“It fucked me up”: JID recalls meeting Jay-Z
Dreamville rapper JID has remained an overlooked lyricist and the DiCaprio 2 creator hasn’t had many co-signs aside from his close collaborator and mentor J Cole. Still, the emcee once got the chance to meet Brooklyn icon Jay-Z, and he admitted that it “fucked [him] up.”
Shortly after the release of his album The Forever Story, the Atlanta lyricist got introduced to Hov and during a conversation on the Throwing Fits podcast, he unveiled how he felt meeting the Black Album creator for the first time.
He recalled “tweaking out” when he met the Roc Nation boss, stating, “People that I’m a fan of, I don’t give a fuck, I’m a fan out. I tweaked out when I met Jay-Z. He fucks with me, and I didn’t tweak out, I was just like, ‘Uh, uh.’ I was [gone off the D’USSE] too!”
JID explained that Jay-Z was highly complimentary of his project, and their interaction was all thanks to Elliott Wilson. Talking to the hosts, JID continued, “‘Cause I met him a couple of years ago, we said ‘wassup,’ that was calm. But this time, when I met him, Elliott Wilson introduced us again. He was like, ‘I remember, wassup?’ Then he hit me, he was like, ‘Congrats on the album, I really fuck with it.'”
The lyricist added, “In my mind, I’m asking questions like, ‘Oh, you heard it? Oh, you know I’m on tour right now?’ and everything, and it came out as just, ‘Thank you.’ And then I got up outta there. Walked away and thought about everything I wanted to say to him, my whole life…”
Concerning the conversation that he had with Hov, “It fucked me up. I had so much stuff I wanted to say.” JID then proceeded to unveil what he would have said to Jay-Z if he had kept his cool, telling the hosts, “I probably would have asked him something specific and then just been like, ‘Yo, I quoted you like seven times on the album. You should probably sue me or say you fuck with me,'” he joked. “Not that many [times], but a handful of inspiration.”
JID was then asked what was a trending question in 2023 as to whether he would rather take a million dollars or have dinner with Jay-Z. However, he had a swift answer, responding, “I’m thinking about, is it million dollars tax free? What are the incentives with it? Is it just straight cash? Liquid? We taking that cash.”
However, Jay-Z once answered this question in a sit-down interview with CBS’ Gayle King. Fans were going wild, and no consensus ever formed. Many said the business insight could help generate more than $500k, while others said the money is a better starting point.
To finally answer this question and put an end to this divide, Gayle King posed this question to Jay-Z, and his answer was, “You got to take the money.” The lyricist stated this because he believes that all the guidance people need already exists in his music.
The rapper explained this, “You got all that in the music for $10.99. Take the $500,000, go buy some albums and listen to the albums. If you piece it together and really listen to the music… it’s all there.”