Jay Z sat down with Rap Radar for a rare interview in which he discusses his personal life and what went into several of the controversial lines on his latest album, ‘4:44.’
At Soho House in Malibu, Jay opened up about his relationship with Beyoncé (and his reaction to ‘Lemonade’), his relationship with Kanye West, his experiences with Tidal, ‘money phones’ and more.
Check out a few excerpts:
On ‘Lemonade’: “We were working on our shit and becoming tight and super real with each other. That shit didn’t mean nothing. It’s hard, of course. It’s difficult to go through, but the real shit…I was there the whole time, the tour, the making of the album, it was therapeutic. It was good. It’s good to deal with your shit. It’s so worth it.”
On “Kill Jay-Z” and Kanye West: “It’s not even about Kanye. It really isn’t. It’s just his name is there, right? Because it’s just honest, it’s truthful, what happened. But I’m saying, the whole point is, you got hurt because this guy was talking about you on a stage but what really hurt me was, you can’t bring my kids and my wife into it. Kanye’s my little brother. He’s talked about me a hundred times. He made a song called ‘Big Brother.’ We’ve gotten past bigger issues. But you brought my family into it and now it’s a problem with me. Now, it’s a real, real problem.
He knows it’s a problem because me and him would have been talked about it, we would have been resolved our issue, but he knows he crossed the line I know him. He knows. Not only does he have to know, I know he knows because we never let this much space go between one of our disagreements and we’ve had many. That’s part of who we are. That’s what I like about him. He’s an honest person. He’s open and he’ll say things and he’s wrong a lot of times but we’ll confront it. But that’s not the point. The point is, I was getting to the point where I said, ‘You got hurt by that.’ That’s nothing. You can’t diss somebody saying you got hurt. That’s the softest diss of all time. ‘You got hurt ’cause you did cool by ‘Ye.’ I dissed myself, actually. What are you talking about, you sucka-ass n*gga? That’s the softest shit of all time.
Don’t talk about anyone’s kid onstage. It’s too much energy. You give room for anybody to comment. Our children are already in this place where they are affected by our celebrity. Don’t go doing something that allows people to pit us against each other and talk about my child or even his child. Don’t do that.
The $20 million thing shouldn’t have been said,” he noted. “Sometimes, you go too far. That’s a personal thing between him and I. He knows and I know. But nothing was off the table so I’m not even gonna say it was a mistake. Nothing was off the table for this album.”
On Kanye’s issues with Tidal: “I don’t care about none of that,” he said. “It’s Kanye’s decision and has always been his decision. I’ve never held anybody back in my life from doing anything. You can’t name one time I hold people back. From what? I don’t do that. It’s not who I am. It’s nothing about business.”
On reconciling with Kanye: “It requires a real conversation and we’ll have it. We’ll have it soon. I’m sure we’ll have it.”
On his relationship with Solange and that elevator: “We’ve always had a great relationship.I fought my brothers and argued with my brothers my whole life. It just so happens, who we are, these things go into a different space, but it ain’t nothing. We’ve had one disagreement ever. Before and after, we’ve been cool. She’s like my sister. I will protect her. That’s my sister. Not my sister-in-law. My sister.”
You can watch the interview in its entirety below (via Tidal).
