Here, Jay-Z looks back to upbringing in the Marcy Houses public housing project located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. He explained to iHeart radio: "'Marcy Me' is a nostalgic walk through Marcy, and it's about that hopefulness, that feeling of 'Man, can I really do this? Can I really be one of the biggest artists in the world?' You have these dreams, 'Can I be one of the biggest basketball players?' We have these dreams."
The piano groove featured on the track is a sample of Portuguese progressive rock band Quarteto 1111's 1970 track "Todo O Mundo E Ninguém."
The-Dream croons the outro. Other collaboration between the pair include uncredited vocals by the singer-songwriter on the Watch the Throne track "No Church in The Wild" and a guest verse by Jay on The-Dream's 2013 song "High Art."
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