Image via Complex Original
There’s been a lot of speculation the last couple of weeks about what’s going on with Kanye West and Jay Z. It all started a couple of weeks back when Kanye performed at the X Games and, for whatever reason, omitted Jay Z’s name when he performed “Blood on the Leaves.” At the time, it just seemed like a missed lyric. But then, Kanye performed at Bonnaroo and once again omitted Jay’s name from his lyrics. Which of course led to some wild speculation from the Internet because none of us have anything better to do.
Namely, everyone is assuming Kanye is pissed at Jay because Jay and Beyoncé didn’t go to Kanye and Kim Kardashian’s wedding because they didn’t want to be filmed for Keeping Up With the Kardashians. This is, of course, gossip of the National Enquirer variety. But because we here at Complex have nothing better to do than salivate at the kinda traffic we’d generate if in fact Kayne West and Jay Z had legitimate, all out beef, we went down a wormhole about what would actually happen if Kanye dissed Jay Z? These are the five questions that came to mind as we turned the issue over.
Written by Insanul Ahmed (@Incilin) & Justin Charity (@BrotherNumpsa)
What are the stakes?
Insanul: I’d say the stakes are surprisingly low; nothing either one of these guys would do could diminish their respective legacies at this point. They’re both legends twice over. However, this would certainly become the most talked about rap feud ever, just because of the size of their celebrity and the media landscape we live in today. So it’ll get covered to death making it seem more important than it really is.
Justin: Jay may be a pop culture titan, but he wouldn’t gain much by sonning his little brother. However, if Jay caught an L? From Kanye? On wax? It just amplifies this looming sense that Jay should retire for rap and run his Roc Nation empire. Kanye, in contrast, doesn’t have much to lose. Which is Kanye’s steez and persona at this point.
Insanul: Yeah, I must admit Kanye kinda can’t lose in that the Cult of Kanye is so strong that no one would admit he did even if Jay totally ethered him. It’s just like the Cult of Apple in that people can’t admit that the last few iPhones haven’t really had major improvements but they keep buying iPhones anyway.
How ugly would it get?
Justin: Kanye’s mania aside, I think Jay’s signature detachment keeps this tension from getting out of hand. Right? The most reckless he’s talked was on “Super Ugly” versus Nas. To think that Cam’ron and Game stooped so low as to talk greasy about Beyonce, and even then Jay threw a few subliminals, a brief retort here and there, but never overkill. Jay knows how to suck the oxygen from a fire. If it ever got properly ugly, it could only be Kanye making an ass of himself, all by himself, regardless of Jay’s response.
Insanul: To be fair, these two know more dirt about each other than anyone just because they’ve spent so much time together. It would definitely get ugly if either went after the other’s spouse, because you know Jay has some slick shit to say about the sextape. I'm sure he privately told Beyonce some jokes that made her giggle for days on end like Mr. Burns and that crippled Irishman. But you’re right, that’s not gonna happen either way. For one, the last time it got super ugly Jay’s mom made him apologize and that’s so LAMMMMEEE.
Who would win?
Insanul: Hard to say, but I’m gonna go with Jay. For one, he’s dealt with a lot more rap beef than Kanye has over the years, so he’s more equipped to handle it. Kanye tends to let his emotions get the best of him, while Jay is just cool in the cut, which might help him from doing something too outlandish that would hurt him more than it helps him.
Either way, Jay has a lot more to gain from this than Kanye does. In the past few years, Jay’s status as the GOAT rapper has taken a backseat to Kanye’s status as the greatest artist rap has ever seen, with his influence going far beyond just rap itself. Some of that has lead to people questioning Jay’s relevance and, amazingly, his cool. Anyone who follows culture closely currently holds Kanye in higher regard than Jay, even through casual observers are likely to side with Jay over Kanye just because Kanye has pissed so many people off over the years with his antics. If Jay could find a way to come out on top, he’d briefly have the upper hand on Kanye, something he hasn’t had for quite a while.
Justin: Kanye is the least reasonable entertainment figure since Mike Tyson. Kanye West isn’t even an entertainer so much as he’s a total spectacle unto himself. He has a blast radius. That blast radius being significantly wider than the dimensions of a Midtown elevator.
I just don’t think Jay can really “win” anything, anyhow, in any sort of spat with Kanye West. Again, Jay could stifle Kanye to a draw. He could diffuse the situation in some typically clever, graceful way to remind us that Hov, post Roc-A-Fella, is a class act. But there’s no scalp for Jay Z to collect here. Kanye’s the little brother with everything to prove. And little brothers can be tenacious as fuck.
Would it be good for hip-hop?
Justin: Jay is less so a rapper, more so a hip-hop deity these days, and while it’s impossible to tarnish his legacy as I know it, there’s a younger generation that may see Jay Z vs. Kanye such as many saw KRS-One vs Nelly: as a curmudgeon limping off like a sore winner. I’d hate to see Jay recede like that.
With Kanye, I think there’s diminishing returns on the music he makes from sadness and rage. I say that as someone who loves Yeezus but can’t wish that the rest of Kanye’s career sounds like Yeezus or even “Sanctified.” Much of the Taylor Swift backlash, way back when, wasn’t so much about everyone loving the white girl as it was about Kanye having exhausted America’s tolerance for his bombast. Kanye overreaches. He gets ahead of himself. Occaissionaly, he faceplants.
Maybe competition between them would jolt the batteries in their backs, but I think it’s mostly likely this would all play out as a digression and distraction from new music. Jay is a lifestyle memoirist. Kanye is a trill-pop god. They should flourish in their respective lanes.
Insanul: I feel like any high profile rap beef where rappers don’t end up shooting each other is kinda good for the culture. Rappers having “beef” has been corny ever since 50 Cent used it to promote his albums. But if that GQ cover story on Kendrick Lamar proved anything, it’s that the mainstream rap press still thinks of rap in terms of the East Coast/West Coast rivalry (which they must seem to think is still going on).
You’re right that Jay Z comes off as a “class act” and that’s why I appreciate Jay so much. I want rap to look classy so people can take it more seriously as a form of art, and not just some buffoonery of the Love & Hip Hop or WSHH variety (though, I must admit I’m often highly entertained by WSHH). If these two really did beef, the whole world would be watching. Those who didn’t know better would be waiting for someone to get snuffed and that won’t happen. Which is the exact sort of backwards ass accomplishment I count as a victory.
Who would needlessly insert themselves into the beef?
Insanul: Well, first off, you know TMZ is gonna run up on every single rapper they can find and ask them about the beef. That’s just what TMZ does and that’s why they’re the best, at being the worst. And judging by the way 50 Cent had way too much fun making fun of the whole Solange Elevator incident (he must have a lot of time on his hands) so you know he’ll get on his Instagram and poke fun at those two whenever he can. Other than that, I’m hoping for Oprah to try and mediate this feud only to have both Jay and Ye rebuke her.
Justin: I can’t sweat 50’s new hobby of comedic hip hop punditry via Instagram. But as far as protective hip-hop figures are concerned? Dame Dash, for sure. He’ll weigh in with his typical nine-paragraph ‘gram captions. Game will write at least six Jay Z disses and release three of them. I can’t imagine Beyonce wading into whatever nonsense, at least not publicly. And Kim K. ain’t bout this petty-aggressive rap life.
Oprah and her boutique cable network ain’t equipped for this entirely hypothetical conflict. No, this looks like a job for T.I., who's three good deeds and one cabinet appointment away from resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict. Not that I’d ever suggest that Kanye’s ego is as tumultuous as the Gaza Strip.