Jay-Z Recorded His ‘God Did’ Verse in 1 Take
Legendary rapper Jay-Z was one of the many artists who made a guest appearance on DJ Khaled’s 2022 album God Did. Jay-Z is one of the featured artists on the title track, which clocks in at over eight minutes. When it came time for Hov to record his verse, he was in and out of the studio after just one take.
Jay-Z is one of the many artists on DJ Khaled’s album ‘God Did’
As a producer, DJ Khaled provides the instrumentation and beats for artists from every corner of the music industry to flex their skills. His thirteenth album God Did brings together some of the biggest names in hip-hop is no different.
On the title track “God Did,” Lil Wayne, John Legend, Rick Ross, Jay-Z, and Fridayy linked up for an eight-minute affair. Other artists on the album include 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.
Jay-Z recorded his ‘God Did’ verse in one take
Audio engineer Young Guru recounted his experience working with Jay-Z on “God Did” in an interview with Genius’ Rob Markman. Guru has worked with Jay-Z several times over the years, but he was still blown away by what he saw when Hov came in to the studio.
“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.”
“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 said.
Jay-Z hasn’t released an album in 5 years
Jay-Z first emerged on the New York hip-hop scene in 1996 with his debut album Reasonable Doubt. Over the next two decades, Jay-Z solidified his spot as one of the greatest rappers of all time with albums like his 2001 magnum opus The Blueprint.
The last album Jay-Z released 2017’s 4:44. On the LP, he opened up about his personal life and how he viewed his choices after the release of his wife Beyoncé’s seminal 2016 album Lemonade. The two teamed up for the collaborative album Everything Is Love the following year.
