Michael Eric Dyson had a conversation with Jay-Z about the author’s recent chiding of Kendrick Lamar in defense of Drake.
Last month, the academic appeared on podcast Mohr Stories, where he compared Kendrick’s 2024 hit single “Not Like Us” to President Donald Trump profiling immigrants.
In the song, K.Dot questioned Drake’s Blackness, which Dyson compared to the “theme” of Trump ousting immigrant populations. The author went on to stress that Drake’s art is undoubtedly rooted in Black culture, considering his familial ties to Memphis and music legends Aretha Franklin and Sly and the Family Stone.
In a 17-minute long Instagram reel posted on Thursday (March 5), Dyson explained that his comparison to Kendrick and Trump was about a “distinction between us and them.”
Elsewhere, the author revealed that Jay-Z contacted him after his appearance on Mohr Stories to disagree. The Roc Nation founder tapped Kendrick to perform during the Super Bowl LIX halftime show last February, where “Not Like Us” was played despite Drake’s defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group.
Dyson called Jay-Z a “very good friend” of his that disagreed with his opinion “aggressively and vigorously.”
“He hit me up and his vigorously disagreed with my particular position,” he explained in the video. “He said it with dignity. He said it with respect. He articulated his ideal intelligently. I responded to him. We went back and forth for a minute.”
Dyson added that he shared an opinion article that he published in The Philadelphia Citizen about the Drake and Kendrick feud, which Jay-Z was “respectful” toward.
“What I love about Jay is that he’s not arrogant,” Dyson said. “He’s got more reason to be arrogant than anybody we’re talking to, including myself, on this darn internet and social media. And yet he choose to be gracious, vigorous, clear and transparent about his disagreement. But he did not get nasty and vicious with me.”
Jay-Z stood beside Kendrick headlining the 2024 Super Bowl, calling the GNX artist a “once-in-a-generation artist and performer.”
In 2011, Dyson published an analysis of Jay-Z’s career and life in book, Jay-Z: Made in America.
