JAY-Z has finally shared his thoughts on Drake and Kendrick Lamar‘s epic 2024 rap battle — and his stance might surprise you.
Despite being involved in one of hip-hop’s fiercest feuds with Nas in the early 2000s, Hov believes that Dot and Drizzy’s beef went “too far” and is not a fan of all the negativity and division that continues to fuel their rivalry.
“We love the excitement and I love the sparring and the music you get, but in this day and age, there’s so much negative stuff that comes with it that you almost wish it didn’t happen,” he said in a rare interview with GQ ahead of his recently announced Reasonable Doubt and The Blueprint anniversary shows at New York’s Yankee Stadium in July.
“Now, people that like Kendrick hate Drake, no matter what he makes or says. And it goes far, too. It’s like attacks on his character [and family]. I don’t know if I love that. I don’t know if it’s helpful to our growth.”
The Roc Nation mogul went on to claim that Kendrick and Drake’s beef inadvertently set hip-hop “a couple steps back” and wonders whether the age-old tradition of battling “even needs to be a part of the culture anymore.”
“I hate that I have this point of view because I know what it sounds like, I know what it feels like. I hate it!” he acknowledged, alluding to his own history of involvement in messy rap battles. “It’s just how I feel.”
The 56-year-old also laid out a path for keeping hip-hop’s competitive spirit alive without damaging careers or relationships: “I think we can achieve the same thing, as far as sparring with music, with collaborations more so than breaking the whole thing apart.
JAY-Z also addressed the backlash to Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 Super Bowl halftime show — specifically claims that he and Roc Nation, who oversee the annual spectacle, picked sides in the beef by handing the coveted gig to the Compton superstar.
“I chose the guy that was having a monster year. I think it was the right choice. What do I care about them two guys battling? What’s that got to do with me? Have at it,” he argued.
Hov also laughed off suggestions that he was part of a “conspiracy” to “undermine” Drake: “It’s like, what the fuck? I’m fucking JAY-Z! [laughs.] All due respect to him. I’m fucking Hov. Respectfully. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Check out more highlights from JAY-Z’s conversation with GQ below where he talks about his relationship with J. Cole, the rumors of him jumping on the Clipse‘s Let God Sort Em Out and where he’s at when it comes to new music.
On almost appearing on the Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out:
I was close. I think the first thing that I say [about the sexual assault lawsuit], it has to be said from me. [Pauses and reconsiders.] 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 shit out. I got to get it out.
On J. Cole:
I don’t have any negative feelings for him. I’m actually super proud of him and what he’s done … [DJ] Clue sent [J. Cole’s Birthday Blizzard ’26 tape] to me actually, not Cole. I’m a fan of hip-hop and this culture. I’m listening to it all. I play it all. I’m playing songs that most people haven’t heard of.
On new music:
I have a lot of scratch ideas and they’re all bad [laughs]. I got to be honest … I don’t know what I need to create currently that’s going to fulfil me and make me happy, because that’s most important. I know I just got to be honest about what I feel and where I am. Maybe I’m overthinking it. Maybe I’m stopping myself from just creating.
Whatever it is, it just needs to be a true representation of how I feel. Trying to create something that people like is where I think a lot of artists get jammed up. And people can feel that because it’s not authentic. I just got to make something timeless that I really love and that’s really honest and true to who I am.
On Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show:
He could have made it a little easier on himself. The artistic choice to play the new album was brave in front of that big of an audience. Because even if 10 million people know some of these songs, there’s 120 million people that’re like, “What is he doing?” As an artist, to stand up there and do it and complete your vision – I had to tip my hat. I had high respect for him already, but, like, even more my respect was like, “He’s really about what he says he’s about.”
On his past beef with Nas:
[Our feud] didn’t happen at the Summer Jam — that happened with “Lex with TV sets, the minimum”. It was a whole bunch of stuff leading up to that point. I actually regret that because I really like Nas. He’s a really nice guy.
On his since-withdrawn sexual assault lawsuit:
It was hard. Really hard. I was heartbroken. I’m glad we got right to that so we could just get that out the way … That shit took a lot out of me. I was angry. I haven’t been that angry in a long time, uncontrollable anger. You don’t put that on someone — that’s a thing that you better be super sure.
Even when we were doing the worst things, we had those kind of rules. There was a line: no women, no kids. You hear those sayings, but those are the things that I took from the street. We lived and died by that. So it’s strict for me, like it meant a lot to me … I knew that we were going to walk through that because, first of all, it’s not true. And the truth, at the end of the day, still reigns supreme.
On 4:44:
4:44 released a lot. I can’t really even listen to 4:44. It’s the album that I was always afraid to make… Just pure and vulnerable, the real interior thoughts … It was a lot of trauma [growing up], a lot of loss, a lot of seeing things that nine-year-olds shouldn’t be seeing. We tuck it away and we bury it, and then it shows up in different ways … At some point you got to figure out how you’re going to navigate the world.
[My earlier albums were] just all bravado. Part of it was closed off and it works … People like the hothead. That excitement and that danger has an allure to it. That’s Jigga. It was very useful, but it’s also not sustainable. You don’t want to look up one day and just be in some insane asylum somewhere, alone, no family. It’s another side of that that had to happen.
On Reasonable Doubt, 30 years later:
When we first dropped Reasonable Doubt, we sold 43,000 records. The energy was like, “You’re new. You haven’t proven yourself.” But in our mind, the fact that we released an album was proof enough of concept. We did it. Remember, we’re not in control of distribution, marketing, anything. We’re going like a street-level, street-team approach to this. And so when we put the album out — that was the win. We had some success, and remember: on the streets we were platinum. Anywhere you was going to go, you was going to hear Reasonable Doubt.
If you wasn’t there, now you’re looking at the analytics. Someone that speaks like that, you know they wasn’t there because if you were there, you’re like, “This not even a conversation.” Anywhere you went, any car, Reasonable Doubt was going to play.
On J. Cole’s early struggles on Roc Nation:
The narrative is that we [Roc Nation] didn’t love Cole. No, we believed in him enough to let him find his journey. It took him a minute, but he found his way. I was giving him a chance to take his talent and show it to the most people possible, but his way. I didn’t say, “Here’s this record from Stargate and you putting it out.” Like I forced Bleek to make “Memphis Bleek Is…”
Bleek is my little brother; he has to listen to me. But for J. Cole, he has to find his own direction and I’m going to give him the tools. Stargate made humongous records with Rihanna; Wiz Khalifa “Black and Yellow”. Biggest songs in the world. You don’t want to go sit with them? Fine.
On the backlash to him being a billionaire:
The only thing I heard coming up was the American dream. “You could make it, if you pull yourself up by the bootstraps.” I heard that my entire life — until we started being successful. Then it was like, “You’re selling out because you’re making money.” People had this allure for the “struggling artist” – that’s a mind game, what we would call, back in the day, “tricknology”. I’m not going for that.
I make art first and then I make sure that I’m compensated for my art. I didn’t get here by taking advantage of people or taking advantage of the loopholes in the system, or some wrinkle in a capitalist structure. That structure exists; I just see the world for what it is, not for what I want it to be. I’m a realist. It’s not idealistic. People speak about the world how they want to see it. You’re never going to win like that.
I have to deal with the reality of the world, and I’m going to navigate this world, not only for me, but for a bunch of people that’s been disenfranchised by a system that doesn’t play fair for us. In order for us to progress forward, we have to deal with the world the way it is.
Sometimes that means going out and starting your own company. Sometimes that means partnering with established companies because that’s the world that we live in. [There’s] nowhere you’re going to go that Black people control distribution and control media. At some point, you’re going to have to partner with somebody.
On unlikely advice from Jon Bon Jovi:
This is the strangest thing, but you get advice from places that you just wouldn’t expect it. When I took the president job at Def Jam [in 2004], Jon Bon Jovi told me, “You’re an artist. Don’t forget you’re an artist.”
