Jay-Z appears to have dissed Nicki Minaj by bringing up her husband, Kenneth Petty, during a freestyle at the Roots Picnic in Philadelphia.
On Saturday (May 30), Jay-Z performed at the annual festival and debuted freestyle seemingly addressing multiple rappers who have recently made shots at him.
One line seemed specific to Nicki Minaj and her husband’s status as a registered sex offender.
"That lady back on that stuff, she sounds like she's in love with ‘em/Her Ken can't even… pick they kid… enough of them/A rapper can't be my opp, I got MAGA Republicans/Those shots came from the very top of the government, good luck with them,” he rapped.
After performing those lines, Jay-Z brought out Nicki’s ex, Meek Mill, to perform “Dreams and Nightmares.” He didn’t say her name, but it felt like confirmation that his bars were directed at Nicki.
During the same freestyle, Jay-Z also seemingly shaded Drake, who dissed him on Iceman, and Ye, who brought up Hov’s children on social media last year.
Jay-Z’s alleged diss comes almost a year after Nicki began gunning for him on X. She has repeatedly shaded him and claimed that he owes her millions of dollars for her stake in Tidal.
In October, the rapper stepped up her social media trolling and posted an AI-generated picture of Jay-Z as a Barb, complete with pink hair, a pink shirt, and a massive chain that says “Queen.”
In a caption for the post, she wrote, “I AM YOUR KARMA.” She followed up with the claim that her California home was being repeatedly swatted, meaning targeted by fake police calls, before claiming that wouldn’t happen to Hov, whom she referred to as “Lace-Z.”
That same month, Nicki announced that she wouldn’t be putting out a new album—and suggested that Jay-Z was the reason.
“Ok I’m not going to put out the album anymore,” she wrote on X. “No more music. Hope you’re happy now [Jay-Z].”
