Dead Presidents (song)
"Dead Presidents" is the first single released in promotion by rapper Jay-Z from his debut album Reasonable Doubt. The title is slang for money because portraits of dead United States presidents appear on most US currency. The song's producer Ski samples Lonnie Liston Smith's "A Garden of Peace" for the track's melody and "Oh My God (Remix)" for its percussion. The single was a commercial success as indicated by its RIAA certification as a gold single in June 1996.
The actual single "Dead Presidents" does not appear on Jay-Z's debut album, but instead "Dead Presidents II" does. "Dead Presidents II" has the same beat and chorus as the original, but different lyrics.
"Dead Presidents I" is often regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop songs ever recorded. "Dead Presidents II" was voted #16 in About.com's Top 100 Rap Songs.
Read more about Dead Presidents (song): Feud With Nas, Production, Dead Presidents 3, Remixes
Famous quotes containing the words dead and/or presidents:
“Every boy was supposed to come into the world equipped with a father whose prime function was to be our father and show us how to be men. He can escape us, but we can never escape him. Present or absent, dead or alive, real or imagined, our father is the main man in our masculinity.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“Our presidents have been getting to be synthetic monsters, the work of a hundred ghost- writers and press agents so that it is getting harder and harder to discover the line between the man and the institution.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)