Kanye West has everyone talking after his interview on Drink Champs‘ with co-hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN.
During the interview Kanye was asked about VERZUZ, and if he’s watched the series. He was then asked who he felt was a better producer- Swizz Beatz or Just Blaze. Kanye proceeded to call Blaze a “copycat” for his work on Jay-Z’s Blueprint album.
“He get credit for [JAY-Z’s] The Blueprint, and I did the first half of The Blueprint, and he just copied my half,” he said. “I mean look — look where I’m at today and look where he at today. So that should show you … I be hearing my — and then, it be all over the radio, I’d have my girl from Chicago, be on Hot 97 and stuff listening to radio, it be another Just Blaze song, another Just Blaze song.”
He continued, “I like the originators man. I don’t mind, like, you know, the copycats too, and — by the way — you just gotta say it like it is. … But I love you, but just know what it is.”
After those comments went viral, Jay-Z added in his two cents. While promoting his new movie, The Harder They Fall on Twitter Spaces, Jay says that Kanye’s comments where a “bit unfair.”
“If you’re making an album, if you’re creating an album and the assignment is soul samples, everyone’s coming with soul,” he said. “It’s not you trying to make a cohesive piece of music. I don’t think anyone was copying off anyone. You know Bink! has this problem and you know I think everyone created for the project. But the thing was, the baby was The Blueprint and I think everyone should be prized for what we created. You know it’s in like — I don’t know what you call — at the Library of Congress or something. It’s like it’s something that we all should or you know their contribution.
Jay added, “Everyone had a contribution I would say, and I don’t think anyone was copying off anyone. I think Bink! did what he did when he brought it to the table and you know, we all had the assignment and created this one body of work … Again, this is everyone’s opinion of what they believe is, you know, their truth. Everyone going to have a different truth.”
😭😭😭 why Kanye chop Just Blaze head off like that pic.twitter.com/6h1fYtPMwC
— DDOT. (@DDotOmen) November 5, 2021