Jay-Z is sharing his thoughts on the now-infamous rap beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, saying parts of the back-and-forth crossed a line.
In a recent interview with GQ, Jay-Z reflected on how the situation has played out publicly. “Now, people that like Kendrick hate Drake, no matter what he makes,” he said. “It’s like an attack on his character. I don’t know if I love that.”
“I love the idea that we got so much music in such a short period of time,” he continued, before adding, “Everything around it was like, ‘Man, this is taking us a couple steps back.’”
Jay-Z says that while he appreciated the competition, that beef got far too personal for his liking. “It’s too far. It’s bringing people’s kids in it. I don’t like that,” he said. “I think we can achieve the same thing.”
He says that the beef was heavily influenced by the presence of social media and that back in the day, things would have played out differently. “It could stand it before because there was no social media,” he said. “Right now, I don’t know if it could stand it with the technology that we have.”
Jay-Z thinks that battle rap may be irrelevant. “I don’t know if battling needs to be part of the culture anymore,” he said.