Jim Jones recently opened up to HipHopDX about the making of his hit song "We Fly High," which features his famous "Ballin'" ad-lib.
Around the 35-minute mark, Jones explained that he used the ad-lib in earlier songs, but it was popularized with the 2006 hit. He then revealed that 2Pac inspired the ad-lib, as he stated, "I took that balling ad-lib from 2Pac. But I put that balling ad-lib in a sh*t load of my records and all of my records. It’s just that record, at that time, the way I said it, it just sonically came out correct. It connected more than anything else on the record and sh*t like that."
Jim went on to explain how Michael Strahan, who was playing for the Giants when the song dropped, helped catapult the song into popular culture. He explained, "Then when the video came and I did the hand gesture, and then when Strahan went up. I probably would give a lot of the rapid success rate of the balling record to the New York Giants and Michael Strahan. Because Michael Strahan did that first set and got up and did that balling and then did another one and got up and did that balling. Then every time the Giants started winning and sacking and tackling n***as, they started doing balling."
