Update: JAY-Z Explains His “What’s Free” Lyrics Addressing Friendship With Kanye
Photo Credit: Vickey Ford for Okayplayer
Update: Jay-Z returns to Twitter after a year-long hiatus and responds to online speculation of his lyrics addressing friendship with Kanye West.
The line clearly meant don’t pit me against my brothers no matter what our differences are (red hat) now go pick up Meek album . Drake and Meek on there together .
— Mr. Carter (@S_C_) November 30, 2018
“No red hat, don’t Michael and Prince me and Ye.”
After a turbulent couple of years, Meek Mill has released his fourth studio album, Championships.
READ: Drake Will Be Featured on Meek Mill’s New Album Championships
The album features appearances from Drake, JAY-Z, Cardi B, Kodak Black, Fabolous, 21 Savage, Ella Mai, and more. Much of the album deals with Meek’s legal issues over the issues. (After spending nearly five months in jail, Meek Mill was released in April.)
However, after the album dropped, much of the talk was centered around the song “What’s Free.” Produced by Tarik Azzouz and StreetRunner, the track features Meek, Rick Ross, and JAY-Z rapping over a flip of The Notorious B.I.G.’s “What’s Beef.”
On JAY’s dense verse he addresses MAGA Kanye era by rapping:
No red hat, don’t Michael and Prince me and Ye
They separate you when you got Michael and Prince’s DNA, uh
I ain’t one of these house niggas you bought
My house like a resort, my house bigger than yours
My spou- (C’mon man)
My route better of course
We started without food in our mouth
They gave us pork and pig intestines
Shit you discarded that we ingested, we made the project a wave
You came back, reinvested and gentrified it
Took nigga’s sense of pride
Now how that’s free?
READ: Meek Mill Calls for Criminal Justice Reform in Powerful New York Times Op-Ed
It’s a pretty slick series of lines. And it’s not entirely clear if JAY is shading Kanye or shading the media:
I took Hov to mean that him and Kanye are the MJ and Prince of the game and there’s no way he’s gonna compare spouses, he’s not that messy (anymore) so that’s gotta be against somebody else. Or maybe I’m just completely wrong, that’s possible.
— Unfortunate NYM Fan (@AmazinKnicks) November 30, 2018
Wait…Am I crazy or is this not about Kanye? He’s saying don’t pit him and Kanye, two black men, against one another — and then the rest could maybe be about Trump/Melania? pic.twitter.com/1L1UJO3urX
— ItsTheReal (@itsthereal) November 30, 2018
Maybe in the minority here, but I don’t think Jay is taking a shot at Ye, he’s saying he won’t be manipulated into being used by MAGA, Media & others as a prop vs. YE because he is smarter than that
— Robert Littal (@BSO) November 30, 2018
If anything he is telling YE they are manipulating him against his own people, like a house N*gger, and Jay is saying they can’t do him like that because he sees what they are trying to do. .
— Robert Littal (@BSO) November 30, 2018
“No red hat, don’t Michael and Prince me and Ye, They separate you when you got Michael and Prince’s DNA” – Jay Z 👀 pic.twitter.com/XE5QHyFBN8
— DJ First Class™ (@1DJFirstClass) November 30, 2018
Did Jay Z just take shots at Kanye in this New meek mill record??!!?
— Skrizzy (@youngscrap) November 30, 2018
What do you think? Spin the song (and the album) below.
