Following the Harlem posse cut “8 Iz Enuff,” Big L drops another posse cut with “Da Graveyard.” The song is notable for its appearance from JAY-Z, who was previously featured in posse cuts with Big Daddy Kane and ODB (“Show and Prove”) and Mic Geronimo, Ja Rule, and DMX (“Time To Build.”) This track also followed Big L and JAY-Z’s legendary freestyle session on the Stretch Armstrong & Bobbito radio show.

In an interview with HipHopDX, Lord Finesse revealed that Big L wanted to set the bar high by going first on his posse cuts. He also talked about Big L’s connection with JAY-Z:

People don’t know [Jay-Z and Big L] actually battled each other in Harlem. And I wish somebody videotaped that, because that woulda been a classic to this day. I think battling each other they got admiration for one another, and that’s where – ‘Cause I can tell you L was a Jay-Z fan, just like Jay-Z was a L fan. [L] was [also] a DMX fan. He loved DMX… And I think [after] that battle [between Jay and Big L], [Big L] was like, yo, I wanna put Hov on [a song]. And we’re not talking about the Reasonable Doubt Hov, we’re talking about the Hov fresh off the “Can I Get Open” [single from] Original Flavor [in 1993]. That’s the Hov we’re talking about. And we thought he was slick with the pen, but it wasn’t until later that we could truly honestly appreciate the Hov we know as of now… Jay was running around battling people [back then], and somebody set them up to battle each other and…I really know [Jay-Z] didn’t know what he was getting into battling this dude. I don’t [remember the exact date of their battle], I just remember L telling me about it. He was sitting on the stoop getting his hair braided, and [according to L] they set up this battle and he went to battle this dude. [Big L] was also there when Jay-Z battled DMX. L was heavy into the battling thing.