Jay-Z has always put his life into his music. The song “December 4th” starts off, “Shawn Carter was born December 4th, weighing in at 10 pounds, 8 ounces…” The year was 1966 and the place was Brooklyn, NY.
He would later rap “I arrived on the day Fred Hampton died,” on “Murder to Excellence” from Watch the Throne. This angered Hampton’s family and Jay later corrected the lyric on “What It Feels Like” with Nipsey Hussle, “I arrived on the day Fred Hampton got mur-, hol’ up Assassinated, just to clarify further.”
Jay-Z is easily the most successful rapper to ever do it. He celebrates the same day as fellow Brooklynite Masta Ace.
Kanye West produced five out of the 13 songs on Jay-Z’s album ‘The Blueprint’.
Jay-Z first signed Kanye West to Rockafella as a producer before Kanye would become an artist himself.
On September 11, 2001, Jay-Z released his sixth studio album ‘The Blueprint’ with legendary production from Kanye West, Just Blaze, Timbaland, Eminem, and even more. Kanye West produced the albums second track “Takeover”, the third track “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”, the eighth track “Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love)”, the ninth track “Never Change”, and the bonus/hidden track “Girls, Girls, Girls (Part 2)” (Just Blazed produced the original “Girls, Girls, Girls”).
In his November 2021 interview on Revolt’s podcast Drink Champs with N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN, when asked if he liked Swizz Beatz or Just Blaze better, Kanye said, “Well, Swizz Beatz, definitely, because Just Blaze is a copycat, you know.”
Kanye would go on to say Just Blaze was a copycat after claiming Blaze got credit for the Blueprint. “He get credit for The Blueprint, and I did the first half of The Blueprint, and he just copied my half.”
Of course, Just Blaze would hear about this and go on to say Kanye’s words on Drink Champs don’t exactly align with their “previous interactions”. He would go on to say, “Respectfully, I’m happy for him and the fact that he has succeeded in the ways he wanted to, but not everyone wants to be where he is,” he wrote. “Everyone’s definition of personal success is a bit different. I’m quite happy where I am creatively, with my family, and my life in general. We were a part of history together and I wish him well and continued success.”
Jay-Z has now reached another milestone in his illustrious career. Sean Carter is now the most nominated artist in the history of the GRAMMYs. He nabbed a total of 3 noms this year: one for Album of the Year for Kayne West’s “Donda” and two in the Best Rap Song category, for the late DMX’s “Bath Salts” and West’s “Jail,” Daily News reports.
Over the years, Maybach Music Group rapper Wale has found himself moving from one label to another. The D.C. rapper has released material through Interscope, Atlantic and Warner Music Group. He has also been under a management deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation until in 2013 when he parted ways with the company.
All those years, the rapper hasn’t shared the reasons why he left Roc Nation until recently when he sat for an interview with N.O.R.E and DJ EFN at the Drink Champs show. “What happened was, I was in the Hov cycle for a long time,” the Folarin II rapper explains at around the 60-minute mark. “There was a time that I was on tour with J. Cole. At the time, I was opening for him. They said it was a co-headlining tour, but whatever, I was opening for him, and it was an elaborate stage and this that and the third.”
He added, “and somebody in my circle told me, ‘You’re losing 5 grand every time you get on stage. Not only are you’re not breaking even, you’re losing money.’ Me, at that point in my life, I forget what city we was in but I was on the bus and I got an offer to do a tour with two other artists. And I wanted to go with Cole because that’s my brother and we just did the Hov tour.”
“So, we was on the road, and I remembered I heard I was losing … I heard that from someone who was close to the joint. The shows is sold out and again, I’m a young n-gga, I couldn’t make sense of it and this was when The Gifted was out and it went No. 2 or No. 1 on Billboard. I couldn’t understand it.”
“I could literally be hosting clubs and making this a night. I just had a meltdown for real and I remember whatever city I was in, there were three days left and I just quit the tour. I just quit.”
Over the last few years, it appeared as though we’d never see the return of the throne — featuring both JAY-Z and Kanye West. Well, today, that all changed.
“This might be the return of the throne,” Jay said during his verse of a Kanye West track that will appear on the DONDA album, set to arrive Friday (July 23).
According to Young Guru, Jay did his verse, today, at 4 PM. Now, there’s surely more to come from how this feature was pulled together, but it was the very last song that Ye’ played during the event.
Busta Rhymes hops on Fat Joe’s IG live to tell a few stories
Busta Rhymes is a rapper who has been in the game for long, long enough that he had a chance to interact with hip hop’s biggest icons. Busta was recently interviewed by Fat Joe on The Fat Joe Show on Instagram live.
The New York legend recounted a story where the late idol attacked a soundman while trying to help Leaders of the New School, of which Busta Rhymes was a member. The group was trying to get a soundcheck done but the soundman wasn’t having it. “We getting ready to do the soundcheck, but the soundman was on some bullshit,” continues Busta.
“He’s shutting shit down and acting like he’s getting ready to leave. We kinda on some ‘damn, we really want to get this soundcheck done.’ The crazy thing is that Pac saw there was a little bit of friction going on. And he just came and involved himself in the situation. Pac turned to this white man and he was like ‘yo, I need you to cut this motherfuckin’ sound board on. Leaders of the New School are going to get their soundcheck done, right now. Fuck you talking about you ain’t turning on the equipment?’”
“He just started spazzing on dude,” said Busta before continuing, “The man wasn’t trying to hear what Pac was talking about, so Pac just ran up on this motherfucka and started choking him. ‘You mothafucka!’ So we had to grab Pac, cause we ain’t askin’ for all of this, we just want a soundcheck! This ain’t war! But that’s the type of dude Pac was. He went out of his way to extend love.” Explained Rhymes while expressing the extent to which Pac was willing to show love.
“He just started spazzing on dude, the man wasn’t trying to hear what ‘Pac was talking about, so ‘Pac just ran up on this motherfucker and started choking him. ‘You motherfucker!’ So we had to grab ‘Pac, cause we ain’t asking for all of this, we just want a soundcheck! This ain’t war! But that’s the type of dude ‘Pac was. He went out of his way to extend love.”
The twerk it rapper also spoke about going to highschool with Biggie & Jay Z, and losing a rap battle to Hov. “In the process of me trying to get my shit together with it me and Hov ended up having a battle,” Busta explained. “Ultimately, Hov got the best of the battle in that moment because I was just starting to figure out how to master my fascination with the speed rap.”
August 19 was the 17th anniversary of The Neptunes’ Clones album, the album that featured “Frontin‘” featuring JAY-Z. It’s a quick feature from JAY, but, it gets the job done, from start to finish. The two are known to have a dynamic unlike any other when it comes to making music together, and they show it off again, on “Entrepreneur.”
“The intention for a song was all about how tough it is to be an entrepreneur in our country to begin with,” Williams told Time. “Especially as someone of color, there’s a lot of systemic disadvantages and purposeful blockages. How can you get a fire started, or even the hope of an ember to start a fire, when you’re starting at disadvantages with regards to health care, education, and representation?”
In 2006, DMX‘s $12 million debt would be wiped away by JAY-Z. “X was in debt over there. He probably owed about $12 million,” Dee noted. “Me and Hov got together, and I went up to the office and I asked him, ‘Can you do me a favor and let us sign X to Sony.’ He released him, he wiped out the debt clean and let him go. He didn’t have to pay nothing back.”
X walked away believing his won and that he remained better than JAY-Z after the debt was cleared, but didn’t know the lengths Dee went to, in order for him to be released from the label.
The Columbia Records-owned Sony Music would be X’s next home. He would only release one album on the label, Year of the Dog…Again.
When JAY-Z became President of Def Jam in 2004, DMX had a rough time seeing Jay as a superior. DMX felt that he was better than HOV, so this situation didn’t go well, as Co-Founder of Ruff Ryders Darin “Dee” Dean explains it.
“We called it a draw because they both was nice, so we said, ‘Alright this is a draw.’ X felt like he won, Hov gonna feel like he won,” Dee explained. “There was an animosity there always. It was nothing verbal, but it was just in [DMX’s] mind like, ‘I won, I’m better than you.’”
