Key Takeaways
- JAY-Z addressed criticism surrounding his NFL partnership, saying the backlash was understandable while pointing to initiatives like Inspire Change.
- He shared reflections on fatherhood, including watching Blue Ivy Carter grow during Beyoncé’s tours.
- The Roc Nation founder discussed nearly collaborating with Clipse and commented on Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s rap feud.
With the 30th anniversary of Reasonable Doubt coming up, we’ve been seeing a lot more of JAY-Z lately. On Tuesday (March 24) morning, GQ published what may be one of the music mogul’s most revealing interviews in recent years.
“It’s been a minute,” he told the magazine’s Frazier Tharpe, who noted that they “met for a pair of two-hour interviews” in January, followed by Hov sharing even more thoughts after the fact. Right away, the “Empire State of Mind” rapper opened up about the “really hard” 2025 he had: “That whole [lawsuit thing], that s**t took a lot out of me. I was angry.”
From there, he segued into Reasonable Doubt going platinum in the streets, becoming president of Def Jam, and a whole lot more. For your convenience, we rounded up a few key takeaways from JAY-Z’s GQ interview below.
JAY-Z's thoughts on the criticism he got from his NFL deal
Early in the conversation, Tharpe brought up Jay Electronica’s “Flux Capacitor,” where JAY-Z famously rapped, “Why would I sell out? I'm already rich, don't make no sense / Got more money than Goodell, a whole NFL bench.” Asked how he feels about those critiques now, especially after seven Super Bowls, the New York rap legend said, “I think it was understandable. We’re an emotional people.”
JAY-Z then clarified, “Black people, for sure. I don’t think that the world has to agree with everything I do.” He further explained, “I see the world as it is. There was a moment in time when we could get in there, and we can actually effect some change because [the NFL was] vulnerable at that moment. We can put our music on the stage. As well as all the Inspire Change [social justice initiative]. I don’t want to gloss over that.”
“The guys who own the teams, they’re from all over, and they live in ivory towers — they don’t touch culture,” the father of three continued. “So, the things that we care about — ‘But it’s the right cultural thing!’ — they’re like: ‘I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I have no idea what that means.’”
JAY-Z says watching Blue Ivy Carter during Beyoncé’s “COWBOY CARTER TOUR” was “amazing”
Elsewhere in the interview, JAY-Z opened up about what he loves most about fatherhood, especially now that Blue Ivy Carter and the twins, Rumi and Sir, are getting older. “It gives everything meaning, everything. I’ll go cross-country, do what I have to do, and I’m back on the plane that night. I love taking them to school. I love picking them up. Everything means so much more,” he said.
Speaking on Blue Ivy stepping into her own during Beyoncé’s “COWBOY CARTER TOUR,” Jigga said it was “amazing” to witness. “On the ['RENAISSANCE WORLD TOUR'], there was a lot of conversation around her first performance, and she worked really hard to get to that point, but she still wasn’t going for it,” he shared. “She still was going through the motions. And then she just started fighting back. I saw her fight, maybe for the first time in her life — like, not everything is just given to her, and everything is easy. She fought for it. She’s almost on every number. I had to take her off some.”
JAY-Z was “close” to appearing on Clipse’s album
Later, Tharpe brought up how many people would’ve loved to hear JAY-Z on “that Clipse album,” presumably referring to last year’s Let God Sort Em Out. Hov responded, “Yeah, I was close. I think the first thing that I say, it has to be said from me.”
He went on to say, “I don’t want to be so rigid with it, though. I’m going to keep that open. I’m going to take that back. I don’t want to be so rigid. But at that moment, I was like, ‘Yeah, I want to do something.’ But in order for me to move forward, I got to get this s**t out. I got to get it out.”
What does JAY-Z think about Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s feud?
Although Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s feud may feel played out to some by now, JAY-Z admitted that as much as he enjoys “the sparring,” there was one part of it he didn’t like: “There’s so much negative stuff that comes with it that you almost wish it didn’t happen.”
“Now, people that like Kendrick hate Drake, no matter what he makes. It’s like an attack on his character. I don’t know if I love that,” he continued. “I don’t know if it’s helpful to our growth where the fallout lands, especially on social media.”
Tharpe then pointed to how social media now turns rap beef into “stan armies fighting” with each other. JAY-Z added, “It’s too far. It’s bringing people’s kids in it. I don’t like that. I sound like the old guy wagging his finger, but I think we can achieve the same thing, as far as sparring with music, with collaborations more so than breaking the whole thing apart.”