Jay-Z delivered one of his most memorable verses in recent memory on DJ Khaled’s “God Did.” Now, his friend and longtime producer Young Guru revealed that Hov spit the feature in one take.
In a conversation with GQ’s Frazier Tharpe and Genius’s Rob Markman, Guru explained how the verse came together and why he’s still amazed by Jay-Z’s genius.
“People think I’m still not amazed when he walk in and do these verses,” he said. “And this one was different because normally, we’ll sit down, we’ll do a song, three verses, two verses or whatever, and he’ll have a verse and then we’ll figure out what’s next.”
When Frazier asks if Hov spit his bars in one take, Guru confirmed, emphasizing how being able to do that still amazes him.
“No, he walked in and this was completely, he’s spitting the verse to me,” Guru says. “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, and he was just like, ‘No, no, no, hit Khaled and get the whole instrumental,’ so he could spit the whole verse.”
Hov’s show-stopping performance on Khaled’s title track had many calling it the verse of the decade. While that might be an exaggeration, Jay-Z was rapping like he still had something to prove, and littered the track with a flurry of triple entendres and references that Guru also broke down for the crew in the interview.
Watch the entire interview with Guru about the creation of Hov’s verse on “God Did” up top.
