Beginning around the same time as hip hop music became the sound of these same urban areas, the manifestations of the crack epidemic became a key theme in hip hop music. The crack epidemic of the early 1980s & the early 1990s was the flood of crack cocaine usage in urban communities across the United States. The July 1994 article, entitled 'On the Rocks: From 1984 to 1994, Ten Years of Crack', referred a sidebar, 'A Crack Dealer's Ten Crack Commandments' that outlines ten critical rules to help dealers survive and thrive in the drug business. Biggie, purportedly, was inspired by an article penned by Khary Kimani Turner under the pseudonym KT in the hip hop magazine The Source.

The song is a step-by-step guide to achieving success as a drug-dealer. The Swedish underground hip hop chain The Keffat Liv paid homage with the song '10 Barn Commandments' from their album Vassego o skölj. Lin-Manuel Miranda paid homage with the song ' Ten Duel Commandments' in his go forward to musical Hamilton. In March 2017, Faith Evans released the single 'The Ten Wife Commandments' as the fourth single from her duet album with the rapper The King & I. credited under his legal name, Christopher Wallace along with producer DJ Premier. on disc two of hisstudio album, Life After Death. 'Ten Crack Commandments' is a song by American rapper The Notorious B.I.G.

10 crack commandments list lyrics