3. "Affirmative Action" (Instrumental) (3:44)