Over a driving beat produced by Latino producer Domingo, Big Pun delivers one of his best recorded verses on his debut album Capital Punishment, in a very good example of braggadocio rap, all the while likening himself to NBA superstar Michael Jordan and crooner Nat King Cole.

The first verse was previously delivered on what has been described as “The Legendary Cypher,” a roundtable discussion between Big Pun, Canibus, Mic Geronimo, Mos Def, DMX, and John Forté. It can be seen around 5:05 on this video.

Producer Domingo spoke to XXL magazine in 2004 about how the track came together:

When I was in the middle of doing [Fat Joe’s] Jealous Ones Envy album [in 1995], Pun was always coming to the studio. Pun asked me for a beat tape, because CDs were not even in style yet. The beat for ‘Dream Shatterer’ was on that tape, and Big Pun always told me, ‘Yo, when I get a deal, it’s on.’ He told me not to sell the beat. A couple of years went down the line. Pun called me one night when he was working on Capital Punishment. He was like, ‘What’s up with that beat that I told you to save?’ I was like, ‘Yeah. I still got it.’

So I went up to the studio, Axis Studios on 54th Street [in Manhattan]. Pun came in the room and played me the original ‘Dream Shatterer,’ which was the Barry White sample. He told me he couldn’t clear the sample because at that time Puffy had the [‘I Dare You’] record out with Black Rob with the same sample. So Pun said, ‘Take the a capella of 'Dream Shatterer’ and let me know if the beat matches it.‘ And to be honest with you, when I went home and threw the beat on and put the vocals to it, it sounded like Pun actually rhymed to the track.

“The Dream Shatterer” samples “Funk & Wagner” by Don ‘Sugarcane’ Harris.