JAY-Z was in attendance for the Super Bowl on Sunday (February 13) to see the Los Angeles Rams defeat the Cincinnati Bengals, while also catching the epic halftime show put together by Dr. Dre,Snoop Dogg,Eminem,50 Cent,Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige.
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In a set that ran through each of their hits, Dre and Snoop put on a performance of their classic 2001 single “Still D.R.E.,” which JAY-Z actually wrote. A proud Hov was spotted in the crowd rapping along to every word, with Beyoncé doing the same in front of him.
Kanye West was also filmed dancing to the song at SoFi Stadium.
JAY-Z explained how he wrote “Still D.R.E.” in an appearance on HBO’s The Shop: Uninterrupted with LeBron James in May 2021.
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“On that reference track, I’m doing Dre and Snoop’s vocals,” he said. “The reference track, it sounds like them. The Foxy [Brown] reference – I’m glad nobody can find that one. But you gotta have somewhat a reverence for them. Obviously, the music they were making with The Chronic and all that… in order for me to really nail the essence of Dre and Snoop had to be like a studied reverence of what they were doing.
“Even to put myself in their shoes. ‘Cause think about that record. That record comes after Dre leaves Death Row: ‘How? My last album was The Chronic.’”
Snoop Dogg previously opened up about JAY-Z writing the entire song in a July 2020 interview with The Breakfast Club.
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“He wrote Dre’s shit and my shit and it was flawless,” Snoop said. “It was ‘Still D.R.E.’ and it was JAY-Z and he wrote the whole fucking song. JAY-Z is a great writer to begin with for himself, so imagine him striking it for someone he truly loves and appreciates. He loves Dr. Dre and that’s what his pen showed you, that I can’t write for you if I don’t love you.”
The song’s co-producer, Scott Storch, spoke to HipHopDX about JAY-Z’s role in creating the song and how Dre reacted to the reference track.
“We sent the beat off to him and it came back immediately like fire if I remember right,” hs said in September 2020. “He’s a prolific writer. To nail that for them, being an East Coast dude… you know what I mean? It was a lot of East Coast influence on there because I was a Miami/Philly guy and yeah, man, that’s his thing.”
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Storch continued, “Dre heard it immediately. He was on the other side of the door. And the way the studio was set up, there was a control room, and then it was like a kitchen right outside of it. He was in there, making a sandwich or something. And he had the drum pattern that he programmed which is left on play on the MPC.
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“He just let it loop and he would let us all jam out and see if anything comes from it. And he opened the door, he’s like, ‘That’s it right there. That’s it.’ His ears are so dope. Dre was like, ‘This is it. This is a single.’ And he was so excited that he ran back in and we fucking recorded it, and we started layering it together, and just boom.”
