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Jay-Z is celebrating a major milestone in his legendary career by officially releasing the original version of his classic track “Dead Presidents” to streaming platforms for the first time, marking the song’s 30th anniversary.
The move gives fans access to the original version that helped establish Jay-Z as one of Hip-Hop’s most promising lyricists in the mid-1990s. Built around a memorable Nas sample and driven by Jay’s sharp reflections on money, ambition, and survival, “Dead Presidents” became an early cornerstone in his rise and laid the foundation for his iconic debut album Reasonable Doubt.
In addition to releasing the original track, Jay-Z also made a symbolic change by reverting his name on streaming platforms to its original spelling, “JAŸ-Z,” the same stylization he used when the song first dropped three decades ago. In recent years, his name had appeared as “JAŸ-Z” in all caps.
The anniversary release serves as both a nostalgic moment for longtime fans and a reminder of the Brooklyn rapper’s enduring legacy. Thirty years later, “Dead Presidents” remains one of the defining records that introduced the world to a future Hip-Hop mogul.
