Jay-Z and Kanye West dropped their first single, "H.A.M.," on Tuesday, but their record may have overshadowed another "ham" song: Yung Joc and Gucci Mane's "Going Ham" leaked over the weekend.
The tracks aren't related, nor do they have anything to do with a choice cut of pig: The Jay and 'Ye song name is actually an acronym that stands for "Hard As a Mother----er," while Joc and Gucci's version is based on the Atlanta term "going ham," which is a derivative of mayhem. Joc admits most people may not even know the term's origin.
"I think people don't realize it," he explained. "You take a word and cut it down; we've got nicknames for everything. The average person, they don't know what it means; they just hear the saying. They understand the understanding of the word: Everybody is going crazy, having a good time, 'going ham.' "
Joc, who wasn't at all bothered by the song titles' similarities, said he and Gucci had been kicking it a lot recently, even though they didn't have a chance to go to the studio to record. He sent Gucci a record, which eventually became Joc's second single, "What She Like," but he didn't think Gucci's verse fit the song.
"I ended up calling Yo Gotti, and Yo Gotti got on the record," Joc said. "[He] followed the idea of where we were going with the record."
But a song just right for a Gucci collaboration did come along.
"I went in with Ike Dirty, Isaac Hayes' son, and when he first played the beat I said, 'Man, I swear this sounds like something that could be for Gucci,' " Joc remembered. "And I was just sitting there listening: 'Man, that's crazy. I already got a record with him, but I could use his verse for this.' In the studio, we played around with it for a little bit. It synced up, and I was like, 'Hell yeah, let's go with it.' "
Joc said he didn't know who leaked "Going Ham" or how they did it.
"That's not even a mixed version or a complete version because we got a lot more drop and a lot more sound effects with the record, but y'all got it now," he said. "Y'all calling me about it."
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