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Jay-Z and Kanye West have enjoyed a close relationship since the late 1990s. In 1998, West was introduced to Kyambo Joshua, the A&R of Roc-A-Fella and the CEO of a production house named Hip-Hop. That year, Joshua signed Kanye to the roster of Hip-Hop and he quickly presented Jay-Z with one of Kanye’s beats. The instrumental for ‘This Can’t Be Life’.

From this moment, Jay-Z (real name Shawn Carter) began to frequently use West’s beats, and although he was hesitant at first, in 2002, he signed West as an artist and over the years, the two began to embark on collaborations. Akin to the relationship between Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg, the friendship between Kanye West and Jay-Z was a mutually beneficial one that allowed both MCs to become moguls. 

Ye started off as Carter’s prodigal child. However, he quickly became an icon himself who has arguably made a more significant impact on hip-hop culture at large. Although the two created epic tracks together, such as ‘Otis’ and ‘N*ggaz In Paris’ their friendship began to deteriorate during the 2010s. 

The two had a great relationship until around 2013 when they stopped being brothers like they had been before. According to Jay-Z’s Rap Radar interview, what got between him and Kanye was West’s rant about his family. 

Elaborating, the Brooklyn rapper explained, “What really hurt me was, you can’t bring my wife and my kids into it…Like, Kanye is my little brother. He’s talked about me a hundred times. He even made a song called ‘Big Brother.’ We’ve gotten past bigger issues. But you brought my family into it; now it’s a problem…You know it’s a problem because me and him would have been talked about it been resolved our issues. And he knows crossed the line.”

Akin to how Jay-Z inspired Kanye to record ‘Big Brother’, Ye also inspired Carter to record a track. In 2009, following the release of number-one albums such as T-Pain’s Epiphany and Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak, autotune was beginning to become more prevalent in hip-hop, and this polarised the culture.

In 2009, Jay-Z and Kanye West joined forces to record The Blueprint 3, which the pair executive produced. One of the songs on the album addressed autotune. However, in an interview with Billboard magazine, Jay-Z revealed that Ye inspired the song.

Opening up about ‘D.O.A. (Death Of Autotune)’, the Brooklyn legend explained, “He actually sparked the idea. When he heard the beat, he said, ‘Man, this is just so hard! This has to be against everything – no auto-tune, none of that type of stuff!’ He didn’t know what I was going to do or where I was going to take it, but it was actually his fault.”

The Black Album musician even told the online publication that he and West had tried to record a song with autotune for The Blueprint 3 but decided to scrap it after the release of ‘D.O.A.’ stating, “After we made the ‘D.O.A.’ record about a month ago, we were like, ‘if it’s got to go, it’s got to go.’” Following the release of The Blueprint 3, the two icons began recording the critically acclaimed collaborative album Watch The Throne, which saw appearances from the likes of Frank Ocean, Beyoncé, Kid Cudi and more.