Jay-Z gave a boost to a local eatery in Chicago this week. The rapper hit Bronzeville Soul during Beyoncé's Renaissance tour stops in the Windy City. “I couldn’t believe it was him. Actually, when I first saw him, I didn’t think it was him. I thought it was someone else acting like JAY-Z,” said owner Mario Coleman. What's more, Jay-Z sought out the restaurant after learning it was Black-owned. “His actual words to me was once he looked us up and saw it was a Black business, he did tell me he wanted to support Black businesses, and he said, that’s why I’m here,” Coleman said. “He said the food is good.”
The story was covered by a local CBS affiliate, which caused the restaurant to get a much-needed boost in patrons after a year of mixed fortunes for the eatery. “We went through a lot of changes, but it all turned out good for everybody,” Coleman said. “We’re happy. We want it to be better, of course, but we are happy it’s not killing us to the point where we thinking like, ‘We ain’t gonna make it,’ Coleman said.
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Jay-Z Hits Up Chicago Eatery
While Jay-Z may be feeling the love in Chicago, Boosie Badazz has claimed that things are very different below the Mason-Dixon Line. "Nobody from the south has Jay-Z ahead of Boosie on their all time list," Boosie tweeted earlier this week. The rapper doubled down, reposting his tweet to Instagram with a much more inflammatory caption. "I FUCK WITH JIGGA BUT THIS FACTS. STREES N*GGAS N DA SOUTH DONT PUT HOV OVER BADAZZ.”
Elsewhere, Alicia Keys revealed that she almost didn't get the iconic "Empire State of Mind" collab with Jay-Z. “He had this idea, he wanted to build it out. He wanted to make it the New York energy,” Keys explained. “The crazy part of that story that I just love is that he actually couldn’t get in touch with me because you go through the different channels, management, all these different places. He couldn’t really get movement on it. And so at one point, he was like, ‘Alright, I might have to move on, I can’t connect with her. I guess I have to do it with somebody else,'” Keys continued. “Could you imagine if that ended up happening? I think about it all the time.” It's unknown who Jay-Z might have considered in place of Keys.
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