Jaden Smith Reflects On JAY-Z’s Mentorship With His New Song “GHOST”

With his debut album SYRE approaching its one-year anniversary in a few months, Jaden Smith is looking towards his next project. Today, he dropped “GHOST,” which is presumably the first single off the project. It’s co-produced by Christian Rich, Finatik N Zac, and HWLS, with Christian Rich telling Genius they “made this song with love.” On the track’s second verse, Smith references the guidance and support that JAY-Z has shown him throughout his career.

The two rappers have a history together, as Genius contributor VloneZone explains in an annotation:

In a statement to Genius, production duo Christian Rich explained why they have a credited feature on the song. “The reason we are on this record is because this was a Christian Rich record featuring Jaden Smith. But once he cut the song they liked it so much they wanted to put it out too. This is why it’s featuring Christian Rich. We are not featured just as producers, it’s partly our song.”

Smith shared the song’s Tokyo-set video, too. He teased a July 8 release date for his new project recently, although it’s a bit unclear if it will be titled ERYS or SYRE: The Electric Album:

Smith and his father Will Smith also recently grabbed some headlines for their inter-generational remix of Jaden’s hit single “Icon,” a song the younger Smith previously broke down in an episode of Verified:

Watch the video above and read all the lyrics to Jaden Smith’s “GHOST” featuring Christian Rich on Genius now.

This article has been updated with an additional statement from Christian Rich