Joey Bada$$ has continued his rise to prominence through 2016, releasing new music and even getting casted in a major television show. They young Brooklyn rapper sat down with DJ Whoo Kid on his Shade 45 show to discuss a few things, and revealed the details of the time he almost signed to Jay Z’s Roc Nation, but ended up turning the deal down.
The way Joey tells it, Roc Nation was his dream label coming up, but when the meeting came with Jigga he changed his mind. Ironically, Jay Z was the one who inspired him to go his own route, via the book “Decoded” that Jay Z published a few years ago. “There’s this one chapter in [“Decoded”] where [Jay Z] went to meet with Russell Simmons to sign with Def Jam. He said his only thought sitting across the table from Russell Simmons was ‘I don’t wanna be signed to this nigga, I wanna BE this nigga,’” Joey recalls. “I kinda had that same perspective.”
Also included in the interview are details of which song Jay Z vibed with the most (“Waves”) and how impressed Joey was with Jay Z’s ability to stay up on new rappers. The interview leads in with a hilarious story about how Statik Selektah got drunk and gave Joey Bada$$ 40 beats, including the beat that would become “Ready," so we definitely recommend checking it out below.
