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Jay-Z revealed what he really thinks about the ongoing feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake
“Now, people that like Kendrick hate Drake, no matter what he makes,” the rapper and mogul said in a new GQ cover story, noting that their battling may have gone a bit “too far”
Jay-Z got pulled into the feud when he appeared to take sides by choosing Lamar to headline the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show
Jay-Z is weighing in on the feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
Over a year after the “Not Like Us” rapper, 38, took shots at Drake, 39, during the 2025 Super Bowl, Jay-Z, who is tasked with making the final call regarding who takes the stage at the big game, told GQ that their battling may have gone a bit “too far.”
“Now, people that like Kendrick hate Drake, no matter what he makes,” he said in the cover story published on Tuesday, March 24. “It’s like an attack on his character. I don’t know if I love that. I don’t know if it’s helpful to our growth where the fallout lands, especially on social media.”
Although he identified “battling” as one of the four pillars of hip-hop — alongside breakdancing, graffiti and DJ’ing — Jay-Z, 56, made it clear that he didn’t like that the situation brought people’s children into it.
Jay-Z
Credit: Rashid Johnson/GQ
While Drake shares 8-year-old son, Adonis Graham, with French artist Sophie Brussaux, Lamar shares two children — daughter Uzi, 6, and son Enoch — with fiancée Whitney Alford.
“I sound like the old guy wagging his finger, but I think we can achieve the same thing,” Jay-Z emphasized. “It could stand it before because there was no social media. You had the battle and it was fun and then you moved on. Right now, I don’t know if it could stand it with the technology that we have.”
At a certain point, the “Empire State of Mind” musician finds that battling no longer becomes “worth it” once people’s lives start to get torn down.
“I love the idea that we got so much music in such a short period of time. Just everything around it was like, ‘Man, this is taking us a couple steps back,’ ” he said. “We’ve just grown so much that — I guess I’m going to say it — I don’t know if battling needs to be part of the culture anymore.”
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Jay-Z
Credit: Rashid Johnson/GQ
While the pair began their back-and-forth dissing following the release of Drake and J. Cole’s “First Person Shooter” in October 2023, Jay-Z didn’t get pulled into the feud until he chose Lamar to headline the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show.
“I chose the guy that was having a monster year,” he told GQ. “I think it was the right choice. What do I care about them two guys battling? What’s that got to do with me? Have at it. They drag everybody in it, like everyone’s part of this conspiracy to undermine Drake, I guess.”
Along with performing his Grammy-winning diss track “Not Like Us” during his halftime show, Lamar brought out Serena Williams, Drake’s ex, and SZA, who also dated Drake in 2009, as special guests.
Fans also speculated that the rapper’s necklace featuring a lowercase “A” was in reference to the “Not Like Us” lyric: “Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-minor.”
“I think I’ve always been very open about storytelling through, through all my catalog and my history of music,” Lamar told Apple Music during a pre-Super Bowl press conference. “I’ve always had a passion about bringing that on whatever stage I’m on.”
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
