Last week on People’s Party with Talib Kweli, Kweli and cohost Jasmin Leigh sat with the iconic producer, Just Blaze. The “Megatron Don” is the craftsman behind some of the biggest records in the history of hip-hop and in one segment Jasmin inquired about the song “Girls, Girls, Girls’,” and the origin story behind it. Blaze’s answer blew her and Kweli away.
In the video above, Just Blaze reveals that the song was one of the first tracks they made for the iconic album The Blueprint. The beat was originally intended for Ghostface Killah, of the Wu-Tang Clan.
“About a year and a half before The Blueprint was even a thought that record was already done,” Just says. The smooth soulful bounce on the track was rooted in a sample from Soul singer Tom Brock and caught the planet by storm.
He goes on to say that one day Hov came into the studio ready to record and had a beat from an emerging producer named Kanye West. Just Blaze said the soundscape Jigga envisioned was to sample rich soul classics throughout the album.
“I just got this CD from Ye,” Just recalls Jay-Z saying. “Let’s go.”
Blaze asked him, “So what we doin’?”
Jay Z responded, “We’re back to the soul music.”
“So the first thing I think of is that Ghost beat,” Just says. ” Ghost is my brother now. But at the time I didn’t know Ghost like that. I did not have a link to him. I can hold out and pray that I meet Ghost one day. Or, this is the chamber that Jay is in right now, boom!”
Remarkably he reveals the majority of that groundbreaking album was recorded over a span of three days. “We started on a Friday, by Sunday all the core songs were done. Most of my stuff and most of Jay’s stuff was done.”
As for the album’s breakout hit, the chorus features with Slick Rick, Biz Markie and Q-Tip were strategically chosen, Just explains.
“Because of the feel of the record we wanted voices that everybody knew but were considered old school voices. They were still making records but they were voices that had been on records for years. We wanted it to have familiarity and we wanted to feel like hip-hop. It was a conscious ode to a different time, and a different sound.”
The end result was a song and a video by Jay Z that the world will never forget.
To learn more about Just Blaze and the making of some of the best records in the history of Hip-hop watch Peoples Party with Talib Kweli and Jasmin Leigh. Also, be sure to watch Just Blaze in episode 1 of his new Uproxx show, Fresh Pair, below.