Joey Bada$$ recently revealed that JAY-Z once tried to manage him early in his career, though the opportunity never materialized. In an interview with Red Bull, the Brooklyn rapper reflected on the near-miss and why the deal may have fallen through. “It was a chain of communication that I didn’t have any part in,” he explained. “You gotta understand, at that point I’m a 17-year-old kid from Brooklyn, that was the dream, the highest honor you can have. Jay is my favorite rapper, even to this day, and within a year of being in the game, he wanted to sign me.”
However, Joey clarified that it wasn’t a recording contract Hov had in mind. “But he didn’t want to sign me as an artist, he wanted to manage me,” he said. “I had a manager at the time and I always wonder if that’s how it got botched.” JAY-Z has never publicly addressed the situation, and despite mutual respect, the two have yet to collaborate.
This isn’t the first time Joey Bada$$ has brought up the missed opportunity, he briefly touched on it back in 2022. More recently, he’s been making headlines with his competitive bars, especially aimed at the West Coast scene. After firing shots on his track “The Ruler’s Back,” he followed up with a bold freestyle during a cypher with TDE’s Ab-Soul.
“First off, I could never hate the West Coast / But since n-ggas comin’ for Joe, fuck it then, let’s go,” he rapped. He went on to reference Kendrick Lamar’s “Control” verse and took aim at other rappers: “There’s still a buncha sensitive rappers in they pyjama clothes.” The freestyle also included jabs at both East and West Coast legends: “These bars could put bad boys on death row / Kinda crazy how Suge and Puff in jail, though.”
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