Show Me What You Got

Song information

It is the first single from his "comeback" album Kingdom Come. It was produced by Just Blaze.

The song samples "Show 'Em Whatcha Got" by Public Enemy. The saxophone loop heard prominently throughout the track is sampled from "Darkest Light" by Michael McEwan, of the Lafayette Afro Rock Band and from Johnny Pate's "Shaft In Africa". The same saxophone loop had also featured in Wreckx-n-Effect's 1992 song "Rump Shaker". The voice sample yelling "Show 'em whatcha got" is Flava Flav's from the aforementioned Public Enemy track. In addition to the samples, live instrumentation was performed on the track by a collective of artists known as 1500 or Nothin'.

It was leaked onto the Internet October 6, 2006, and as a result released officially by Roc-A-Fella Records. The single was released in the UK on December 4, 2006. The single debuted at number 20 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart which is one of 2006's biggest debuts on that chart. The Billboard Hot 100 chart took the song in at number 90 in its first week, and the song has since peaked at #8.

Music video

The music video (directed by F. Gary Gray), debuted on MTV and BET in late October, 2006. It is a homage to several famous scenes from James Bond films of the past including:

The music video features Danica Patrick and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. racing a Pagani Zonda Roadster and a Ferrari F430 Spider, respectively, around Monaco, with some of the turns being the same ones used for the Monaco Grand Prix. The video was featured during the Lexus Halftime Show during Monday Night Football on ESPN.

The video also introduced the champagne brand Armand de Brignac ("Ace of Spades"), and signaled a shift in Jay-Z's champagne tastes; Jay-Z had previously featured Cristal in his videos, but had recently started to boycott this brand, switching to Armand de Brignac with this video. The video features Jay-Z being offered a bottle of Cristal, which he sends back, and the waiter returns instead with a distinctive gold bottle in a silver briefcase. On release of the video, the champagne had not yet been introduced to the market, but two days after the release of the video, Cattier (the producer, trading as Armand de Brignac) issued a press release identifying themselves as the brand in question, and subsequently gained popularity.

A second version similar to the official video was made as a Budweiser commercial.

The video's theme of Jay-Z being "James Bond" was later used in an advertisement by Budweiser. In it, Jay-Z competes in a holographic football video game against Hall of Fame coach Don Shula. This commercial is an homage to Never Say Never Again (an unauthorised James Bond film), where Bond went head-to-head against Maximillian Largo in a video game at the Casino Royale. The ad debuted during Super Bowl XLI

Remixes

Although no official remix has been made, several "Show Me What You Got" versions have been released by many artists.

Track listing

UK - CD

1. "Show Me What You Got"
2. "Can't Knock The Hustle" (featuring Beyoncé)

UK - Vinyl

1. "Show Me What You Got" (edited)
2. "Show Me What You Got" (explicit)
3. "Show Me What You Got" (instrumental)