Five Takeaways From Jay-Z's New Interview With GQ

30 years of Hov, huh? For a man who has side-stepped the media cycle that, in recent times, has worked against him, Jay sat down with Frazier Tharpe for GQ for one of his first sit-down interviews in a really long time. This time, surprisingly, it had little to do with a business venture or a movie that he’s behind. It was a sit-down that really dug into his place in hip-hop and pop culture at large as not only the wealthiest but the best rapper to do it.

The rare appearance came on the heels of announcing his two (now three) headlining sold-out nights at Yankee Stadium to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Reasonable Doubt and the 25th anniversary of The Blueprint. Outside of a few appearances here and there, Jay hasn’t really performed on stage like we’d hope he would. Naturally, when he said that he’s on the offense all of 2026, we could imagine that includes not only the upcoming Yankee Stadium shows but the Roots Picnic gig with The Roots in Philadelphia. Will there be more shows announced? Maybe, but considering that he opened up about the joys of fatherhood during this same GQ interview and how he enjoys taking his kids to school every morning, it seems highly unlikely that he’ll accept any task or schedule that requires him to be away from his kids for extended periods of time.

There’s certainly a mountain of questions that Jay-Z probably won't answer in the near future, but over the course of the 35-minute video, Hov opened up about everything from his partnership with the NFL to how he dealt with the civil lawsuit that accused him of rape. Below is a breakdown of the five main takeaways from the Jay-Z interview with Frazier Tharpe.

Perhaps the biggest scandal to hit Shawn Carter’s desk in the past decade was the civil lawsuit filed by Tony Buzbee alleging that Jay-Z was involved in the sexual assault of a minor alongside Diddy. Hov refused to go through with some sort of settlement to make it go away, and eventually, the case was dismissed.

“That whole [lawsuit thing], that shit took a lot out of me. I was angry. I haven’t been that angry in a long time, uncontrollable anger. You don’t put that on someone—that’s a thing that you better be super sure. It used to be like that,” he said. “Even when we were doing the worst things, we had those kind of rules. There was a line: no women, no kids. You hear those sayings, but those are the things that I took from the street. We lived and died by that… I took that really hard. I knew that we were going to walk through that because, first of all, it’s not true. And the truth, at the end of the day, still reigns supreme.”

In one way, he cited how it exposed the true feelings that people held for him, both those who may have already held animosity toward him and those who understand his character. “I can’t take a settlement—it ain’t in my DNA. First of all, first I had to tell my wife. Let’s back up. I know the weight that this is going to bring on our family. I can’t do it. I would die,” he said.

“If I settled—make that thing go away. And for me, it would’ve been cheaper? Yes. Cheaper, quicker, move on with your life. I knew what was coming. I wasn’t naive. I called—again, after my family—my partners. They were like, ‘What do you need to help? Don’t even worry.’ In a phone call. Not even a: ‘I got to go to the board with this.’ It was like a testament because people know me. Like: ‘I know who you are and that’s impossible. Not only are we standing by you, but what do you need?’”

If you ever doubted Drake’s fanbase, just look at how quickly negative narratives began turning on Jay-Z once he announced the Super Bowl Halftime Show performer for 2025. Coming off his feud with the Toronto rapper, Kendrick Lamar landed undoubtedly one of the biggest commercial looks of his career last year, leading the way for his stadium tour. However, it didn’t take long for people to feel as though Jay-Z’s alignment with Kendrick was out of malice toward Drake. During the recent interview with GQ, Jay-Z stated that it wasn’t the deciding factor.

“I chose the guy that was having a monster year. I think it was the right choice. What do I care about them two guys battling? What’s that got to do with me? Have at it. They drag everybody in it, like everyone’s part of this conspiracy to undermine Drake, I guess,” he explained. But it’s like, what the fuck? I’m fucking Jay-Z! [Laughs.] All due respect to him. I’m fucking Hov. Respectfully. It doesn’t make any sense.”

On the topic of Kendrick and Drake, Jay-Z reflected on the overall impact that battle rap currently has in the landscape of hip-hop. Unfortunately, it’s not something that everyone would like to hear from an elder statesman. “We love the excitement and I love the sparring, but in this day and age there’s so much negative stuff that comes with it that you almost wish it didn’t happen,” he said. Hov explained that “people that like Kendrick hate Drake” and have practically turned it into an attack on his character. Add the layer of social media into the equation, and Hov explained that he doesn’t think battle rap is necessary these days, especially when people are going as far as bringing kids into it.

“We’ve just grown so much that—I guess I’m going to say it—I don’t know if battling needs to be part of the culture anymore,” he said.

Interestingly enough, he pointed to his feud with Nas as something he regrets since they actually have a strong relationship these days. But on that note, he also noted how some of his commentary on the current state of battle rap might seem contradictory. “I realize it’s a bit hypocritical because of how many battles I’ve been in, and given the nature of ‘Super Ugly.’ It takes growth to arrive at this place, because I’ve done the bullshit too!” he texted Frazier.

Maybe what feels like the most interesting part about this interview is that Jay-Z addressed his relationship with J. Cole over the years. On The Fall-Off song “Old Dog,” Cole raps, “No more record deal, yeah, I'm fresh up out of slavery,” which many perceived as a slight toward Jay-Z and Roc Nation. Plus, the seemingly distant mentor-mentee relationship they developed early on appeared to vanish in recent years. Of course, this spurred plenty of fan theories online, none of which have necessarily been confirmed by either party.

“The narrative is that we didn’t love Cole. No, we believed in him enough to let him find his journey. It took him a minute, but he found his way,” Hov explained. When the story of trying to get the Fayetteville rapper to sit down with Stargate came up, Jay said that he was only trying to expand Cole’s audience.

“I was giving him a chance to take his talent and show it to the most people possible, but his way,” he said. Jay said that he never forced the collaboration on J. Cole in the way he forced Memphis Bleek to record “Memphis Is Like.”

“Bleek is my little brother, he has to listen to me. But for J. Cole, he has to find his own direction and I’m going to give him the tools,” he continued. “Stargate made humongous records with Rihanna, Wiz Khalifa ‘Black and Yellow.’ Biggest songs in the world. You don’t want to go sit with them? Fine.”

However, Jay said there are no harsh feelings between them right now. "I don’t have any negative feelings for him. I’m actually super proud of him and what he’s done,” he added.

Beyond anything, all of this chatter surrounding Hov has fans wondering one key question: Is a new album on the way? The GQ interview sheds interesting light on where Hov is creatively these days. For one, he explained that he’s “fulfilled in that space.”

“I was just so heavy [last year] and when I write, I write from experiences. And that would have been a very angry offering,” he said. “I’m not sure with the amount of negativity in the world that people needed me to add to that with my feelings—because it would have been harsh, and it would have been harsh on everybody. I don’t know how to make music that’s not reflective of how I’m feeling at the moment.” He added, “I don’t know if it would have done more harm than good. I have a lot of scratch ideas and they’re all bad [laughs]. I got to be honest.”

When asked, “what are the hallmarks of a great Jay-Z album right now?,” Jay said that he isn’t entirely sure. “I don’t know what I need to create currently that’s going to fulfill me and make me happy because that’s most important. I know I just got to be honest about what I feel and where I am. Maybe I’m overthinking it. Maybe I’m stopping myself from just creating,” he said. “Whatever it is, it just needs to be a true representation of how I feel. Trying to create something that people like is where I think a lot of artists get jammed up. And people can feel that because it’s not authentic. I just got to make something timeless that I really love and that’s really honest and true to who I am.”