JAY-Z stopped by HBO’s The Shop where he chatted with LeBron James and Maverick Carter alongside guests Bad Bunny, Nneka Ogwumike, and Paul Rivera about his career, including his process writing for other artists. Host Maverick Carter—who is producing the upcoming Space Jam: A New Legacy alongside LeBron James—asked Jay about writing Bugs Bunny for the original Space Jam soundtrack as well as writing Dr. Dre’s Snoop Dogg assisted 1999 single “Still D.R.E.”
Carter praised Jay’s songwriting on “Still D.R.E.,” pointing out that he wrote the lyrics in the exact way Dre would speak. “But on that reference track, I’m doing Dre and Snoop’s [vocals], both of them,” said Jay before mimicking their voices to the awe of the cast. “The reference track it sounds like them. The Foxy [Brown] reference track, I’m glad nobody could find that.”
The Foxy Brown track he was referring to was “Get Me Home,” another song he ghostwrote in the ‘90s. Jay explained that he was able to write in Dre and Snoop’s voice because he was a fan of their music.
“But you gotta have a reverence for them,” said Jay. “Like obviously the music they were making and The Chronic and all that; in order for me to nail the essence of Dre and Snoop, it had to be like a studied reverence of what they were doing to even put myself in their shoes.”
Snoop Dogg previously praised Jay’s songwriting in a video promoting his 2011 album Doggumentary. Snoop noted that everyone, including himself and DOC, tried writing to the “Still D.R.E.” beat but no one could match Jay’s songwriting. “I can’t even say nothing but let me spit my parts,” said Snoop. “‘Okay you got that for me? Good looking.’ I’ll spit that cause that sh-t was flawless.”
On the The Shop, Jay also talked about writing the 1996 Bugs Bunny song “Buggin'.” “I was in Sony Studios, acting like a rabbit,” recalled Jay. Paul Rivera asked Jay if writing for Bugs Bunny felt surreal.
“It was too early, you know those early days everything is just a blur,” said Jay, whose career was just starting to take off in 1996. “You just doing things, you really not thinking about the legacy of it. It ain’t until later on, you start getting into the significance of what it means. At the time it was just like, ‘Write a song for Bugs Bunny.’”
You can watch Jay’s full appearance on The Shop on HBO and HBO Max.
Read all the lyrics to Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s “Still D.R.E.” on Genius now.
