Louisiana rapper Silkk The Shocker was one of the main artists on Master P’s No Limit label during the early-2000s. Along with Lil Wayne, Shocker was among the few Louisiana rappers making waves in the mainstream and collaborating with big names. However, in a recent interview on the Art Of Dialogue podcast, the lyricist revealed that even when he was prepared to pay Jay-Z $100,000 for a verse, the Brooklyn emcee was happy to do it for free.
Slik The Shocker’s story about Jay-Z’s humility and selflessness clashes greatly with Dame Dash’s opinion that the Brooklyn artist (real name Shawn Carter) is purely driven by greed and money. Although the Reasonable Doubt musician is now a billionaire, before he had even released The Blueprint, Jay-Z was a simple man who was extremely prudent with the cash flow he had.
That said, it is strange to imagine that anyone would turn $100k, but Silkk The Shocker (real name Vyshonn Miller) revealed that in 1998, when both he and Jay-Z were signed to Priority Records, Carter didn’t feel the need to take handouts and was happy to see his peers build their name.
In 1998, Miller was busy recording his third album, Made Man and called upon several artists for features, including the likes of Snoop Dogg, Mýa, and Master P. However, Jay-Z was a new sensation and one of the hottest artists in America at the time. Regardless Miller was eager to work with him and contacted Carter for a guest verse on his track ‘You Know What We Bout.’
In his interview with the Art Of Dialogue, Miller explained why Jay-Z has become a billionaire and detailed Carter’s business-minded approach to collaboration and ethical working relationships. Elaborating on this, Miller divulged, “I’ve watched him come up, and I remember the Priority days when he was just very humble, but he was a workhorse.”
He continued, “But he had a vision too, and it’s crazy because I think when people look at life, I think the people who make it are the ones who are consistent…he was always working like I knew he was gonna be something because you could see him looking around the room seeing who’s who. When you’ve got your antennas up to be great, who’s gonna stop you.”
Still thankful for Jay’s actions, Miller stated, “I salute him! Our relationship was dop, and when I did the song with him, I had a budget for him I was like, ‘I got 100 racks,’ but for him, it was consistent across the board. I’m sure he could have used that $100,000. Who ain’t gonna use that? So I hit him up like, ‘The song’s dope you killed it it’s fire.’ Then I said, ‘I’ma send that bread to you,’ but he was like, ‘Nah nah it’s good man you keep it, and we’ll figure out something later on down the line!” You can listen to Miller sing Jay’s praises in the video below.
