“Unbelievable” was the last song recorded for Ready To Die as the album was ready to be turned in but Biggie specifically wanted to get a street banger from Premo to use as the B-side for his album’s radio-friendly lead single “Juicy.” At the time, Premier lived in the Brooklyn home of musician Branford Marsalis and constantly crossed paths with Biggie, who played him selections from the album.

Preem used “Warning” as inspiration and hooked up the beat while using a line from Biggie’s track “The What” and a line from R. Kelly’s 1993 single “Your Body’s Callin'” for the hook, which was specifically requested by Biggie himself. Since the album was ready for submission before this song’s creation, the budget was closed, so Premier only charged Biggie $5,000 for the track at a time he was an in-demand producer during the boom bap era of the mid-1990s.

DJ Premier provided more details around the creation of “Unbelievable” in a Ready To Die retrospective from XXL and he also talked about the track in Episode 2 of his production series So Wassup: