Lupe Fiasco Freestyles Over JAY-Z’s ‘Hovi Baby’ – Which He Originally Helped Produce

Lupe Fiasco is celebrating Halloween and JAY-Z’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by spitting a new freestyle over “Hovi Baby.”

Titled “Not a Costume,” the Chicago emcee dropped the two-minute song on Monday (November 1) that finds him rapping over Just Blaze’s 2002 instrumental from The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse.

“I went to Halloween as a vaccinated person,” he raps. “Boo, beware of the n-ggas from the west/Might scare n-gga to death, blеss/Might just impair a n-gga for wreck.”

A little known fact is Lupe Fiasco actually helped produce JAY-Z’s “Hovi Baby” — years before releasing his own music.

Just Blaze took to Twitter in January 2016 to reveal, “[For what it’s worth], @LupeFiasco played all the drums on ‘Hovi Baby.’”

So when JAY-Z says, “Right now, I want you to give the drummer some/No ma, really, give the drummer some,” he’s actually referring to Lupe Fiasco.

FWIW, @LupeFiasco played all the drums on "Hovi Baby"

— Crime Rhyme Houdini (@JustBlaze) January 27, 2016

JAY-Z executive produced Lupe Fiasco’s debut album Food & Liquor in 2006 and featured on the song “Pressure.” Hov also played a key role in Lupe signing to Atlantic Records, which his mentor and business partner, Charles “Chilly” Patton, broke down to HipHopDX in 2016.

“JAY-Z hit me like, ‘Yo, I’m coming to Atlantic Records. I’m going to to be the president of Atlantic Records.’” he relayed. “L.A. Reid was my man. I introduced L.A. Reid to JAY-Z. That’s how they got tight. So Jay’s like, ‘I’m coming to Atlantic. I need you and Lupe over at Atlantic with me.’ I’m like, ‘Cool.’ I’m thinking Jay’s coming to Atlantic so I do the deal.”

He continued, “When I get out [of jail], Jay hit me, I’ll never forget it, at two in the morning, like, ‘Yo, L.A. [Reid] hit me [and offered me the president of Def Jam]. I’ll give you your masters, I’ll give you this, I’ll give you this.’ It was a courtesy call on some brother shit, but really he was telling me he wasn’t coming to Atlantic.

“I’m like, ‘N-gga, you’d be stupid not to fuck with L.A. This n-gga is giving you your masters back. This n-gga’s making you president.’ You know, the whole shit with him and Dame [Dash] was crumbling. I’m like, ‘Yo, n-gga, you fixing to be that n-gga. I’m not salty.’ We cool because I could’ve went with anybody.”

Revisit “Hovi Baby” below.