Jay-Z and Kanye West share one of the most complex histories in hip-hop, a connection the former's Roots Picnic headlining set last night (Saturday, May 30) represented. While Hov performed alongside The Roots to bring some Ye-produced tracks of his to life, he was also one of many people he dissed during his Roots Picnic Freestyle.
None other than Your Old Droog posted a partial clip of the freestyle on Twitter. "You ever heard of a wunderkind? My children is some of them / Have you n***as no shame? Y'all tryna get under skin? / I really get under skin, ask Un how I'm playing / Y'all thugs with y'all thumbs again, everyone think they're the ones insane / You're no maniac, watch how sane he act in my presence, n***as shrink," he rapped.
"Wunderkind," a German compound word that means "wonder child," places this section squarely as a response to Kanye West speaking about Jay-Z's children. For those unaware, he caught a lot of backlash for insulting his younger kids with Beyoncé and spreading unverified allegations about their lives.
The "wunderkind" in this case may also be Ye himself, as he came up under Roc-A-Fella. But by "getting under skin" with his comments, he might make Jay look back a little too fondly about his infamous stabbing of Lance "Un" Rivera in 1999.
Elsewhere, this part of the freestyle makes reference to Kanye West's mental health history and his notorious Twitter rants. We will have to see if Ye responds to any of this.
Jay-Z Disses Kanye West
While Kanye West has recently apologized for past controversies, no one really knows the extent to which his remorse extends. Most folks (and Ye himself) focus on the bigoted antisemitism, but past controversies also include these shots at the Carter-Knowles family, wider industry dynamics with peers, sexual misconduct allegations, and more.
Elsewhere, Jay-Z's other Roots Picnic freestyle disses included shots at Oschino, Jaguar Wright, Dame Dash, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Tony Buzbee, and more. We will see if this dynamic between him and Ye ever changes or if they ever bury the hatchet once again. For now, they continue to seem opposed.
