Once again a rap verse by Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter had the Hip Hop world talking. His contribution to DJ Khaled’s “God Did” sparked conversations about the 52-year-old emcee’s lyrical ability at this stage in his five-decade career.
Jay-Z’s longtime engineer, Young Guru, spoke about the creative process for the “God Did” track. During a filmed conversation with Rob Markman and Frazier Tharpe II, Guru revealed the Roc Nation boss only needed one take to record his bars.
“This one was different because normally, we’ll sit down, we’ll do a song, its three verses, two verses or whatever, and he’ll have a verse and then we’ll figure out what’s next,” Young Guru told Markman and Tharpe.
Guru added, “[Jay-Z] walked in… he’s spitting the verse to me. One take. He’s literally asking me, ‘Guru, put the beat on.’ I’m like, ‘Khaled didn’t send me the beat. You didn’t send me the beat. Send me the beat.’ So then he sends me the joint and I started trying to loop it. He was just like, ‘No, no, no, hit Khaled and get the whole instrumental.’ So he could spit the whole verse.”
DJ Khaled Also Praises Jay-Z’s “God Did” Verse
Both Young Guru and DJ Khaled hyped up Jay-Z’s verse on “God Did” before the song made its way to DSPs. Khaled even declared in an interview with Complex, “I’m telling you, if there was a greatest hits of Jay-Z verses, it’s on there. That I’ll tell you, for a fact.”
Khaled’s “God Did” collaboration also features Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, John Legend, and Fridayy. The posse cut topped off at #1 on Apple Music’s Top: 100 USA daily chart. It also peaked at #8 on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs USA chart.
The God Did album is currently on pace to open at #1 on next week’s Billboard 200 chart with around 116,000 first-week units. If the LP does debut in the top spot, DJ Khaled will score his fourth Number One. Jay-Z’s own discography contains fourteen #1 projects, the most for any solo artist in history.