"Dead Presidents 3 (Original Version)" – Jay-Z. Produced by Young Guru. + Jay-Z's Twitter Q&A

Jay-Z attends the 'Magna Carta Holy Grail' album release party at
Pier 41 - Liberty Warehouse on July 3, 2013 in Brooklyn.

Jay-Z's Twitter Q&A Yields Surge in Followers, Full 'Dead Presidents 3'

by William Gruger

Jay-Z is hardly the artist known for his stunts on Twitter (he only tweeted four times in 2012), but on July 8 took the Internet for a ride with a surprise Q&A, answering questions from fans and driving overall awareness for his then soon-to-debut "Magna Carta... Holy Grail."

Well after the Twitter frenzy began, Jay-Z's producer and sound engineer Young Guru was overwhelmed by the activity. "@S_C_ got my timeline going crazy!!!! Hahahaha I just got off a plane I'm not even in front of a computer!!!!" he tweeted before following up a half hour later with a screenshot teasing what he was about to release to the world.

Minutes later, the track itself debuted on Young Guru's Soundcloud page.

#MCHG became the #2 worldwide trending topic at around 10 AM as the tweets started to fly. Two phrases, #mylaugh and #factsonly, which he appended to his early responses while there was still speculation as to whether or not his account had been hacked, also became trending topics.

In the week leading up to the Q&A, there were nearly 1.5 million mentions of Jay-Z and the new album. In the 24 hours surrounding the Q&A, there were over 325,000 mentions, which helped his followers on the platform increase by over 15 times what he would expect on an average day.

"Fans are constantly receiving Tweet responses from their favorite artists on Twitter, but Jay-Z's Q&A was definitely one of the most heavy-volume chats we've seen," said Twitter's Shavone Charles. "Over 100 fans received direct responses from @S_C_ on questions ranging from his favorite Michael Jackson song to his advice for indie artists in the music industry."

Jay-Z followed-up with fans for nearly the entire day, talking about everything from his favorite Michael Jackson and Britney Spears songs, opinions about Miley Cyrus, his experiences working with Nas, and advice to Indie artists. Even Captain Crunch joined in on the conversation after learning of HOV's love for the cereal. — Billboard.com

"Moment Of Clarity" from Jay-Z's Black Album (2003). Produced by Eminem.

DID YOU KNOW? The “original/missing” DP3 verse eventually ended-up on “Moment of Clarity” which was evidently produced by Eminem...and that — Hip-Hop Purists, is the INSIDE KNOWLEDGE!