JAY-Z referenced a very specific moment in time in one of his bars on “Public Service Announcement,” which former NBA player Smush Parker was a part of.
On the 2003 smash, Hov raps, “My homie Strict told me, ‘Dude, finish your breakfast!’” During a sit-down with Rucker Park Streetball’s official Instagram account last month, Parker explained that the line was in reference to a failed dunk while he was playing at the Rucker against John Strick.
When Smush failed to make the shot, Strick gave him a side eye and told him, “Yo, young fella – you gotta finish your breakfast.”
Jay happened to be in the audience at the time and was apparently so tickled by the interaction, that he wrote it into one of his biggest songs to date.
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Just Blaze was responsible for laying down the musical foundation for the aforementioned track from JAY-Z’s The Black Album – but according to the producer, the LP was already turned in before he came across the inspiration for the song.
“The Black Album was done, it was handed in,” said Blaze, during an interview with REVOLT in 2013. “My two contributions were ‘December 4th’ and the intro [‘Interlude’], which I was fine with. And we’re at Battery [Studios] mixing something. One of my best friends by the name Big Jack comes in the studio, ‘I got something you gotta hear.’”
The multi-platinum producer continued: “I put the headphones on and he puts this record on and all you heard was ‘doom-doom-doom-doom-doom’ and I’m just sitting there like ‘What is about to happen?’”
Just later revealed that he created the beat for the song in about 10 minutes and was able to submit the track to Jay the next day, which ironically was the same day the Brooklyn rapper was taking part in a handful of The Black Album listening sessions for the press.
“So, I made the ‘PSA’ beat in the headphones while the engineer was mixing one of the records we was working on,” he said. “I made the beat in like 10 minutes and I ran over to the studio and Jay had—around the corner, back to Baseline [Studios] and Jay had left already. So, the next day Jay’s doing listening sessions for the press for The Black Album…I’m like ‘Nah, you gotta come in here.’ And I play it and at first his reaction was just like and I’m like ‘Do you not hear what we’re all hearing?’”
“In between hours of press he would come in, drop four bars, go do another press round, come back in drop four more bars, go to the press room, come back in scrap the first eight bars and just get a whole new eight bars and add four more bars, and go to the press room,” said the producer.
“Which means as he’s doing the press he’s thinking about this beat in the back of his mind. Coming up with the song…,” Just Blaze concluded. “By the end of the night he’s like ‘Alright, let me hear it.’ And he’s like ‘nah’ and he walks out. So, he comes in the next day. Spits the whole thing over in one take…Two or three weeks later we’re at the Garden and the entire arena knows the words.”
