Joey Badass Believes He Helped Inspire Jay Z's '4:44'

On Wednesday, an interview where Joey Badass talked to Montreality about a whole lot of different things made its way on to YouTube. Sandwiched in between his thoughts on his favorite anime and his relationship with the members of Top Dawg Entertainment, the 22-year-old rapper spoke about the inspiration he believes he provided to Jay Z for Hov's newest album, 4:44, which (if you haven’t noticed) has been a central topic in the hip-hop world in the nearly two weeks since it was released.

Skip to the 3:47 mark above for the relevant comments.

“Honestly, I know I was an inspiration to that album. It’s nothing nobody could tell me,” Joey said during the interview. “I put certain pressure on these OG’s in the rap game—like, they know what they got to talk about now because they got this young nigga Joey Badass coming out, talking about this shit before they got the chance to talk about it. But it is what it is.”

He also gave praise to the work, which is something a lot of people are doing at the moment (though 50 Cent isn't one of them). “I love the album. It’s great,” Badass said. “I’m glad he spoke about everything he spoke on and I’m glad I could be an inspiration. It keeps me hungry. It keeps me wanting more. It keeps me wanting to go harder. Like right now, I’m at my best. I’m at my most ultimate.”

Amongst other topics Joey discussed in the wide-ranging interview were his experiences with psychedelic drugs, what it means to be in love, and his message to suicidal people.