DJ Quik has said that working alongside JAY-Z and Beyoncé in the same studio was an “out-of-body experience.”
The West Coast rap legend was likely referring to his time recording “Justify My Thug,” which he produced for Hov’s The Black Album back in 2003.
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When asked on Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes’ All the Smoke podcast what it was like working with Jigga, Quik said it was everything he thought it would be.
“Amazing, an out-of-body experience,” he said. “It’s like, ‘Wow.’ You really made it when you’re in the studio, Beyoncé’s offering you muthafucking water, fruit and shit and just chilling.
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“That session was just like you could imagine it’d be. Jay is quiet, he ain’t the kinda dude to walk around the studio writing and thinking or something. He sit there and just let the music get in and what not.”
He continued: “[Young] Guru’s at the controls, I’m on the beat, [Beyoncé] is over there chilling. Cool as shit, so humble, sweetheart, right? Jay will just be sitting there humming, making these little sounds and shit, and he’d just cock his hat to the side and it’s like, ‘Alright Guru I’m ready.’
“When he cock his hat, he go in there and just start nailing that shit. I ain’t see this muthafucka write not one lyric.”
DJ Quik isn’t the only one who’s recently praised JAY-Z’s studio sessions. Mach-Hommy recently opened up about the time he blew Hov’s mind with a verse he penned for Jay Electronica’sA Written Testimony, although it never made the final cut.
“Fast forward, I’m in the lab with Jay, Gu, and my man Dred who came with me,” the Griselda affiliate told The FADER. “Guru is playing records off the upcoming album with Jay and Jay Elect. They had my favorite bottled water on deck, room temp, so that was cool.
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“We listened to a few tracks. Jay would chime in every now and again with some mix notes. Track after track he’s like Joaquin Phoenix’s character in Gladiator: thumbs up or thumbs down? Shit was surreal, in the moment.”
He continued: “After about an hour or so, Gu plays this one track. Then Jay is like, ‘Mach, you got something for this?’ Meanwhile, I can’t believe this n-gga HOV is asking me that?!? Like ‘N-gga, is the sky blue?’ Shit. Even at 3 in the morning, that motherfucker midnight blue, you know what I’m saying?”
Mach-Hommy went on to say that JAY-Z disappeared for over two hours while he crafted his verse. When he returned, the elusive lyricist apparently blew Hov’s mind to the point his signature Paper Planes cap fell off his head.
“We get to my part,” Mach said. “He had the shit face going with the hand gestures and everything. About six or seven bars in, the n-gga JAY-Z’s Roc Nation hat flies back. I mean the hat flew. You hear me? Paper planes fresh off the tarmac. That way. ‘Mach, too much Mach, too much!’”
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DJ Quik’s reflective interview comes after the veteran rapper/producer acknowledged last December that his career has never quite hit the heights of his West Coast contemporary Dr. Dre. Considering how many legends he’s worked with over the years, it seems unfair, he said.
“I know it’s early. But I deserve to be where Dre is,” he declared on Twitter at the time. “I don’t think it’s fair, but I understand why. I’ve never had a machine behind me, that always hurt my friends more than it did me.”
