Hey everyone, Anthony Fantano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you are doing well. It's time to talk about this new Jay-Z interview that was just dropped over at GQ. Although I kind of hesitate to call it an interview because it's really more like a puff piece. It's just so low substance, so devoid of any kind of uncomfortable or tough questions – any digging into deeper and finer details – that it's kind of shocking that people are actually making as much hay as they are from this back and forth that goes on here because not a whole lot is said, honestly.

Now, I am not too surprised given the current state of music media. Musician and journalist interactions these days are just safer in my eyes than they have ever been, more predictable than they have ever been. But you would think GQ, given their platform, given their cultural influence, would somehow muster something that feels, I don't know, more significant than what reads like Pop-Pop talking to his favorite grandchild at the kids' table during Thanksgiving, just kind of telling stories. And look, Jay-Z is a great artist, an influential pioneer. There is obviously value in him hopping onto any platform and doing that, at least to a degree.

But Jay-Z is a dude who has had a lot happen to him over the past several years. He's a guy who has been kind of elusive when it's come to interactions like these. He is in various positions of power and influence right now in culture and in the music industry. It also seems like he is gearing up for a new release or album cycle or something. There is a lot to potentially dig into, but I feel like a lot of big questions and answers are sort of left on the table in this GQ thing. There's even points where it feels like Jay-Z is dictating the flow and the content of the interview itself, like when he sort of does what feels like this really profound quote at one point and he says, "don't skip over that."

Clipped from interview:

"So again, everything in your life, it's not happening to you, it's happening for you. When you— don't skip over that. Yeah, that's not happening to you, it's happening for you. So you just got to know the distinction."

Also, the moment where he's telling the interviewer he does not have to preface a question in a certain way. Like, again, who's doing the interview here?

"I have to ask you this only as a participant"

" – you don't have to, uh, You don't have to give a disclaimer for it."

"Well, I'm just saying, as someone who was part of probably the genre's biggest rap beef—"

"Well, until now."

Obviously I'm not going to hate on anybody for being excited to talk to Jay-Z or being a fan of anybody in any respect. I'm a fan. I'm a fan by profession. But this does not feel like an adult conversation, honestly. Adding that to the really weird series of outfit and lighting and chair and setting changes that randomly happen across the interview. The whole thing really just feels like it's just there to make Jay-Z look cool as opposed to bring any important or significant information to light.

Take, for example, the moment right at the jump in this conversation where the now-dropped Busby lawsuit is addressed.

"That shit took a lot out of me. I was angry. I haven't been that angry in a long time. Uncontrollable anger. Like, you don't put that on someone. Like, that's a, that's the thing that you better be super sure. It used to be like that. Like, you'd have to be super sure before you put those kind of things on a person, especially a person like me."

A lawsuit that personally I didn't really think there was a whole lot of substance to, but so little information or background is given in terms of what made this lawsuit BS or how it personally impacted Jay. So much so that anybody who rightfully is skeptical of his connections to Diddy, his connections to guys like R. Kelly, his awareness of certain behaviors and actions that they are now associated with in the music industry, how often this sort of stuff used to be engaged in, how much of it he was aware of. Nothing much on that front is really answered for in depth.

So people who are sort of skeptical along these lines are going to continue to be skeptical. There's also a few weird sections of this conversation where Jay-Z is talking about being a billionaire and some of the flack that he catches for being a billionaire.

"Someone would say all billionaires are bad or no one should have a billion dollars. Like, what's the tension in that?"

"I gotta give you the honest answer."

"Please."

"There's no tension."

"Yeah."

"I don't give a fuck what you say. You could believe what you want to believe or, you know, and people behave the way they want to behave."

And while I do think that he makes somewhat valid points in terms of "what if I had $999 million," and I just got that $1 more and made it to a billion. Does that make me a different person?

"If it's, if it's a cutoff, if it's like all All millionaires are bad."

"Yeah."

"Okay. So at $999,000, I'm good?"

He also bolsters this point by highlighting the fact that he's a guy who effectively came from nothing and made his money in music and media and entertainment and doing really good quality business deals that worked out in his favor. And there's also a lot of biases and glass ceilings and cultural boundaries that he needed to push past in order to get to this point. All of that is true and valid.

"The system is set up against me, against us, but I'm talking about my specific struggle. Everything was against me. My talent, not taking advantage of people, not taking advantage of a system, not creating tax loopholes, not just taking from other people. No, no. My talent pushed against all the headwind."

What I don't like about Jay-Z's rhetoric along billionaire lines in this conversation, though, is him sort of painting himself as being against the status quo still at this point. And whether advertently or inadvertently using his relatable billionaire status as a means of normalizing the existence of other billionaires whose businesses and actions comparatively may be way more destructive and corrosive to modern society.

Just because there are music fans out there who have their favorite billionaires, be they Jay-Z or Taylor Swift, that doesn't mean broader rhetoric against the billionaire class who may be running oil companies or creating the AI bubble or buying up every media and social media company in sight while poisoning the well of public discourse and buying politicians on a regular basis. Nothing about Jay-Z's success makes those points any less valid.

And you would think someone of Jay-Z's caliber and experience would be able to parse that difference and see the forest for the trees and understand that the public's criticisms of the billionaire class are valid. I don't know, in my eyes, if anything is clear at this point, capitalism isn't going to fix capitalism.

I don't begrudge anyone in the world of music or entertainment wanting to make money off their art and make a living. But we're past the point culturally where I feel like we can continue deluding ourselves into believing that merely by virtue of making money doing what we're doing, regardless of who we are and what in music and entertainment we're doing to make that money, simply by making money, we're changing the world and fixing things. Even if some of that money gets donated to good causes or puts cool artists or meaningful messages on particular stages.

Which brings me to the last section of this interview that seems to be getting the most conversation, and that's Jay-Z's opinions when it comes to rap battles and his affiliations currently with the NFL and getting Kendrick Lamar to play the Super Bowl. Because honestly, it's kind of funny to hear that Jay-Z did not like one bit what essentially has come out of the Kendrick/Drake battle in terms of the continued conversations and aftermath. And look, I'll be honest, I agree with some of his points here.

"Especially on like, you know, on social media, which takes place every day. And now you have these pods of cult – "

"– The stan armies."

"Yeah, and it's like, it's too far. Yeah, it's like bringing people's kids in it, man. It's, it's like taking us a couple steps back. I don't know if battling needs to be part of the culture anymore."

"Interesting."

"I hate that I have this point of view."

There's a lot going on in the world, and there's a lot currently going on in terms of music right now too. Great artists, great songs, great albums that are worthy of everyone's time and attention. But every day when I log onto social media, I am guaranteed 10 times out of 10 to see some kind of viral thread, tweet, interaction, or something about this goddamn battle that's 2 years old at this point. There are people who are still fighting it out on social media every day as if this battle just happened, still trying to effectively adjudicate the winner when really it's pretty much been decided. It was the guy who played the Super Bowl. If you didn't notice, it was the guy who had his diss track become the number one song in the country.

Honestly, I feel like enough time has passed to say this is the biggest cultural moment around a diss track, around a rap beef that hip-hop has ever had and possibly will ever have. I mean, we can open up this convo again if another beef, results in another Super Bowl performance and something bigger on top of that.

As a social media topic, this battle is a zombie walking around eating people's fucking brains. Because again, really, truly – it's over. It's done. It's finished. There's not really anything new to add. Maybe if Drake throws a few subs on Iceman or whatever, but like, even that isn't going to change the nature of the conversation and what occurred. I agree with Jay-Z's annoyance and disgust at this dynamic.

However, I don't know if personally I would go as far as to say this is proof that hip-hop doesn't need battling and battling is a bad thing and beef is inherently wrong, because honestly, this isn't really necessarily the fault of the artists themselves or the music, but rather the way social media and internet culture is very negatively affecting communal conversations and discourse around music these days. In other times and in other contexts, even recently, I would say, you know, you have guys like Ray Vaughn as well as Joey Bada$$ who had a completely respectable beef with multiple disses going back and forth. Great quality tracks, super entertaining.

There are people out there, including myself, who still enjoy and respect both artists, and people have been able to move on past that whole thing very normally.

Either way, beyond that, I find it very funny that Jay-Z would be taken aback or be surprised by the idea that he had a horse in this race when it comes to the battle or some kind of bias toward one artist or against another.

"People made it a personal thing that you chose Kendrick for the Super Bowl. It's like, oh man, he's choosing a side and he's putting— and he's not like—"

"I don't have— what do I have to do with that? I chose the guy that was having a monster year. I think it was the right choice. It wasn't in some sort of alliance to a battle. What I care about them two guys battling, like, what's that got to do with me? Or have at it, have fun."

Man, you literally chose the guy who won and allowed him to victory lap with "Not Like Us" at the Super Bowl with record viewership. And, you know, people are going to read that as a vote of support. I feel like honestly, that's just a really logical read on the situation. I think Jay-Z acting like, "yeah, you know, I picked Kendrick because he was just having a really big year." I think that's a little BS. And even if that was simply his intent – ignoring how other people could read the situation – to me is a little silly, acting as if people are crazy for connecting the dots here when the dots are literally this close and you're just going from one to the next.

Not to mention, this is the second time Kendrick has appeared to perform music at the Super Bowl anyway.