Yung Guru Recalls “Crazy” Story Behind JAY-Z’s Verse On Drake’s “Talk Up” 

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Drake’s recent 100MB content dump stirred up some memories for Young Guru, who recalled a wild story about JAY-Z recording his verse for Scorpion cut “Talk Up.” 


Earlier this week, Drake unleashed a treasure trove of content, including unreleased music and videos giving fans a glimpse behind the scenes.  

One such clip featured Drake anxiously awaiting a verse from JAY-Z, who only had hours to turn it around despite being in the middle of a show.  

“He’s going to get off stage, shower, probably have a drink and then set back up with Guru [to write and record],” Drake says in the clip. “That process is gonna be two hours.” 

JAY-Z’s longtime engineer, Young Guru, hopped on Instagram to fill in the rest of the details, revealing Hov’s desperate dash to record.  

“The story behind this is beyond crazy,” Guru said, recalling Hov had a tiny window to lay his verse while performing on the On The Run II Tour.  

“He literally wrote the verse after doing a full two hour show,” he said. “He literally wrote the verse after doing a full two hour show.” 

Instagram/Young Guru

JAY-Z Set Up A Mock-Studio In The Concert Venue To Record His Verse For Drake

In a follow-up post, Guru explained he was due to perform at the afterparty, so he only had two hours to record JAY-Z’s verse.  

“HOV hit me and simply said ‘set up a studio in the venue,’” he added. “The Promotor waited in parking lot for two hours and I can’t tell him why I’m late. By the time HOV finished the internet that we set up from Livenation is gone. Everyone is gone. I had to tether my phone to my computer to send the session to @ovo40.” 

Thankfully, they managed to pull it off, and Guru even made it to the afterparty in time for his set. “When y’all hear this work I sometimes wonder if you understand how much goes into it!!!!” he exclaimed. “Classic Nights!!!! And I killed my set lol.”