Joey Bada$$ has claimed that JAY-Z once made attempts to manage him earlier in his career.
Speaking to Red Bull, the New York native how the deal almost came to be and ultimately fell apart.
He said: “It was a chain of communication that I didn’t have any part in. You gotta understand, at that point I’m a 17-year-old kid from Brooklyn, that was the dream, the highest honor you can have. Jay is my favorite rapper, even to this day, and within a year of being in the game, he wanted to sign me.”
Joey continued: “But he didn’t want to sign me as an artist, he wanted to manage me. I had a manager at the time and I always wonder if that’s how it got botched.”
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Back in 2022, Joey also spoke about the deal not quite working out.
He said on The Breakfast Club: “I always see him now and I be wanting to have that conversation, but the time…I feel like the time never permits like, where we at. I was so young at the time and to me there was no reason not to sign to JAY-Z. But there was other factors involved and shit like that, so I’m not really sure what exactly happened like if the communications channels was like sabotaged or something like that. I don’t know.”
JAY-Z has never commented about wanting to sign his fellow New Yorker and the two are yet to work together.
Meanwhile, Joey has been happy to stoke a one man war with the West Coast.
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After taking jabs at Kendrick Lamar and the whole scene on recent single “The Ruler’s Back”, Joey doubled down during a recent freestyle where he went up against TDE’s Ab-Soul.
During the cypher, Joey rapped: “First off, I could never hate the West Coast / But since n-ggas comin’ for Joe, fuck it then, let’s go / N-ggas must’ve forgot what Dot said on ‘Control’ / There’s still a buncha sensitive rappers in they pyjama clothes. I guess, this ain’t no East versus West / I just think that I’m the best, as a matter fact, I know / These bars could put bad boys on death row / Kinda crazy how Suge and Puff in jail, though (Damn) (Woah) / Yo, I was at the party but I never seen a freak off (Woah) / Instead a battle rapper on stage showing his cheeks off (Ayo).”
