Vet hip hop artist, Ice-T revealed Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” was originally his song. In a video spotted on HHL, the 64-year-old explained how the iconic track ended up on Jay-Z’s 2004 album, The Black Album.
“And out of nowhere he said, ‘Man I got 99 problems and a bitch ain’t one.’ I said ‘What?’ I said ‘That’s a song.’ Ice T said, referencing his conversation with 2 Live Crew’s Brother Marquis.
“So I made the song and then I called [Brother] Marquis up and he did a verse on it. That was it,” Ice-T explained in the clip. “Chris Rock heard the song, told Rick Rubin JAY-Z should remake it. Jay heard the song, they paid for the publishing and they made the song.”
The Law & Order: SVU star went on to question why Jay never made it publicly known that the song was originally his.
“Okay. Why JAY-Z never said this is Ice-T’s song? Show me some love,” he added. “Me and JAY are friends. I met JAY with Big Daddy Kane. That’s just another way of handling the situation. I handled the situation differently. If I use your music I want to let people know,” Ice-T said.
Fans in the comments argued Jay no longer needed to acknowledge the OG creator after paying for the publishing rights.
“He didn’t acknowledge it because of the “paid the publishing” part,” one person commented in support of Jay.
“Guess Jay said long as I paid for the publishing rights then that was enough,” another person added.
Others kept the ‘Ether’ rhetoric of Jay-Z being a style biter.
“I have never heard Jay a knowledge any of the people he bit lyrics from,” wrote one person in the comments.
“You’re not a writer you’re a biter” another person said, flipping Jay-Z’s “I’m not a biter, I’m a writer” lyrics from What More Can I Say.
“Dame Dash been trying to tell us about Jay Z,” wrote another person in the comments.
Jay-Z released “99 Problems” as the third single from The Black Album. The chorus hook “I got 99 problems, but a bitch ain’t one” is taken from the Ice-T single “99 Problems” from his 1993 album “Home Invasion.”
Ice-T revised his version of the song several years later on Body Count’s fifth album “Manslaughter.” In a 2014 interview with Vulture, he explained he decided to revise the 1993 track because Jay never game him props for the line and he wanted to reclaim it.
“99 Problems” is a sucker punch, so that a journalist will say “Oh, Ice-T remade Jay Z’s record.” No, Ice made that record 11 years before Jay Z,” he said.
“I thought his version was dope, but Jay didn’t go out of his way to mention that it was a remake. In rehearsal, the band would play those licks from Jay’s record to tease me, and I would get up and say the original lyrics. So I decided that I would reclaim it on this album,” Ice-T continued.
You can listen to his version below and let us know what you think in the comments.
