DJ Khaled | God Did | Album Review

By Jannah Rose

Decided to do this review a couple of listens in because I wasn’t feeling the album after the first listen. In
fact, I took breaks, like I’ll get back to this tomorrow. Khaled is 13 studio albums in now, but did he ‘do it
again?’ Not so much: I would rate this a 5/10. I don’t like way more songs than I do.

Favorite tracks: THESE STREETS KNOW MY NAME, G-D DID, IT AIN’T SAFE
Songs I least connected to USE THIS GOSPEL, BIG TIME, KEEP GOING, PARTY, FAM GOOD, BILLS PAID
Album: G-d Did (The hyphen is me, I’m Jewish and don’t prefer to type the Lord’s name out of respect…
just to preface that Khaled used an ‘o’ when writing it.)

NO SECRET (feat. Drake): Enter Drake saying something about being a bad boy where it is no secret that
he’s top dog. How very Drake. Haha, Drake as a concept always cracks me up. Very fun to watch live,
amazing production, but just as an artist I appreciate that he can’t take himself seriously a lot of the time
either.

G-D DID: Rick Ross makes a super funny reference though. So, first, he says “Please forgive me, G-d did”
to harken back to his 2012 album G-d Forgives, I Don’t, but then. But tHeN. BUT THEN he mentions “So
leave me in the dark, swimmin’ with the sharks” Ahhh, so 6 years ago Khaled got lost at sea while on his
jet ski. This was when Snapchat was super popular so he was on there and posted a million things about
how lost he was. He is his own best mantra maker to stay mentally afloat during a tough situation, but
you could tell he got scared the last number of posts because there weren’t any more positive words to
be said. He eventually made it back to his place, but oooo scary to be lost at sea on his jet ski.
Lil Wayne comes and drops his Da Vinci reference. I’m a fan of Leonardo Da Vinci too, so I get it that he
likes to speak about him in raps time to time. Gives a shout out to Brittney Griner. Hopes are with
Dennis Rodman currently to save her from the consequences in Russia. As a professional eccentric he’s
known to have the ‘in’ with the eccentric and powerful.

Jay-Z raps for literally 5 min! My favorite line from what Jay-Z mentions “My only goal is to make a real
n* feel seen.” He starts with a mention to forgiveness for the drugs he used to deal “Please Lord forgive
me for what the stove did.” Then continues to mention his impact as a businessman. “How many
billionaires can come from Hov crib? Huh I count three, me, Ye, and Rih. Bron’s a Roc boy, so four,
technically” The last part of that means Lebron James has close ties to Roc Nation and the word
technical is a basketball reference. A fun business reference is when he says “I’m at the cap table.” This
is short for a capitalization table where company ownership and shares are discussed. More big money
talk. A shout out to his friend he saved from 10 years of prison, Emory Jones. Jay-Z had written to the
judge saying he would give him a job at Rocawear clothing brand and boom, out of prison and rich
instead of broke at the end of the 10 years. He mentions how he will “out-fox every box” meaning he
and Fox News don’t get along because they don’t give him the credit he deserves as a massive
businessman. His verse is super long, but that’s as deep as I’m going to get.
Next song!

USE THIS GOSPEL (REMIX) (feat. Eminem & Kanye): Honestly, sigh. This is Dr. Dre producing a Kanye
remix for Kanye and Eminem. Just a stellar dream combo you would think. I cannot get past the
repetitive guitar scales happening over the beat. Eminem and Kanye aren’t bad, but just things don’t
jive. It just makes me want to listen to the original. I feel really bad saying this especially when Eminem literally says “’Fore they turn on me like a zombie.” He doesn’t like when people say they like him and
then turn around and hate on him; for the record, I’m not. The Watsons he mentions in a later line is a
slang term for generic hydrocodone, by the way. He never really talks of G-d in his raps so reflecting that
Watsons are shaped like coffins and said he carries a bible now by his side instead of the dictionary
he is known to study is how he tries to relate to DJ Khaled’s album theme. I like “To compare G-dliness
to an atheist,” because he insists that you are an ‘atheist’ if you don’t consider him a Rap-G-d. They try
to turn the beat up at the end, but it feels too late to save the beat during the rest of the track.
BIG TIME (Feat. Future & Lil Baby): Future and Lil Baby say absolutely nothing in this whole song. I might as
well tell you what chick Future is referring to who go his name tatted. It is when he was with Blac Chyna.
He says, “I got more than one main b*tch,” and this is because after she went public with his name on
her hand their relationship went quiet and she got the tattoo removed because she wasn’t his only
main. Don’t bother with this song though. Go listen to Lil Baby elsewhere for the good stuff.

KEEP GOING (feat. Lil Durk, 21 Savage, and Roddy Rich): I’m sorry again, this song feels like practice. Like
they went into the studio without a cohesive picture of what Keep Going feels like to them. I expected to
feel motivated afterward, but the beat seems too busy and my ears got tired. Again, Khaled gets top-tier artists and didn’t guide them right. The only thing I liked was the sound effect when Khaled kept asking
“What else?” after some of the lines. Kinda funny to think of him telling them to keep pushing “keep
going” for more content when they really have nothing else to say. Yeah, that’s what this song is, just
keep saying words keep going, not motivate the hustle. And yes, I heard when Lil Durk said he applies
pressure like Drake did to Pusha T, but for what so what. What I respect is the shout-out for his brother’s
restaurant Phlavz in Chicago. Hope it’s successful.

PARTY (feat. Quavo & Takeoff): The new Migos since Offset left raps to a remix of Eddie Murphy’s Party
All the Time. It sounds exactly like what you’d expect, but not dance-worthy.

STAYING ALIVE (feat. Drake & Lil Baby): So glad they did this one because I was upset after the other Lil
Baby track. Beat layered under a bunch of other sounds but it makes you move around smooth as Drake
knocks out another chorus. Drake is so funny on this line “Four pockets full, now she down on her knees.
Woah, woah…” Sure you could see a woman wanting to give more because your pockets are full and
rich. I see the shout-out to Lil Baby’s record label that he formed, 4 Pockets Full (4PF), followed up by a
reference to his single “Woah” from 2019. After he mentions how the two of them might pass women
back and forth, and that the women try to seal the deal, meaning get pregnant. We all know that Drake
now likes to put hot sauce in his used condoms now to mess up the baby juice so he can’t have another
accidental child.
Lil Baby tells an interesting story though. He says there was a woman who he thought was “down for the
ride” and faithful but was actually “puttin’ on miles” by messing with others. In the end, he doesn’t care
though he says as long as she is also with him still. He also says Drake and him swap girls and that he is
the “definition of P” i.e. a player so they must have had some wild times. I guess after 6 years of his
girlfriend Jayda Cheaves, and rumors of infidelity that caused them to break up in April of this year, Lil
Baby was ready to be his best player self.

BEAUTIFUL (feat. Future & SZA): Much better Future. He mentions how he uses sage nightly and does
mushrooms. That is beautiful. Lots of watch brand mentions here: Audemars Piguet from Future and
Patek Phillipe from SZA. Looked up entry price levels for these watches, 12k. Future gives a real piece of

life advice though, “Whatever you do just stay true and show passion. When you talk, be precise.” That’s
actually great advice. I try, but the length of this review tells me I’m more thorough than precise. Maybe
Future will hire me and give me a “baguette” like he says he gives to all his staff. That’s a cut of diamonds
so it’s like a diamond tennis bracelet. Nice boss.

IT AIN’T SAFE (feat. Nardo Wick & Kodak Black): Pow Pow Bling Baow this is what I like! Those are
sounds from this song. Grunge, motivated, flow is bouncy, thus proving you can say near nothing if
everything else in the song is still energy. A funny line in there from Nardo saying he’s quick to slide in the
DMs like Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player. One line to explain might be “No my phone
ain’t never dead, but I pull up five percent.” He’s saying his windows are tinted super dark on his car.
Stealth mode.

LET’S PRAY (feat. Don Toliver & Travis Scott): Don Toliver is always easy listening. Nothing to discuss
really though. Nice song, buuuuuut… Hello Travis! Haven’t heard from you much since that show.
Welcome back. This is a good first song for you as we await your UTOPIA 4 th studio album that you
mention. Sounds like you’re healing with some peyote lately. Good choice. GIA which he mentions is just
the Gemological Institute of America meaning that all the songs on his album to come will be diamond.
Worth the wait.

FAM GOOD (feat. Roddy Rich & Gunna): Back to a watch shout out I like your more gothic watch choice,
Roddy Rich. The RM (Richard Mille brand) has a skeleton face on it. This chorus I thought was good the
first time I heard it, by the end I was so tired of it though. I’m glad your fam’s good, but this song is a
pass. I like Roddy, but both tracks he’s on here are a no.

BILLS PAID (feat. Latto & City Girls): I just need to poke the hole in this entire song concept. In the chorus
Latto says she is a Bad B*tch and has her own everything. So, if she has her own situation handled how
is what she is asking for just an “upgrade.” She’s asking to be saved from the looks of it. She wants
absolutely everything paid by someone else and she will just be the ‘kitty’ at the end of our day pretty
much. Saying one thing and then taking it back blows the whole song for me and the beat isn’t great
either. Will say I like JT’s honesty about her booty being fake though. It’s just funny to me that while one
City Girl is proud to have an enhancement, the other, Yung Miami, disses those who have veneers. You’d
think City Girls, as a whole, would support beauty body modification.

WAY PAST LUCK (feat. 21 Savage): Mister cool gets his own track! Love 21 and am so happy he has a song in
here other than that KEEP GOING. This line! “Know my worth, I gave myself to many women who didn’t
deserve me.” We never hear men say this!!!! His girlfriend was on the last track, Ms. Latto. They are
super cute in the way they talk about each other. I say this to say that in the song the one who broke his
heart might be Amber Rose? I’m not sure. This is a perfect beat for him. Ebbs in and out of full volume
and has a sample voice in the background. Classic 21.

THESE STREETS KNOW MY NAME (feat. Skillibeng, Buju Banton, Capleton, Bounty Killer, & Sizzla):
Welcome to the best track on the album. No one is mentioning this one, but DJ Khaled has fully
embraced all that these men can give here. The beat: PERFECT. The energy: PERFECT. The depth of
content: PERFECT. You might want to pull up the lyrics for this one because the accents can be a little
tough. I’ve visited Jamaica before and THIS IS THE VIBE. Rough, harsh, colorful, raw. As for their streets,
full of potholes. Haha. I looked up what Jah nation was though. The line says, “When you see Jah nation
(But we tell them), no segregation (So we tell them).” Jah nation was the land that was promised to

people who followed the Rastafarian principles. Saying that since black people have experienced such
intense segregation that Jah nation would be their sanctuary for equal treatment.

Juice WRLD DID (feat. Juice WRLD): I looked into how this collaboration was made because of course it
wasn’t recently. Juice WRLD passed in Dec. 2019, so 3 years ago. Turns out Lil Baby heard DJ Khaled had
started work on his new album and texted him to confirm (guess he hadn’t reached out to Lil Baby for
his features yet at this point) and once Khaled confirmed, Lil Baby texted him not just a verse Juice
WRLD had made for him, but an entire song. My only question is why did Lil Baby wait until this album
to pass the song on. DJ Khaled released Khaled Khaled during April 2021, so that was definitely after he
passed too. A funny phrase is when he calls his gun horny it means that it wants to shoot, and be used. When
he said 999 it was something he was known for as he viewed it as the opposite of the devil’s number when
flipped and with it tatted on his hand helped him focus on rehab and positivity.

JADAKISS INTERLUDE (feat. Jadakiss): the first chunk when he’s talking about New York is a clip from a
Verzuz battle. Jada does a big talk-his-talk after the James Brown verse. He gets really detailed about a
super tough living situation. A picture-this moment.

ASAHD AND AALAM CLOTH TALK: no features, but his 2 sons and his wife, Nicole Tuck, all receive writing
credits. Such a sweet moment where sons mimic the mantra of their dad: “Another one”. To Khaled, a
cloth talk is a serious conversation to bring about business and further prosperity.

GRATEFUL (feat. Vory): The last song on the album is in thanks. Such a great way to end anything and
everything. Good reminder. The reverb on his voice as he fades away is really beautiful. The female voice
through this is Nancy Grandquist.

Overall, I feel like the artists were often not fully inspired when they were writing. Like I could tell they
tried to give their best, but the vibe between artists just didn’t feel cohesive to me. These awesome
artists had the opportunity to make this feel like a motivating playground cipher, but instead the vibe
was often like taking turns presenting your writing to the class and the beats were not always the best
choice.
This album would have been better if a few songs were edited out. Like Travis Scott mentioned on that
track about making sure all the songs were going to be diamond on his album. I wonder if Khaled
doesn’t do that because he figures if he paid for these verses he might as well use them. I hope he stops
that. Let’s get a GIA Khaled album. The potential is there. His beautiful vibe to be your best self in this
world is there, just needs someone to knock off the rubble tracks and pick better beats for the artists.