DJ Khaled God Did Review: Dissecting Jay-z’s controversial verse
DJ Khaled recently released his new LP album titled “God Did” and just as always became a fire sensation in the music community around the world. The hit track on the album was the song titled “God did” and the song has been amassing lots of criticism from different communities, be it Muslims, Christians, or Atheists. This song according to DJ Khaled is a spiritual song of appreciation to God for doing what people did not think he could do in his carrier. However, a lot of Muslims and Christians have tagged it as blasphemous to their religions. In this article, we will be breaking down Jay-z lyrics which many people tagged blasphemous.
JAY-Z’s VERSE
If there was anywhere DJ Khaled had to screen and edit the song it had to be Jay-z’s part because a lot of the lyrical composition of the rap verse was and is still misunderstood. Hova who is perceived as an atheist has zero business being on a religious song like this even though he rapped more from the perspective of a Christian. To make matters worse he started his rap verse by declaring the word: “Hov Did”; thus replacing God’s name with his own leading to an outcry by many Christians. Below is an explanation of Jay-z’s controversial verse so as to give a better understanding of his creativity.
Jay-z opens up his verse by declaring that he did lots of things. But skips back and begs for God’s forgiveness for the sins he committed. He however owns up to his action by claiming that those alleged evil things he did gave him success because he became the first in many things. Going on to enumerate them, he claims no black rapper touched a billion and made it public until he did it. According to him presently he could only count four black music billionaires and that includes him and three other people with him being the first ever.
In the second eight bars, he goes on to explain how he was deep into the criminal lifestyle. But in the end, he reminisces about the kind of life which he lived by cooking cocaine and selling it but still managed to leave the dope game without falling into the hands of the law. He marvels at the fact that he actually made money off the wrong life and still managed to get his name listed in Forbes magazine as one of the richest legitimate hustlers in the world. He terms this act: “take the dope public” while claiming that he used to be a corner boy in the streets of New York low-end hoods selling drugs but upgraded to become a boss in a legitimate enterprise with a corner office in a tall skyscraper in high-end New York City.
The next set of 8Bars has him going after haters who think he is faking his lifestyle, especially about what he claims to be in terms of drugs. He declares that he is actually what he said he is and was because for everyone who chooses the drug business, it’s like marriage and it is till death do them part. But claims that the lifestyle he is enjoying now is a dream of many drug dealers who are still deep down in the game. Poking fun at new rappers who claim to be drug dealers, he calls them naive. He lyrically paints them as naive drug dealers who try to talk exotic (claiming to know much about the drug game), but they know so little that they do not even know a place called “Baham”. He finishes off the verse by claiming that looking back at the life they used to live, he exclaims that he also is surprised at how he turned out.
Furthermore, he claims that one thing that has always made him work hard was the fact that he did not want to be under the custody of the American penitentiary system. He claims that in the drug business many people have become incarcerated by the government, some for life and some others even dead. Hence he had to look for ways to do better and move smarter. He brags about how the American law system which was designed to put people like him in prison has become his biggest advantage, he talks about his legal arsenal. According to him unlike back in the day when he had people he could call to end people’s lives, he claims that he now has Lawyers replacing them by declaring that he has Lawyers like shooters. Also, he claims that no matter how the government tries to smoke him out, he declares that he will always outfox them. Because his Lawyers are there working for him and even working pro-bono for people locked up by the system unjustly because he has millions to pay these lawyers. He finishes off this bar by praying for people locked up in the system that he wished them well and hoped that they never spend time again only using prison phones to reach their loved ones.
Finally, his last set of bars made the whole 32bars more controversial. This is because he talks about having his own book in the book of Psalms in the bible. However, he just played some mad figurative and metaphoric lyrics to rap what he wants to say. He tags his raps on this song as hymns because of what he has been able to do for himself and people who are locked up in the American penitentiary system. He finishes this verse by squashing the alleged misunderstanding he had with Meek Mill and finishes off by stating that Jesus turned water into wine because it was easy for him as the son of God but for him, he had to use a stove to cook drugs to make his own wine (figuratively wine means wealth)
DJ Khaled God Did Review: Dissecting Jay-z’s controversial verse
