Jeezy has shared the process behind having JAY-Z jump on his “My President” anthem and the remix’s subsequent live debut.
The trap pioneer joined former NFL MVP Cam Newton’s Funky Friday Podcast last week where he recalled Hov performing his verse on stage with him before Jeezy had ever even heard it
remember JAY-Z called, he was like, ‘Yo man, I need to put a verse on that ‘My President.’ I ain’t heard the verse, we in the club and I’m performing the song, the music stops he start rapping the verse I’ve never heard in the club in front of everybody and they’re going crazy. I’m just sitting up there I looked at my man like, ‘I told you! I told you!’”
Watch the clip below:
The Bizness-produced “My President” landed on Jeezy’s fifth studio album, The Recession, which arrived in 2008 with a feature from his former foe Nas as the collaboration officially ended their feud.
JAY-Z joined the fray in January 2009 for President Barack Obama’s inauguration when he performed his verse for the first time with Jeezy at Washington, D.C.’s Love Nightclub.
My President” wasn’t the only JAY-Z remix appearing on the album as he also teamed up with The Snowman and Kanye West for the “Put On (Remix).” “My President” reached a peak of No. 53 on the Hot 100 and is certified Platinum.
That era certainly holds a special place in Jeezy’s heart as he also crowned The Recession his best album during a recent interview with Rap Radar.
To me, my best body of work,” he said while reminiscing on the project. “My best body of work because of the effort that I put into it and it was also a time of a shift in my life because that’s when I was overweight, I wasn’t drinking water. Something just snapped in me around that time.
“I started drinking water and taking care of myself and getting rest. I dropped like 60 pounds on my own. I started running and doing all types of stuff. I just felt better. And that’s when I was going in to write The Recession. I was just in such a good space.”
He continued: “Before then, between Trap or Die and up until The Recession, I was going through a lot of survivor’s remorse and I was real depressed — and I didn’t know the word for ‘depression’ then. I was real anxious and paranoid, so I wasn’t clear in what I was doing.
“The Recession was the first time I was clear on: I’m going in to write this project, I’m going to do some research, I’m going to understand it, I know what I want the album cover to look like, I know how I want it to sound … The minute I was done — it only took me about four weeks to do it — I knew I was done.”
