On Thursday, The Songwriters Hall of Fame officially inducted Jay Z, making him the first rapper to receive the honor. The induction ceremony included the screening of a video made by former president and all-around cool guy Barack Obama, who congratulates Hov, refers to him as “a friend of mine and a first-ballot Hall of Famer” and, among other amazing sound bytes, jokes that they both “have wives that are significantly more papular than we are.”

Obama continues, “I think Mr. Carter and I understand each other. Nobody who met us as younger men would have expected us to be where we are today. We know what it’s like not to have a father around. We know what it’s like to not come from much, and to know people who didn’t get the same breaks as we did. So we try to prop open those doors of opportunity so that it’s a little easier for those who come up behind us have it a littler easier as well. Like all of you, I am a fan: I’ve been listening to Jay since I was a young and hungry state senator. I sampled his lyrics to close his speech at Selma, and tweeted a reference to ‘My First Song’ when I was putting the finishing touches on my final State of the Union address. I had to ‘brush some dirt off my shoulders’ during a campaign. So I’m pretty sure I’m still the only president to listen to Jay Z’s music in the Oval Office.”

In closing, Obama repeated a quote that the rapper once said: “I never looked at myself and said ‘I need to be a certain way to be around a certain sort of people.’ I’ve always wanted to stay true to myself and I managed to do that. People have to accept that.”

This year’s other inductees include Babyface, Berry Gordy, Robert Lamm, Max Martin, and more. Past inductees include the likes of Robert Hunter, Jerry Garcia, Marvin Gaye, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, Nile Rodgers, Bob Seger, Gordon Lightfoot, Allen Toussaint, Leonard Cohen, and more.

You can watch Obama’s speech honoring this year’s Songwriting Hall of Fame inductees (and, specifically, Jay Z) below:

Jay Z was not in attendance to accept the honor in person, but posted a rare series of tweets thanking the organization (and President Obama) for the honor and calling out a host of MCs who influenced his work over the years:

Jay ended his string of “thank yous” by returning Obama’s sentiments: “And the greatest rapper of all time OBAMA. Thank you 44.”

Congrats, Hov!