Jay-Z is one of the wealthiest rappers alive. As the co-founder of Roc-a-Fella alongside Dame Dash, the Brooklyn legend (real name Shawn Carter) built an empire that saw acts like Jadakiss, The Diplomats, and Kanye West shoot to fame.
Jay-Z managed to remain relevant for over two decades, and with a tenacious work rate, Carter released full bodies of work annually for six consecutive years until 2003. However, the Reasonable Doubt musician continued to release projects until 2017 when he put out 4:44.
Carter has released 13 full-length albums, with his breakthrough being Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life. However, in 1997, the New York artist released his sophomore project, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1, a fan-favourite, but in a tweet, Philadelphia musician Questlove admitted he argued with Jay about his self-deprecating view on the LP.
The project saw an unapologetically raw emcee attempt to portray himself as the fashionable, affluent and swanky young man — an image and aesthetic coming out of Diddy’s Bad Boy Entertainment.
Unfortunately, this contrived imitation saw Carter and his album receive heavy criticism from many. Revealing his qualms with Jay-Z concerning the project, Questlove (real name Ahmir Thompson) unveiled, “Our main argument is his hate for Vol 1. He is embarrassed for trying to make a monster & not putting numbers up. But A LOT of this LP contains his best moments. Fight me @sc.”
Although the album saw contributions from Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown, Too $hort and Diddy, Jay, to this day, isn’t happy with the outcome and believes it could have been much more significant than it was.
In a rare tweet, Jay-Z responded to Questlove writing, “More so, I know what could have been, so it haunts me,” the rapper wrote. “Streets Is Watching was the first song made!”
In My Lifetime, Vol. 1, went platinum. However, his breakthrough being Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life ended up reaching six times platinum. You can see Jay-Z’s tweet to Questlove below