Charlamagne Tha God is pushing back on claims that Jay-Z rapped about Drake and Nicki Minaj for attention.
During Monday’s episode of The Breakfast Club, the co-hosts of the long-running radio show shared their takes on Hov’s Roots Picnic freestyle on Saturday (May 30), which took aim at Drake, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Tory Lanez, and Dame Dash.
“Some of these fan bases are ridiculous because all these individuals that he addressed have been talking about Jay for years on social media, talking about him for years on podcasts and interviews. Jay hasn't said anything,” Charlamagne said.
“As soon as he does, people are like, ‘He's using Drake for attention, or he's using Nicki for attention.’ Like, these folks haven't been talking about him forever.”
In response, DJ Envy brought up Jay-Z’s recent interview with GQ where he told journalist Frazier Thorpe that he doesn’t know “if battling needs to be part of the culture anymore.”
Jay-Z’s biggest critics revisited the interview immediately following his Roots Picnic performance, with pundits like DJ Akademiks suggesting Hov was “triggered” by Drake referencing him on Iceman.
“I don't think those are disses. That was just him replying to everybody. I don't look at them as necessarily disses. He's telling you how he felt. … What was the diss?” Charlamagne said.
“But the battle rap is the back and forth,” Loren Lorosa added.
“Well, you can't call it battle rap ‘cause some of these people don't rap,” Charlamagne responded.
Jess Hilarious noted that Nicki has just “been online.”
“I think it's the energy though, too. If you're saying it needs to be collaborative and not one against the other—[someone] will respond to this,” Lorosa weighed in.
“To that point, people fight with what they can fight with, right?” Charlamagne said. “So, if you want to say something [and] you don't rap, you get on podcast, you get on interviews. If you want to say something and you do rap, like Jay, you do it on stage. So he's just firing back the way he knows how to fire back. And those people fire back the way they know how to fire back.”
Jay-Z will perform three shows at Yankees Stadium in New York City on the weekend of July 10. One show will celebrate the 30th anniversary of his debut album, Reasonable Doubt, while another will commemorate 25 years of The Blueprint. The last show, “Extra Innings,” was added to meet audience demand.
