How I Got My Nickname, ‘One-Take Hov’- Jay Z
During his appearance on CBS Mornings with Gayle King, Jay-Z divulged the origin of his moniker, ‘One-Take Hov’.
The interview also featured a tour of the “Book of HOV” exhibit at the Brooklyn Public Library, which pays tribute to the rapper’s legacy.
“This was when you were recording to actual tape. So, you can’t mess up, ‘cause then you got to go all the way back and cut the tape,” Jay explained as the pair stroll by a display of his master tapes. “That’s where the whole ‘One-Take HOV’ came from. Because if you wanted a fly chorus on this thing, you had to go to dinner. It took an engineer hours to cut the tape… fly it over here… So I start learning my lyrics really good so I could do them one time—you understand—straight down, and I didn’t waste time.”
On Monday, King teased another bit from the interview in which Jay Z finally settled a long-running social media debate that asks fans to choose between lunch with Jigga or a $500,000 check. “You’ve gotta take the money,” the rapper said, noting that his best fiscal wisdom in already in his work. “You’ve got all that in the music for $10.99… I wouldn’t tell you to cut a bad deal. Like, take the $500,000, go buy some albums, and listen to the albums,” he continued. “It’s all there. If you piece it together and really listen to the music for the words, well, what it is, it’s all there.”
The upcoming two-part event will showcase an exclusive tour of the library’s esteemed “Book of HOV” exhibition, a remarkable homage to Jay’s extensive accomplishments. This exhibition encompasses his illustrious Grammy-winning repertoire, and groundbreaking ventures in sports, music, alcohol, film, and public service.
Jay-Z’s daughter, Blue Ivy, holds a contrasting opinion about her father’s coolness on the shared platform. The highly acclaimed rapper and affluent tycoon, who has achieved remarkable success, openly acknowledged that Blue Ivy had previously questioned his ability to exude coolness.
“Blue, she be frontin’ on me a little bit,” Jay said of his 11-year-old, asked by King whether any of his kids think he’s cool. “But I catch her. I catch her in the corner, you know? Now she asks me, you know, if this is cool, if her sneakers [are cool]. She’s come back.”
“But there was a time where she was like, ‘Daaaad,’” he added, doing an impression of Blue’s voice while covering his face in mock embarrassment. “I’m like, ‘I’m cool. I don’t know what you sayin. At your house, your parents is cool.”
