In a rare tweet shared on Wednesday, Jay-Z responded to LeBron James’ praise of his much talked about verse on DJ Khaled’s new album, God Did.
“Listen!” wrote James as he shared an MSNBC report from Ari Melber on how Jay’s verse tackles the United States’ war on drugs, from Richard Nixon’s efforts in the ’70s all the way up to the Trump administration. “Then listen again to make sure you got the point. HOV DID!!!! And so did the reporter! 🐐 TALK.”
“My only goal is to make the real ‘ones’ feel seen, forgive me that’s my passion talking… haa,” wrote Hov in response.
Ari Melber also responded with a lyric from the track:
In Melber’s report on Hov’s four-minute verse, he highlighted how the rapper uses his own story to reflect on the drug war. From selling drugs illegally on the streets, to selling weed legally through his Monogram company.
“It’s deep,” Melber said in his report. “We’ve interviewed many lawmakers who don’t come close to this level of nuance about drug policy.”
Jay’s lengthy verse on the track has already attracted a lot of attention, and not just because of his talk on the war on drugs. His most trusted sound engineer Young Guru, who has been working with Jay for over two decades, recently shared a video in which he broke down some of the standout moments from the verse.
He also attracted attention for a line in which he asserted he could “never” beef with Meek Mill. In a response shared on Twitter, Meek simply added, “Never!!!!!!”
Check out the MSNBC segment on Jay-Z’s “God Did” verse below.
On Wednesday night on Twitter Spaces, Genius’ Rob Markman spoke to Jay about his “God Did” verse and how it reflects the evolution of hip-hop culture. Markman pointed out that rap music has always carried an aspirational element, but—as we hear in Jay’s verse—those messages have turned into actualization.
“You gotta remember hip-hop was demonized when we first came out, and then we were underestimated. Like Khaled said, ‘They didn’t believe in us,’” Hov explained, before adding that hip-hop was once considered a fad. “After they couldn’t get rid of us, they demonized us and they started driving tractors over our CDs and things like that. This is all history.”
Elsewhere he said, “This, for me, feels like the end where the villain survives, doesn’t go to jail, but gets to pop more shit. … It’s that feeling, I don’t know if we’ve ever felt, ever been vocalized in this way and it be all true.”
Jay said he’s proudest of the fact that every word in his verse was completely honest and based on real people. “The thing that makes me most proud of everything, every word I said in that thing is actual fact. Which, you know, for me it’s a challenging thing to do. Like to rap that long and every single bar is like actual fact.”
You can hear Jay’s remarks in full below. Just after the 14-minute mark, Khaled shares some great insights into the Juice WRLD track on God Did.
