Pop-rap duo Jack & Jack stopped by the Billboard office to chat about the making of their 2017 single “Beg” as part of our “You Should Know” video series.
The pair explain that they were in Los Angeles, where they live, driving to go work out when they received a call from their manager Adam Mersel, telling them that Lauv wrote a song for them with Michael Pollack.
“Conveniently, we had an auxiliary cord ready to go right there,” says one half of the band Jack Gilinsky. So he plugged in his phone and played the song at maximum volume. “Instantly I look over to [bandmate] Jack [Johnson] and I’m like, ‘Yo! This is fresh’…and we’re like OK I don’t even need to hear the rest of this song.”
Johnson adds that as soon as the hook came in, he knew it was a “unique type of hit.” Gilinsky then instantly called their manager back and told him they wanted to record the song “ASAP,” calling it “amazing.”
The two, who were flying to New York City the next day to meet with their record label, were so eager to cut the track that they booked a session at a studio in Times Square that night.
“We cut it all,” shares Gilinsky. “We cut the verse, we cut the hook and everything, so it’s all there. Everybody has what they need. The engineer put the stems together. We fly back to L.A.”
Watch the video above to hear the full story of how Jack & Jack’s “Beg” was recorded, and you can listen to the song in full below.