It took 19 years, but Jay-Z has finally answered the most famous Coldplay complaint in rap.
On “Big Brother,” from 2007’s Graduation, Ye (Kanye West) rapped that he told Jay about his song with Coldplay, only for Jay to turn up with a Coldplay song of his own. On episode 7 of JAŸ-Z in 8, his HBO docuseries with Rick Rubin, Hov gave his side for the record. Chris Martin, he said, is his friend, and the introduction was his doing.
It’s almost as if I betrayed him by having a song [with him]. Chris [Martin] is my friend. I introduced them.
Jay-Z, to Rick Rubin, Complex
The way the song tells it, he argued, the world hears that and assumes Jay was foul. “It’s not off the table that I’m doing a song with my friend because you did a song,” he said. He said he could put himself in Ye’s shoes, but that it “doesn’t make it right,” according to PEOPLE. He called part of it entitlement. “We don’t own people.”
Read moreThom Yorke Tells Harry Styles the Radiohead Reunion Made Him 'Massively Crash'
The timeline is messier than the lyric. Jay’s song with Martin, “Beach Chair,” came out on 2006’s Kingdom Come. Ye’s “Homecoming,” also featuring Martin, was recorded that same year and released in 2007, VIBE notes. Jay and Coldplay linked again on “Lost+” in 2008. Ye’s own verse wasn’t one-sided, either: he admitted he took his frustration to Roc-A-Fella’s Jay Brown instead of Jay, and wished he’d gone to Jay first.
Hear both sides of the Coldplay question below.
The answer lands at a cold moment between the two. Complex notes that Jay-Z publicly distanced himself from Ye after Ye made comments about his children, which Ye later apologized for.
It also came in the series’ loosest hour. After six episodes of Jay dissecting his catalog song by song, episode 7 is a free-flowing conversation about loyalty, betrayal, his rivalry with Nas and therapy, VIBE reported after an early look. It arrived Friday (Oct. 9) alongside the finale, closing an eight-part run that began Sept. 18. All eight episodes are out now.
PEOPLE said it reached out to Ye for comment. Jay, for his part, sounded done with the debate. “Whether you did the song first or not,” he said, “who cares?”
