Alchemist Says Jay-Z Is Tapped Into the Underground Hip-Hop Scene: ‘He Knows Everything’

Legendary producer Alchemist says that Jay-Z makes sure to keep up with the underground hip-hop scene.

Alchemist spoke with Complex alongside his Alfredo 2 collaborator, Freddie Gibbs, and the producer was asked to share his dream collaborator.

He said that he used to have a bucket list, but he recently worked with Erykah Badu, his goal collaborator for a long time.

“I always say one other person is kind of a no-brainer,” he added, to which he was asked if he meant Jay-Z, and he nodded.

COMPLEX SHOP: Shop the brands you love, anytime and anywhere. Uncover what’s next. Buy. Collect. Obsess.

“Yeah, everybody wanna work with Hov,” Gibbs added.

“I’m closer to having a direct line,” Alchemist said. “So, you never know. … Shout to Hov, man. He did tap in, actually, and said that he fucked with the record and everything. That meant a lot.

“The thing about Jay, he is tapped in to everything. From the under to the over, which blew my mind when we were able to connect. He knows everything. He’s still a lyricist at heart. [Don’t let] none of those billions of dollars confuse you.”

Gibbs interjected to call Hov “a Jedi Knight,” while Alchemist made it clear that Hov has his ears to the ground.

“[He] cares and knows about the lowest underground to the highest top,” he continued. “He’s got it all, he’s Jay.”

Earlier this year, Alchemist appeared on The Breakfast Club and suggested that his chances of working with Jay-Z were “probably” diminished because of his working relationship with Mobb Deep, whose founding member, Prodigy, had a years-long feud with Hov.

“It was tricky when P and Mobb Deep and Nas had beef with Jay-Z,” Alchemist said at the time. “It was always a weird thing. It probably stopped me from doing work with Jay back then. But that’s the past.”

Still, he told the NFR Podcast last year that working with Jay remains on his bucket list.

“Jay always been on my list. I’ve been saying it for 100 years,” he said at the time. “I still keep the faith … I feel, at this point, it would have to be, hopefully, a mutual thing, like, I would want to work with somebody that would wanna work with me. There’s a couple that’s brewing that’s like bucket list s**tfor me that I hope happens. I still have hopes like that.”

ComplexCon returns to Las Vegas on October 25–26, 2025, with over 300 brands and live performances by Young Thug, YEAT & Friends, Peso Pluma, Central Cee, Ken Carson, and more. Get your tickets now.