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As hip-hop’s first billionaire, JAY-Z isn’t expected to give anything but buttoned-up takes. Corporate Jay was in full effect when asked about Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s culture-revitalizing rap beef in a new GQ interview, saying it went “too far.”
Speaking to Senior Associate Editor Frazier Tharpe, the man who once rapped, “Skeeted in your Jeep/ Left condoms on your baby seat” during his own beef with Nas, said he wasn’t sure if “battling needs to be part of the culture anymore.” This came after he explained that it was essentially the “last pillar” of hip-hop after breakdancing, graffiti, and DJing have mostly gone by the wayside.
“We love the excitement and I love the sparring, but in this day and age there’s so much negative stuff that comes with it that you almost wish it didn’t happen,” the Roc Nation founder said of Kendrick and Drake’s beef. “I hate that I have this point of view on it. I do. Because I know what it sounds like. It’s just how I feel about it.”
JAY-Z elaborated by saying that now Kendrick fans “hate Drake” after the “attack on his character. I don’t know if I love that. I don’t know if it’s helpful to our growth where the fallout lands, especially on social media.”
“It’s too far. It’s bringing people’s kids in it,” he continued, harping on how social media has changed the game. “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… You had the battle and it was fun and then you moved on. Right now, I don’t know if it could stand it with the technology that we have.”
Adding that beef “takes up so much oxygen” and “tear[s] down people’s lives,” JAY-Z admitted he did like getting “so much music in such a short period of time.” He also copped to benefiting from Kendrick’s win over Drake as the producer of the NFL’s Super Bowl Halftime show.
“I chose the guy that was having a monster year. I think it was the right choice,” JAY-Z stated. “They drag everybody in it, like everyone’s part of this conspiracy to undermine Drake, I guess… I’m fucking JAY-Z! [Laughs.] All due respect to him. I’m fucking Hov. Respectfully. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Nodding to his own 2000s beef with Nas, JAY-Z added, “It couldn’t be that these guys just don’t like each other… I think this has been brewing, just like me and Nas was brewing. It didn’t happen at the Summer Jam — that happened with [Nas rapping] ‘Lex with TV sets, the minimum’ [on ‘The Message’]. 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.”
It seems JAY-Z took a step back and reflected on his comments, as Tharpe notes the rap mogul later told him: “I realize it’s a bit hypocritical because of how many battles I’ve been in, and given the nature of ‘Super Ugly.’ It takes growth to arrive at this place, because I’ve done the bullshit too!”
Read JAY-Z’s full interview with GQ here.
Jay-Z on the 2024 back-and-forth between Kendrick Lamar and Drake: “We’ve just grown so much that — I guess I’m going to say it — I don’t know if battling needs to be a part of the culture anymore.” https://t.co/m525l4hbDC pic.twitter.com/M0EQIK75wO
— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) March 24, 2026
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