It seemed there was a lot of love at Jay Z’s recent 4:44 tour stop in Chicago. Not only did he appear to squash his long-standing feud with fellow NYC rapper Jaz-O, Hov also sent a heartfelt message to Kanye West.
"Shout out Kanye West. Peace and love," Jay told the crowd after playing Ye’s "Can’t Tell Me Nothing."
"That was for you, Chi-town," Jay said. He also shouted out a few other people, including Chicago's Chance the Rapper.
Interestingly, the song was cut right after the lines "I feel the pressure under more scrutiny / And what’d I do?" The audience finished it off by rapping "act more stupidly." Perhaps some subtle shade?
The Watch the Throne rappers have been in a highly publicized feud since 2016, when Kanye brought up Jay and his family during several The Life of Pablo concerts.
"Let me tell y’all something. There will never be a Watch the Throne 2. You know why? Because that’s the reason why I wasn’t on [Drake’s] song ["Pop Style"]. I wasn’t on the song because of Hov. Because of some Tidal/Apple bullshit," he said in Seattle. "[…] It went out of that territory and it went into some Tidal shit, some political shit, some shit about percentages on songs. I can’t take this shit, bro! Our kids ain’t never even played together. Run that shit."
During another concert, Kanye claimed Beyoncé refused to perform at the MTV VMAs if she wasn’t going to win Video the Year. Jay later said Ye crossed the line by bringing his family into their issues.
"You can't bring my kids, my wife into it," Jay told Rap Radar. "Kanye's my little brother...But you brought my family into it, that's a problem."
The beef has been hard for many fans, but it seems the rappers are getting closer and closer to patching things up. In an interview with the New York Times, Jay revealed he had recently spoke to Kanye, and insisted the two had mutual respect for one another.
"I [talked to] Kanye the other day, just to tell him he’s my brother," Jay said. "I love Kanye. I do. It’s a complicated relationship with us… Kanye came into this business on my label. So I’ve always been like his big brother. And we’re both entertainers. There’s always been a little underlying competition with your big brother. And we both love and respect each other’s art, too. So it’s like, we both — everyone wants to be the greatest in the world. And then there’s like a lot of other factors that play in it. But it’s gonna, we gonna always be good."
