"Space Jam" 20: The time Jay Z ghostwrote for Bugs Bunny

With all this talk about “Space Jam” on its 20 year anniversary, now seemed like the best time to revisit one of the biggest collaborations featured on the film’s soundtrack.

Besides tracks like the posse cut “Hit ‘Em High” featuring the likes of B-Real, Busta Rhymes and LL Cool J to name a few, the one song titled “Buggin’” by Bugs Bunny is a notable highlight. Besides featuring the famous bunny, herein lies a collaboration featuring one of the biggest rappers ever blessing the most iconic cartoon characters of all time with lyrics such as, “Like Trump’s wife, up to my ears in carats (carrots)/Not even the barber can fade the rabbit.”

Months after wowing the underground rap world with his debut album Reasonable Doubt, a then burgeoning Jay Z made a splash on the 1996 soundtrack, landing on not one but two tracks. Among these tracks was “Buggin’,” a song starring Bugs Bunny with lines penned by Hov.

While Jay hasn’t fully detailed the making of the track in any interviews, Reggie “Combat Jack” Ossé, who is also an entertainment lawyer, once discussed working with Roc-A-Fella to secure the deal with Warner Bros. In a 2012 interview. “We did a licensing deal for Jay to ghostwrite lyrics for the Bugs Bunny character for the Space Jam’s soundtrack,” he confirmed. “Warner Brothers took some time in getting Jay’s fee to him. Damon used to pressure the shit out of me to pressure the shit out of Warner Brothers.”

According to the e-streets, there is audio of Jay’s vocals for the song floating somewhere, but of course, that has yet to be discovered. What we do have however, is a good example of a line the Jiggaman left us with back in 1998 on a song called “Ride Or Die”: “And for the right price, I could even make your shit tighter.”