STREAM EXCLUSIVE ORIGINALS

Jay-Z Comes Clean About His Beef With Kanye, That Future Diss and Much More

Hov sat down with Rap Radar for his first interview since '4:44' dropped.

Continuing his 4:44 streak of dropping something new for the masses every Friday, Jay-Z shared some gold with us this evening. This time, though, it wasn't a dope video or a footnotes clip, but a brand new interview that takes a deep dive into Hov's inner thoughts about everything from money phones (still corny) to Kanye West (still mad).
Sitting down with Tidal's Rap Radar, the hour-long interview Jay touched on a number of touchy topics and wasn't afraid to name names. Read on for the highlights.

One of the first things Jay revealed is that we can thank mold for his raspy vocals on "Moonlight" and "Smile." He says, “One of the houses I had out here had some mold in the wall and we didn’t know. We go to New York and I’m like, man, I’ve been sick like, two, three weeks.” A health setback turned into an important part of the album, he admits. “It gave it its vulnerability on its own,” he says of recording with his voice impaired.

Does Hov have any regrets about going hard on money phones? Nope. "I just said it ain’t money to us. It ain’t. That’s just an honest statement,” he insists. “That can’t be our goal, to get money and show it on the Internet. That’s some corny shit.”
But he does feel badly about the assumption that he dissed Future on the album's first track when he rapped, "I don’t even know what you woulda done, in the Future, other niggas playin’ football with your son.” Thinking he took a direct shot at Future, whose ex Ciara is now married to NFL player Russell Wilson, is misunderstanding, he says: “I don’t have any problems with him. I don’t have a reason to try to embarrass him. It’s a rap thing.”
Those bars about Kanye, though? Real. In the most talked-about part of the interview, Jay directly addresses his estrangement from Kanye West, saying things got beyond repair when Yeezy brought up Beyoncé and Blue Ivy during his on-stage rant against the Carters. “What really hurt me was, you can’t bring my wife and my kids into it,” Jay says of Kanye's rant. “Like, Kanye is my little brother. He’s talked about me a hundred times. He even made a song called ‘Big Brother.’ We’ve gotten past bigger issues. But you brought my family into it, now it’s a problem.” Says Hov, “You know it’s a problem because me and him would have been talked about it, been resolved our issues. And he knows crossed the line. He knows. And I know he knows. ‘Cause we’ve never let this much space go between one of our disagreements and we’ve had many. That’s part of who we are.”
Still, he says, on "Kill Jay-Z" he was holding himself accountable as much as 'Ye. “It’s not about a Kanye diss,” he claims. “I’m talking about me. When I say, ‘You dropped out of school/You lost your principals,’ I’m not talking about Kanye. I’m talking about me. The whole thing.” Hov does admit he regrets one line from the verse: “The $20 million thing shouldn’t have been said. Sometimes, you go too far.”
See how Twitter is reacting to the interview:

  • advertisement
  • advertisement
  • advertisement
  • advertisement

Subscribe for BET Updates

Provide your email address to receive our newsletter.


By clicking Subscribe, you confirm that you have read and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge our Privacy Policy. You also agree to receive marketing communications, updates, special offers (including partner offers) and other information from BET and the Paramount family of companies. You understand that you can unsubscribe at any time.