Jay-Z responds to ‘500K vs. lunch with Jay-Z’ debate

The Grammy-winning rapper said he’d rather fans take the money rather than have lunch with him, insisting all his wisdom can be heard in his music.

Over the past few years, a debate has been floating around social media: Would you take $500,000 or have lunch with Jay-Z instead? The Grammy-winning rapper himself is speaking about it publicly for the first time.

Jay-Z sat down with Gayle King on CBS Mornings for a two-part interview. When King asked Jay-Z about the debate, he said, “You’ve gotta take the money.” This answer surprised King, as she explained that people would pick lunch with him so they could acquire the wisdom that made him a billionaire.

The “Can’t Knock the Hustle” MC said there’s an easier way to gain wisdom from him: Buy his albums. “You’ve got all that in the music for $10.99,” Jay-Z said. “That’s a bad deal. I wouldn’t tell you to cut a bad deal.”

Jay-Z went on to elaborate on how the lyrics in his songs are manifestations of his current life. 

“It’s all there. If you piece it together and listen to the music for the words, well, what it is, it’s all there,” Jay-Z continued. “Everything that I said was going to happen, happened. Everything I said I wanted to do, I’ve done.”

Among Jay-Z’s many accomplishments are his collaborations with his wife, Beyoncé. The two have recorded many hit singles and a duo album and co-headlined a tour together. They work so closely together that they even share songs.

Producer No I.D. stated that a beat he initially made for Jay-Z wound up on Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” album in the form of the song “Church Girl,” according to Stereogum. No I.D., who produced Jay-Z’s most recent album, 2017’s “4:44,” and hits like “Run This Town,” went to the couple’s home years ago, making beats for Jay-Z. He rhymed over one and put it on a computer.

Years later, Jay-Z called No I.D. to tell him that Beyoncé got hold of the song and recorded it for herself. “Jay jokingly tells me, ‘Man, she stole my beat,'” No I.D. told Stereogum. “And I went to see her, we talked about the record, we listened to her album.”

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