Jay-Z headlined Roots Picnic in Philadelphia on May 30th, his first headlining show in over five years, and he did not ease into it. Minutes after taking the stage, following a performance of 2002’s “Hovi Baby,” he dropped into a four-minute a cappella freestyle that went after Drake, Kanye West, and Nicki Minaj in quick succession. The rest of the 32-song, 90-minute set followed from there.
The Drake portion was the most direct, as Jay appeared to be responding to Drake‘s track “Janice STFU,” which contains the line “the jig is up.” Jay flipped it: “The jig is up / We got up 10 / wrong chart champ / You gotta look up again / N—-s look up to Hov / I never looked up to them.” He kept going, targeting Drake’s publishing situation: “Them crackers got your publishing gangsta, go talk tough to them, don’t talk success to me. You n—-s is workers, in perpetuity is how your contract is worded / Don’t make me go further, man.”
On Kanye, Hov appeared to be responding to comments Ye had previously made about Jay and Beyoncé‘s children. “You ever heard of wonder-kin? My children are some of them,” he rapped. “Have you n—-s have no shame? You trying to get under skin? I’ll really get under skin.” Despite the pointed lyrics, he still performed tracks from their Watch the Throne collaboration later in the set, including “No Church in the Wild,” “Gotta Have It,” and “N—-s in Paris.”
Nicki Minaj also came up, with Hov rapping: “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.”
What makes all of this worth noting beyond the bars themselves is the timing. Jay-Z had recently told GQ that rap beef might be pulling the culture backwards, saying he was not sure “battling needs to be part of the culture anymore.” He acknowledged in the same breath that the position was probably hypocritical given his own history with rap wars.
The set also included guest appearances from Meek Mill, Jazmine Sullivan, Bilal, and State Property. Jay-Z is due back at Yankee Stadium on July 10th and 11th for anniversary shows celebrating Reasonable Doubt and The Blueprint.
Education: Computer Network Engineering, Computer Desktop Administration
Fave Song: Destiny's Child 'Dangerously in love'
Fave Colour: Grey.
With £1m what would you do: I would do my part to provide opportunities to the less fortunate. Then do my best to change the world in my own way through sports and talent building.
