DJ Khaled, God Did: the lyrics and their meaning

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DJ Khaled released his album God Did in August 2022, and it immediately became the most streamed music of the moment. The album is full of over-the-top collaborations, like Use This Gospel, the song that features Eminem and Ye (Kanye West) with those meaningful lyrics (you can find our analysis here). God Did, the title track, is the most popular piece of the album, and it contains what Khaled defined as “the verse of the decade,” Jay-Z’s one. The other rappers featured in this song are Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, John Legend, and Fridayy. This article will analyze the song’s meaning and will provide the complete lyrics at the end.

You can find the song’s official streaming below.

DJ Khaled - GOD DID (Official Audio) ft. Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend, Fridayy

God Did: inside the lyrics and their meaning

God Did is a celebration of the incomparable success the involved rappers had in life. The chorus is clear: nobody believed in them; only God did. And as believers, the artists found strength and motivation in God’s love.

The song is 8 minutes long, and Jay-Z owns the most significant part. Before him, Rick Ross raps about his money, which lets him pay 3 million dollars on taxes without problems, and about being a sinner who needs God’s forgiveness.

Nosedive, they just prayin’ that I crash (Huh)
Those guys, they don’t wanna see you last
They’ll jack up three million dollars up on your tax
A tub full of money, I still can’t relax
Tires spinnin’, Lord forgive me, I’m a sinner
Conquer, divide n**as
Wrong side of the petition, only divine winnin’
Better listen when I tell you how I put time in it
Please, forgive me, God did

Then Lil Wayne claims that his success was totally against the odds and feels like his talent is a beautiful creation of God. He wishes he had fewer haters, and, in his last lines, he presents himself as a good guy through the symbol of the one who prays and practices safe sex.

Please, don’t hate me just to hate me
Before they overrate me, they gon’ underestimate me
Funeral and wake me, bury me and excavate me
But I’m so cultivating, everybody replicate me, n**a, face facts
Dreadlocks, face tats, I’m the apex
I made the culture, what up, twin? Never laid back
I f**ed the world and when I did, I practiced safe sex
I pray more and said less, God did the rest

Jay-Z’s verse lasts four minutes and obviously caught everybody’s attention. In his lines, The American rapper tells the story of his life, from being a drug dealer in his first years, until becoming the first millionaire rapper in history, in 2019. He’s still shocked by the way his life went: Jay-Z managed to come out clean from his criminal period, he became an honest businessman, and he was even featured in Forbes many times for his Monogram business, which legally sells marijuana. He finds it ironic that once all that was illegal, and now he gets covered in a famous magazine for selling weed.

Hov did
Please, Lord forgive me for what the stove did
Nobody touched the billi’ until Hov did
How many billionaires can come from Hov crib? Huh
I count three, me, Ye and Rih
Bron’s a Roc boy, so four, technically (Woo)
I left the dope game with my record clean, huh
I turned the coc***a into champagne, huh
I cleaned up la madrina with the same soap, huh
Me and Loro talk ’bout how we slang dope, huh
Now the weed in stores, can you believe this, Ty?
I put my hustle onto Forbes, can you believe this guy?

How is one of his nicknames, so beginning his lines with “Hov did” means comparing himself to a God of rap (it will come again later in his verse). He’s proud of the number of billionaires he helped to make: besides himself, he counts Ye (Kanye West), Rihanna, and the basketball player LeBron James. Then the part recalling his past as a drug dealer emerges. He mentions how now he’s a businessman, sitting at the capitalization tables of big companies, and feels like he’s still a street boy that just went bigger.

Judge it how you judge it, say we goin’ corporate
Nah, we just corner boys with the corner office
I’m at the cap table, what the splits is?

His lines are full of wordplays and double meanings, but the message is that he feels amazed by how he became what he is now. Jay-Z knows he’s a model for many young black guys who want to be rappers, and he admits that sometimes he also represents a wrong model, but that’s because of his past life.

Hov is a real n**a’s dream
My only goal, to make a real n**a feel seen
Sometimes, it make a fake n**a hate life
Never my intention, the consequences of my way of life
The way we used to play with life

The last part of his verse talks about all his money and how good it feels to be able to make those revenues legally. And in the latest lines, the rapper claims to be the G.O.A.T., the Greatest Of All Time, with a fascinating wordplay juxtaposing goats and donkeys. He also compares himself to Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam Minister who, in an interview, said that the U.S.A. should keep quiet and show no superiority, then noted that “it’s his passion talking.”

Next time we have a discussion who the G.O.A.T., you donkeys know this
Forgive me, that’s my passion talkin’ (Haha)
Sometimes I feel like Farrakhan (Haha) talkin’ to Mike Wallace (Haha)
I think y’all should keep quiet
Breaks my heart (Haha)

God Did will remain one of the most influential rap songs of the year and will be analyzed still for a long time. We suggest you delve into all the annotations fans added on Genius to find more fascinating details about the song’s lyrics. But the meaning stays what we explained here: we are what we are, among the most successful rappers of all time, because we believed in ourselves. And it was just God and us doing so.

Read other popular song lyrics and their meaning on Auralcrave

The complete lyrics

(DJ Khaled)
It breaks my heart
They ain’t believe in us
We the Best Music
They played themselves
While you hatin’ and being jealous
You could be over here embracing that love
More love, more blessings, more life
GOD DID (GOD DID)
You either win with us or you watch us win
DJ Khaled

(Fridayy & Rick Ross)
They wanted us down, ooh-woah
But look at us now, oh
They counted us out (Time to say a prayer, M-M-M—)
They didn’t think that we would make it, oh (May we bow our heads)
They didn’t believe in us, oh (Huh)

But I know God did, God did (Oh, yes, He did)
Oh, God did (Oh-oh, Khaled)
Oh, yes, God did (Oh-oh, Khaled)
Oh, God did (God is great)
But I know God did

(Rick Ross)
Nosedive, they just prayin’ that I crash (Huh)
Those guys, they don’t wanna see you last
They’ll jack up three million dollars up on your tax
A tub full of money, I still can’t relax
Tires spinnin’, Lord forgive me, I’m a sinner
Conquer, divide n**as
Wrong side of the petition, only divine winnin’
Better listen when I tell you how I put time in it
Please, forgive me, God did
So leave me in the dark, swimmin’ with the sharks
Dope boy, big calm, still the biggest boss
Got a kilo on a plate, send ’em on a freight
Or I can go and buy a bank, I know my money’s safe (Maybach Music)

(Fridayy)
They counted us out
They didn’t think that we would make it, oh
They didn’t believe in us, oh

(Fridayy & Lil Wayne)
But I know God did, God did (Oh, yes, He did)
Oh, God did (Oh-oh)
Oh, yes, God did (Oh-oh)
Oh (Mula)
But I know God did (Uh)

(Lil Wayne)
Sky is the limit, every day I reach
They was tired of me winnin’, now they dead sleep
Don’t wan’ see me with the ring? You better play D’
N**a, God did His thing when He made me
With the odds stacked against me, I could crack Da Vinci
I know only God can judge us, I say that for Brittney
They smell blood like the sharks, they start actin’ fishy
Well, I’ma have to act a a– and they gon’ have to kiss me
Please, don’t hate me just to hate me
Before they overrate me, they gon’ underestimate me
Funeral and wake me, bury me and excavate me
But I’m so cultivating, everybody replicate me, n**a, face facts
Dreadlocks, face tats, I’m the apex
I made the culture, what up, twin? Never laid back
I f**ed the world and when I did, I practiced safe sex
I pray more and said less, God did the rest

(Fridayy & JAY-Z)
They counted us out
They didn’t think that we would make it, oh
They didn’t believe in us (It breaks my heart), oh

(Fridayy & JAY-Z)
But I know God did (Where we at Gu?), God did (Oh, yes, He did, where we at Gu?)
Oh, God did (Oh-oh)
Oh, yes, God did (Oh-oh)
Oh, God did
But I know God did

(JAY-Z)
Hov did
Please, Lord forgive me for what the stove did
Nobody touched the billi’ until Hov did
How many billionaires can come from Hov crib? Huh
I count three, me, Ye and Rih
Bron’s a Roc boy, so four, technically (Woo)

I left the dope game with my record clean, huh
I turned the coc**a into champagne, huh
I cleaned up la madrina with the same soap, huh
Me and Loro talk ’bout how we slang dope, huh
Now the weed in stores, can you believe this, Ty?
I put my hustle onto Forbes, can you believe this guy?
Then we said, “F**k it,” took the dope public

Out the mud, they gotta face you now, you can’t make up this s**t
Judge it how you judge it, say we goin’ corporate
Nah, we just corner boys with the corner office
I’m at the cap table, what the splits is?
Not that cap table, boy, we live this
Breezy what the business is
We pushin’ Fenty like Fentanyl, the s**t is all legitimate (Woo)
E was down ten for this
We just got his ten back then went back like, “Where the interests is?”
Em light up the O3
We let y’all do the zazas, OG for the OGs

Some new n**as out of pocket, talkin’ exotic
You barely been to the Baham— (Haha) that’s another topic
Monogram in my pocket off the red carpet
You see the face I made that night, s**t is that shockin’
Odds wasn’t great, we’d even be alive
Gotta be crazy to y’all n**as, we surprised
S**t is too much how we grew up (Grew up)
S**t don’t even feel real to us (Damn)

OG sold to those, you called kingpin
If those your drug lords, then who are we then?
Hov is a real n**a’s dream
My only goal, to make a real n**a feel seen
Sometimes, it make a fake n**a hate life
Never my intention, the consequences of my way of life
The way we used to play with life
I’m now careful with the sentences, them only jail bars I like (Woo)

I never wanted to be the state custodian (Come on)
The laws are draconian (Come on, Hov)
For those married to the life (Come on), it’s holy matrimony and (Come on)
Somehow, I’ll out-fox every box they’ll try to throw me in (Come on)
With great ceremony and
Folk and ‘nem told me how highly Caddy spoke of him
And bloke and ‘nem from London, Harold Road, Weston Inn

I be speakin’ to the souls of men
Those of them willin’ to die for the existence that this cold world has chose for them
Kickin’ snow off a frozen Timb (Woo)
Back and forth on this turnpike, really took a toll on ’em
Lot of fallen soldiers on these roads of sin
For those who make the laws, I’ma always have smoke for them
I got lawyers like shooters
Workin’ pro bono for him as a favor ’cause I throw them Ms
In memory of Teelo

I pray none of your people die over jailphones again
All this pain from the outside, inspired all this growth within
So new planes gettin’ broken in
Highest elevation of the self
They done f**ed around and gave the right n**as wealth

These ain’t songs, these is hymns ’cause I’m him
It’s the Psalm 151, this New Testament
The book of Hov (The book of Hov)
Jesus turned water to wine, for Hov, it just took a stove
You never know how this s**t could go
Me and Biggs probably got too big if they ain’t book that load (What’s up Hoffa?)
Hindsight is 20/20

Though he’s gettin’ plenty money, lookin’ back now this s**t is funny

I just got a million off a sync
Without riskin’ a million years tryna get it out the sink (Woo)
Hov did
They said they don’t know me internationally, n**as on the road did
I see a lot of Hov in Giggs
Me and Meek could never beef, I freed that n**a from a whole bid
Hov did (Hov did)
Next time we have a discussion who the G.O.A.T., you donkeys know this
Forgive me, that’s my passion talkin’ (Haha)
Sometimes I feel like Farrakhan (Haha) talkin’ to Mike Wallace (Haha)
I think y’all should keep quiet
Breaks my heart (Haha)
God did

(Fridayy & JAY-Z)
They wanted us down, ooh-woah (Come on, man)
But look at us now, oh
They counted us out
They didn’t think that we would make it, oh
They didn’t believe in us, oh

(Fridayy, John Legend, Fridayy & John Legend)
But I know God did, God did (Oh, yes, He did)
Oh, God did (Oh-oh)
Oh, yes, God did (Oh-oh)
Oh, God did
But I know God did, God did (Oh, yes, He did)
Oh, God did (Oh, God did)
Oh, yes, God did (He did)
Oh-oh-oh, God did

(John Legend)
Yeah
And you may not believe, but I know God did
Oh, God did (God did)
God did (God did)
Oh-oh
But I know God did
He did it
Oh, He did it, yeah, yeah
God did
God did
God did
Yeah