In an interview with Complex Pete Rock spoke about his time recording this song:

That was a great opportunity. I thought I was dreaming actually, because I used to be a big fan of Run DMC. I remember buying their records when I was only eleven years old. When the opportunity came about, I thought it was a great idea to help get those guys back on the charts. That’s what I did.

Jam Master Jay, R.I.P. man. He was the realest cat. He would show up at my mother’s house, unannounced, and when I would go to the front door and see it was him, I really, really, literally thought I was dreaming. He’d be like, ‘Come on Pete, let’s go finish working on the song.’ I would hurry up and get dressed, brush my teeth, wash my face, comb my hair, and go across to the basement and start making music.

[Source]

Earlier in the interview, he also spoke about producing the “Jump Around” remix at the same time he made “Down With the King”

Similar to how CL’s opening lyrics are an homage to RUN’s opening lines in “Sucker MCs”, Pete Rock does the same for DMC, reworking the first lines in the latter MC’s verse in “Sucker MCs.”

I’m D.M.C. in the place to be
I go to St. John’s University
And since kindergarten I acquired the knowledge
And after 12th grade I went straight to college

Pete spoke about his time in college, and how he was baggin' up bitches at John Jay:

I went to [John Jay University] for a little while. I had a friend of mine that went to the school and I used to just go hang out with him on campus and stuff. And I ended up just taking a course or two, but I didn’t really do college too tough. Everything was taking off. I was in the music business, and that was more demanding. Not that it was more important, because nothing is more important than school, but it was demanding of my time. And I was having fun, so I put school on the back burner.

[Source]

Once again, for annotations on this section of the song you can check out the original “Jump Around”.

For annotations on this section of the song, see the original “Jump Around”, which also features a verified annotation by producer Muggs!

In an interview with Complex Pete Rock recalled remixing “Jump Around”:

That happened through Tommy Boy. Shout out to Monica Lynch and Tom Silverman for giving me a lot of opportunities to work at Tommy Boy as far as producing. At the time I was doing ‘Jump Around (Pete Rock Remix),’ I was doing ‘Down With The King.’ I was in the A and the B room in The Hit Factory when it used to be on 42nd Street. I would go to one room, finish up whatever I was finishing, scratches or whatever, go to the other room, lay down vocals or do whatever, just going back and forth all night, and finishing up the songs, both of them. I used to do that. The most songs I ever mixed and finished in one day was two songs, being in a studio with a budget.

[I was a fan of the original ‘Jump Around’]. The original is what I come on with first when I’m DJing at parties, and then I hit ‘em with the remix. They asked me to rap on it, if I can remember. Everlast is cool, that’s my dog.

[Source]

In an interview with Complex Pete Rock talked about his relationship with Grand Puba:

Grand Puba’s family. When it’s family, it’s just a meeting of the minds. Like, ‘Let me get on that!’ ‘Go ahead!’ We were labelmates on Elektra Records. [He lived] right next door to Mount Vernon [in New Rochelle]. We used to hang out in Lincoln Park. We used to be in New Rochelle a lot, in the projects, going to the football and basketball games. I used to do parties in the New Rochelle High School gym.

Puba wrote my first two raps [after ‘Don’t Curse’]. We did ‘The Creator,’ and he wrote ‘Soul Brother #1.’ I got inspired [to write my own raps] hanging out with Grand Puba and Brand Nubian. [Puba] used to gas me up. We also did a couple basement demos in my house that never came out.

[Source]

In an interview with Complex Pete recalls producing the beat for T.R.O.Y:

I found the record [for the sample] when I was digging with Large Professor. I made the base of the beat at my house, and I finished the rest at his house using his SP-950. Q-Tip had nothing to do with [making the beat]. I think what happened was he liked the horn riff that he heard. I had already sampled it, but I filtered it to make the bass line. The horn was already there, but he just thought it was a good idea for me to put it in there. And I put in there. I made the beat, he just suggested I put that in there.

We used to all go digging together a lot. I used to come to Queens, and they used to come to Mount Vernon, back and forth, going record shopping together, everything.

[Source]

As taken from a Complex interview with Pete Rock:

I found the sample and made a beat out of it. I said to [Large Professor], ‘Yo, if you wanna use the record, do it your way.’ And he gave me co-producer credit on it. He actually made the drum programming on his album. He didn’t use my version of the beat, he did his own, which I think is a great version. We used to share samples and shit like that. I liked hanging out in his hood, and he liked hanging out in mine.

[Source]