Popular scholar and author Michael Eric Dyson has released a public apology to Jay-Z for spilling details about their private text messages concerning the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef.
Dyson posted a video on Instagram detailing why he apologized and why he decided to do it publicly.
"I remember once when Kanye [West] posted publicly a text exchange between us," the author said. "It was private. And I was hurt by that. I'm thinking about that because I've done the same thing to Jay-Z. No, I didn't publicly post a text. But I talked about a private exchange between us that should've remained between us, as it has for the last 20-some-odd years. So I want to apologize to him here.”
“Why am I doing it here and not to him directly? Because the old Black people said, 'Where you get it is where you give it. Where you messed up is where you fess up.' And that's what I'm doing here,” Dyson added.
The whole thing began with Dyson’s comments about the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef. Last month, Dyson scolded Kendrick for, in his words, attempting to “de-Black” Drake with the diss song “Not Like Us.” Dyson compared the effort to President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric.
“‘You are not like us. You are Somalian. You are Ethiopian, you are Eritrean, you are Mexican, you are whatever, fill in the blank, you are Haitian,’” Dyson said on Mohr Takes. “And so to me, that very theme — forget the song, the song is the song, whatever you think about it. But the notion itself is distinction, a big distinction, us versus them. And they're trying to de-Black Drake.”
Dyson went on to explain why Drake shouldn’t have to prove his Blackness.
“His daddy is Black. He went to Memphis every summer. The Memphis Horns fill his music, the first albums Drake made. His grandmama babysat Aretha Franklin, and his uncle is Larry Graham from Sly the Family Stone,” Dyson explained. “What Black card he got to show?”
Weeks later, Dyson shared that Jay-Z had reached out to him about the comments.
“[Jay] hit me up and his vigorously disagreed with my particular position,” Dyson explained. “He said it with dignity. He said it with respect… I responded to him. We went back and forth for a minute.”
“What I love about Jay is that he’s not arrogant,” Dyson continued. “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.”
Dyson has taught Jay’s work for years, and even wrote a book about him — 2019’s JAY-Z: Made in America.