While he and his Los Angeles Lakers were resting in preparation for their fourth playoff game against the Pheonix Suns, LeBron James was busy sharing the Season 4 premiere of his HBO show The Shop. For the highly anticipated episode, LeBron and Maverick Carter hosted generational talents such as Bad Bunny, WNBA star Nneka Ogwumike, Paul Rivera, and perhaps most surprisingly, Jay-Z.
As previously reported, Jay-Z admits to forgetting lyrics while on the show, and later on, the 4:44 artist reminisces on boycotting the Grammys in 1999 in support of DMX. Apparently, Jay-Z continues to drop jewels throughout his appearance on The Shop because another clip finds the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee touching on his experience ghostwriting for Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg on “Still D.R.E.”
The topic of ghostwriting begins after Maverick discusses the original Space Jam‘s stacked soundtrack, which contained plenty of bars from a Reasonable Doubt-era Jay-Z. When Maverick asks Hov if he remembers writing the lyrics for Bugs Bunny’s rap, Jay-Z hilariously replies, “Yeah, definitely. I was in Sony Studios acting like a rabbit.”
After a chorus of laughs, the conversation evolves into Jay-Z’s penchant for writing bars from other people’s perspectives, a talent that he predominantly displayed while ghostwriting Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s lyrics for “Still D.R.E.” After another nudge from Maverick, Jay-Z breaks down the entire experience and provides some intriguing new insights.
“Well on that reference track, I’m doing Dre and Snoop’s vocals,” Hov says before doing a live impression of the two legendary West Coast artists. “The reference track, it sounds like them. The Foxy [Brown] reference? I’m glad no one can find them.”
“You’ve gotta have somewhat of a reverence for them,” he continues. “Obviously, the music they were making — The Chronic and all that. In order for me to really nail the essence of Dre and Snoop, [it] had to be like a studied reverence of what they were doing to even put myself in their shoes.”
Stay tuned for more updates on the biggest moments from the season premiere of LeBron James’ “The Shop.”