Jermaine Dupri’s 1998 collaboration with Jay-Z, “Money Ain’t a Thang,” was destined to be after the rapper-producer listened to Reasonable Doubt during a drive.
The artists reunited to perform the song over the weekend on the third and final night of Jay-Z’s residency at Yankee Stadium. “Money Ain’t a Thang” is the final song on Jay-Z’s third album, Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life. On Wednesday (July 15), Dupri reflected on the song’s origins in a Substack post, revealing that he first thought about collaborating with the Roc Nation founder while on his way to XXL’s September, 1998 “A Great Day in Hip Hop” photoshoot.
While traveling to the shoot, Dupri was listening to a mixtape and heard Jay-Z borrowing his cadence from the So So Def remix for Dru Hill’s “In My Bed” on a then-new freestyle. That coincidence combined with the “chatter in the street” that Hov was next up, made JD think that a collaboration would be a good idea.
Soon after, artists would later run into each other, exchange numbers, and set up a future recording session in Atlanta.
Weeks later, Dupri was en route to the airport when he got into “Jay-Z mode” by playing Reasonable Doubt, namely the opening song, “Can’t Knock the Hustle.” It was hearing one specific lyric that sparked Dupri’s idea for “Money.”
“The first time Jay raps, ‘I’m deep in the South, kicking up top game/Bouncing on the highway, switching four lanes/Screaming through the sunroof, ‘Money ain’t a thang…’ I’m like, ‘Hold up!’” Dupri wrote.
“‘Deep in the South’ is the line that really stuck out to me because… What are the odds that *I’m* running a little late, so *I’m* driving fast, and *I’m* switching lanes, feeling like ‘money ain’t a thang’? I say to myself, ‘That’s it! I’ll tell him when he gets in the car that this is gonna be the hook.’”
“Jay came to Atlanta by himself, jumped in the car, and we proceeded down Old National going back and forth about the song,” Dupri continues. “I don’t know how Jay wrote his verse, but by the time we got to my house, he had his verse ready.”
“One idea turned into a conversation, the conversation turned into a session, and the rest became hip-hop history,” he continued.
Dupri concluded by saying that he continues to “think back to that drive down Old National” when hearing the classic song.
The So So Def founder wasn’t the only special guest to join Jay-Z on stage at Yankee Stadium: Beyoncé, Rihanna, Eminem, Pharrell Williams, Jeezy and more were also in on the fun.
