Dead Presidents
by Rick Ross (featuring Jeezy & Future & Yo Gotti)

Album: Rather You Than Me (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • This hard-hitting street anthem finds Rick Ross, Future, Jeezy and Yo Gotti spitting bars about increasing their bank accounts. The song title is a reference to the faces of dead U.S. presidents on money.

    "Power is money, and we just wanted to break that down," Rozay explained To MTV News. "I wanted to get myself, Young Jeezy, Future, Yo Gotti, representing being the foundation of the South, and just get on a track."
  • All three featured MCs were busy releasing and promoting projects at the time Ross wanted to get them on the song, but he still managed to get them all spitting rhymes on the get-money anthem.

    "Me and Jeezy sat down, we had dinner in New York City one night, and we were just discussing possibilities, and we both exchanged ideas," he explained. "The next day, we switched beats with each other. We gave each other an ETA for when we could expect that back. Me and Yo Gotti, we were in the same city, we linked up, we went in the studio together. Me and Future, we're always on the phone back and forth."
  • The hip-hop tradition of using the phrase "dead presidents," originated with Eric B. & Rakim's "Paid In Full" ("Thinkin how could I get some dead presidents. I need money, I used to be a stick-up kid.") It was further popularized on such songs as Jay Z's "Dead Presidents II."

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