Photo by Axel Antas-Bergkvist on Unsplash
Kanye and Jay’s relationship kind of reminds me of that one friend you’ve known your whole life. You bicker and fight but at the end of the day, you’re still family. Clearly, these two are in a bickering stage and have been for years now, starting when Jay Z and Beyonce skipped out on Kanye’s wedding to Kim Kardashian. But we’ll get into that later.
The two were spotted at Diddy’s 50th birthday this past weekend and can I add how funny it is that nobody is talking about Diddy, we’re all most interested in the guests that attended his party. Because I mean, it is pretty noteworthy. We haven’t seen these two together in a while. So, just in case you’ve forgotten about the friendship/beef between these two. Here’s a rundown of their relationship.
September 2007: Kanye releases “Big Brother” detailing his relationship with JAY-Z
This entire song details Kanye and Jay’s friendship through the years and how it has evolved as Kanye came up in the game.
Big brother got his show up in Madison Square
And I’m like yea, yea we gonna be there
But not only did I not get a chance to spit it
Carleen told me I could buy two tickets
I guess big brother was thinking a little different
And kept little brother at bay, at a distance
But everything I felt was more bogus
Only made me more focused, only wrote more potent
Only thing I wanna know is why I get looked over
I guess ill understand when I get more older
Big brother saw me at the bottom of the totem
Now I’m at the top and everybody on the scrotum
It wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies in this track. The song tells a story of a true sibling-like relationship. A feeling of being left out and looked over but eventually growing to overcome it all.
September 2009: Kanye West thinks Beyonce had the best album of all time.
Ahhh the infamous, “Imma let you finish” moment. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone look as shocked and confused as Beyonce when she heard Kanye mutter those words. I remember watching this and thinking it was a joke. Like, why would he do this? Taylor and Bey are in on this right? But then I saw Beyonce’s face and I knew nobody was in on this except Kanye.
August 2011: Kanye West and JAY-Z release their collaborative album, Watch the Throne
October 2011: Kanye West and JAY-Z embark on their co-headlining ‘Watch the Throne’ tour
It’s always been a question if Beyonce and Kim actually like each other. Well, let me rephrase that. It’s always been a question if Beyonce likes Kim lol. Anyways, it’s been said that they bonded on this tour. I wonder what they talked about backstage, if they stayed up last and had sleepovers, or got drunk while pregaming before shows. Guess we’ll never know.
July 2013: JAY-Z speaks to Zane Lowe about working with Kanye. Hints at Duel Album
“It actually was really easy, because of the relationship. It’s always been a big brother thing and a respect thing. It’s always a good experience,” Jay said of working with Kanye. “He’s going to challenge everything because he’s really trying to test it and poke holes to make sure that it stands up. I admire that. It kind of works for me.”
May 2014: JAY-Z and Beyoncé do not attend Kanye’s wedding to Kim Kardashian
I understand Beyonce not going, but Jay-Z? It seemed like a dig at the couple for them not to attend. Like Kanye mentions later, obviously, Jay and Bey were going throught some things at this time but to miss their wedding was not a good look.
October 2016: Kanye West slams JAY-Z after Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint
June 2017: JAY-Z releases 4:44 album and disses Kanye
If you’ll remember, Kanye was hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital back in 2016 after his on-stage rant at his concert. The main targets of the rant included Jay-Z and Beyonce. He Jay of not reaching out after Kim’s Paris robbery. Jay and Bey never said anything publically until this album:
I know people backstab you, I feel bad too / But this ‘f*ck everybody’ attitude ain’t natural / But you ain’t the same, this ain’t KumbaYe / But you got hurt because you did cool by ‘Ye / You gave him 20 million without blinkin’ / He gave you 20 minutes on stage, f*ck was he thinkin’?/ ‘F*ckin’ wrong with everybody?’ is what you sayin’ / But if everybody’s crazy, you’re the one that’s insane.
July 2017: Kanye West splits with TIDAL
This felt like the nail in the coffin. These two obviuosly weren’t on good terms personally, this one piece of business was the last thing tying them together. Once Kanye left, I could see Jay-Z had 99 problems and Kanye was definitely one, hit me.
July 2017: ‘Public Enemies: Jay-Z vs. Kanye’ documentary airs
April 2018: JAY-Z calls West his “little brother”
Jay-Z went on an episode of Netflix’s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman.
‘Let me talk about one of your peers, Kanye West. Are we friends or are we not friends?’ asked Letterman, to which Jay-Z replied, ‘That’s my brother. We’re beyond friends.’
May 2018: West says beef began when JAY-Z didn’t come to his wedding
“I was hurt about them not coming to the wedding. I understand they were going through some things, but if it’s family, you’re not going to miss a wedding,” West said. Clearly, he was referring to the cheating allegations at the time, which we not know to be a fact (thank you, Lemonade).
September 2018: Beyoncé wears YEEZY mules on Instagram. Kanye calls them family
November 2018: JAY-Z clarified reports that he dissed Kanye West on Meek Mill’s album
Jay- Z hopped on Meek Mill’s album Champions and basically rapped an entire verse dissing Ye. He was going so hard he had to stop himself from saying his wife, Beyonce, is better than Kanye’s wife, Kim Kardashian. Peep the lyrics below:
“No red hat, don’t Michael and Prince me and Ye / They separate you when you got Michael and Prince’s DNA / I ain’t one of these house niggas you bought / My house like a resort, my house bigger than yours / My spo — c’mon, man — my route better of course …”
December 2019: Kanye and Jay Z Reunite at Diddy’s B-day party
It’s been a minute since we’ve seen these two together. Everything looked cordial but who knows what really happened when they got a private moment to actually chop it up. In the words of Natasha Beddingfield, “the rest is still unwritten”. And I for one can’t wait to see what happens next in this saga.