Songfacts®:

• Deja Vu is the weird feeling that a new experience is something you have already lived through. This song features Beyoncé's boyfriend Jay-Z, and finds Beyoncé singing about how he is so much a part of her life, that he seems to always be there, similar to the deja vu experience. Jay-Z also affirms his love for Beyoncé in this song, rapping about how he used to be a womanizer, but now he is dedicated to her.
• Rodney Jerkins produced this track. He previously worked on some songs for Beyoncé's group Destiny's Child, including "Say My Name" and "Lose My Breath." >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Donovan Berry - El Dorado, AR
• Later in 2006, a movie called Deja Vu was released starring Denzel Washington.
• Jay-Z gets a lot of famous basketball players into his rhymes, but this track name-checks an unlikely baseball player: Juan Pierre. In the lyrics, "I used to run base like Juan Pierre, now I run the bass, hi-hat and snare," Jay is talking about how he went from drug dealing (base=crack cocaine) to making music. Pierre, who was a solid player but far from a superstar, shows up because he was the most proficient base-stealer at the time, and for many years was the active player with the most career stolen bases. After the song was released, Pierre started using it as his theme song when he stepped up to the plate.
• British director Sophie Muller shot the video in New Orleans, Louisiana, where we find Bey at locations such as the Maple Leaf Bar and the historic Oak Alley Plantation. Not everyone was pleased with the clip: 7,000 fans signed a petition to request a new video, criticizing Beyonce's couture outfits and calling her interactions with Jay-Z too provocative. The request was ignored, and the veteran director, who collaborated with everyone from Annie Lennox to Garbage to No Doubt, returned for the singer's next video: "Ring The Alarm."