"Who's Real" is a song by American rapper

Jadakiss Jason Terrance Phillips (born May 27, 1975), better known by his stage name Jadakiss (, ), is an American rapper who began his career in the 1990s and formed the hip hop trio the Lox alongside Styles P and Sheek Louch in 1994. The group signed w ...

, released June 16, 2009 as the fourth single from his third studio album '' The Last Kiss''. The song features

guest appearance The term guest appearance generally denotes the appearance of a guest in an artistic or pop-culture setting. The guests themselves (referred to as guest artists, featured artists, guest stars, or guest fighters, depending on context), are disting ...

s from fellow American rappers OJ da Juiceman and

Swizz Beatz Kasseem Daoud Dean (born September 13, 1978), known professionally as Swizz Beatz, is an American rapper and record producer. Born and raised in the Bronx borough of New York City, Dean embarked on his musical career as a DJ in 1994. At the age ...

, the latter of whom produced the track.

Background

The original version had a longer second verse: after Juiceman's lines follow the lines by Jusmula (beginning with "It's real funny when a nigga play a C.L.,/ O.S.E., I be trippin' like G.L." and so on). It also contained the word "bastards" in Jada's line "Couple of flips and then stash it, bastards", which got blocked out in the final version, so it would be totally without profanities.

Music video

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

was directed by Taj and shot on May 13, 2009. There are cameo appearances from

Ja Rule Jeffrey Bruce Atkins (born February 29, 1976), better known by his stage name Ja Rule (), is an American rapper, singer, and actor. Born and raised in New York City, Ja Rule became known for blending gangsta rap with pop rap, pop and contempo ...

Clipse Clipse, also known as the Clipse, is an American hip-hop, hip hop duo from Virginia Beach, Virginia. Formed in 1994, it consists of brothers No Malice, Gene "Malice" and Pusha T, Terrence "Pusha T" Thornton. Pusha T was known as Terrar during t ...

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer and record producer. One of the most prominent figures in hip-hop, he is known for his varying musical style and polarizing cultural and political commentary. After ...

, Clyde Carson, DJ Webstar, Grafh, and

Styles P David R. Styles (born November 28, 1974), better known by his stage name Styles P (also known Mononymous person, mononymously as Styles), is an American rapper, best known as a member of East Coast hip hop group the Lox. Formed with fellow rappe ...

. There are also various Ruff Ryders Lifestyles members with their motorbikes featured in the video. The music video was released as the “Jam of the Week” on

MTV Jams Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting Black American audiences. It is the flagship channel of the BET Media Group, a subsidiary of Paramount Global's CBS Entertainment Group. Originally launched as ...

on June 10, 2009.

Remix

On June 9, 2009, American rapper DMX's verse from the

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

leaked onto the internet. The whole remix was released on June 10. It features Jadakiss’ fellow D-Block cohorts Sheek Louch and

, along with

Eve Eve is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop through oral traditions and there ...

, Drag-On, DMX and Swizz Beatz. Dubbed the “ Ruff Ryders remix”, it sparked a long-awaited unification of the Ruff Ryders Entertainment.

In media

The single's instrumental was used for a

Powerade Powerade is a sports drink created in 1988 and distributed by the Coca-Cola Company. Its primary competitor is Gatorade, which is owned by PepsiCo since 2001. History Powerade was created by the Coca-Cola Company and first released in 1988. Th ...

commercial, and for the Wake Up Calls on ''The Rickey Smiley Morning Show''.

Charts

References

{{OJ da Juiceman 2009 singles Jadakiss songs Swizz Beatz songs OJ da Juiceman songs Roc-A-Fella Records singles Ruff Ryders Entertainment singles Def Jam Recordings singles Song recordings produced by Swizz Beatz Songs written by Jadakiss Songs written by Swizz Beatz