Jay-Z Admits He ‘Cheated’ and Didn’t Record His ‘God Did’ Verse in 1 Take
In 2022, Jay-Z joined DJ Khaled and rappers Lil Wayne and Rick Ross and singer John Legend for “God Did,” the title track from DJ Khaled’s thirteenth studio album. It had been reported by the song’s engineer that Jay-Z recorded his verse on the track in one take, but Hov himself clarified just what happened in the studio.
Jay-Z allegedly recorded his ‘God Did’ verse in one take
In an interview with Genius’ Rob Markman, audio engineer Young Guru recounted his experience creating “God Did” with Jay-Z in the studio. Guru and Jay have worked together many times over the years, but was still surprised by Jay’s artistry all these years later.
“People think I’m still not amazed when he walk in and do these verses,” Guru 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.”
“No, he walked in and this was completely, 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, and he was just like, ‘No, no, no, hit Khaled and get the whole instrumental,’ so he could spit the whole verse,” he continued.
“I didn’t know he had almost four minutes and how many bars or whatever ready, so I’m just in amazement of watching him do this again at 52 years old. It’s like, I never stop being amazed,” he marveled.
Jay-Z clarified how it really went down
Not long after Guru made his comments, Jay-Z himself joined a Twitter Spaces chat with DJ Khaled and Rob Markman and elaborated on what really happened in the studio.
While Jay was sitting in the studio for DJ Khaled to send over the full track instrumental, Guru created a loop that included the song’s hook, giving Jay a beat to rhyme over while he waited.
“So while we was waiting for you to send the beat, we was just playing the [loop] inside the control room; so I was going through it a couple times,” Jay said. “I was just rapping over like, any part, it kept looping and drops was happening in the wrong place.”
Khaled admitted that when he sent him the beat, it was the same way. “I think I sent it to you like that, right?” Khaled said.
“Hov rapped over the hook, breaks — ’cause Guru was waiting for me to send the instrumental,” he went on to explain. “When you sent it back, I was like, ‘This man rapping over the hook.’”
Jay-Z confessed that Guru’s claim that he rapped his verse in one take with no practice wasn’t entirely true. “So I cheated a couple times before I went in the booth, I was playing it in the control room; so when I went in the booth it was pretty much a done deal.”
DJ Khaled’s album has big-name guests
Jay-Z is just one of the artists featured on DJ Khaled’s album God Did.
In addition to the artists on the eight-minute title track, artists like Kanye West, Drake, Quavo, Takeoff, Travis Scott, Latto, the City Girls, SZA, Gunna, Roddy Ricch, Don Toliver, and Jadakiss, as well as late rapper Juice Wrld all make an appearance.
