DJ Clue is Trying to Get Jay-Z Back in the Studio
The mixtape legend says he’s been sending Hov everything from mixtapes to unheard beats to try and get him motivated to record.
Jay-Z and DJ Clue attend the 2008 Powerhouse concert at IZOD Center on October 28, 2008 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Johnny Nunez
DJ Clue has been trying to get Jay-Z back into recording. The legendary DJ spoke to Billboard about how he built his mixtape career, as well as his early impressions of J. Cole. During the interview, Clue explained that he still talks to Jay-Z regularly and he’s been doing everything he can to get the Brooklyn rap icon back into making music regularly.
“We speak all the time and I send him s—t sometimes, but my motivation for sending to him? It’s to get him in the booth,” Clue explained. “That was my real motivation because when I’m around him here and there, I’m like, ‘Yo, when we doing something?’ And he’d be kind of standoffish sometimes, like he’s not sure. And I get it because at this point, what’s he gonna talk about? He’s done talked about damn near everything. You got to be in a certain zone.”
Jay recently mentioned Clue in an interview with GQ where he shared that Clue sent him a J. Cole mixtape. Clue says it was all meant to get Jay-Z going and remind Jay of their earlier days.
“I also thought he would enjoy it because I feel like that was a special era when we were running around the clubs every night,” Clue shares. “I would drag him out and I would take a new record to give to the DJ to play, so we could see how the record sounds and how people in the club would react to it.”
DJ Clue says he’s shared music with Jay in the hopes of it connecting, but he’s still waiting for something to catch fire between him and the superstar.
“I had sent him this one specific beat that I thought was so fire for him, but he ain’t really react to it,” he explains. “I think he was still going through s—t and I wanted to have him put his air on it and get his mind over things, you know? Music is therapeutic for everybody, even when I think about situations like when I lost my dad. When you have those type of moments, any music you would listen to or what you were doing or where you were at is always gonna be embedded in your memory. It’s just one of those things that just helps you through tough times.”
