Jay Z has shared his thoughts on the ongoing feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, saying he is unsure whether rap battles should still play such a big role in hip hop culture today.

The rivalry captured major attention throughout 2024 and 2025, evolving from a series of diss tracks into legal action and a deeply personal conflict that spilled into both artists’ public and private lives.

Jay Z was indirectly connected to the situation through Roc Nation, the company responsible for selecting Super Bowl halftime performers. Lamar’s 2025 appearance included a moment where he encouraged the crowd to chant controversial lyrics from ‘Not Like Us’.

Speaking in a recent interview with GQ, Jay addressed the feud publicly for the first time. He explained that his perspective comes from looking at what he calls the “four pillars of hip-hop”, which he listed as “breakdancing, graffiti, DJing and battling”.

He noted that breakdancing is “not at the forefront of rap anymore”, graffiti has become “not part of hip-hop” and that “you don’t even know the DJ for half of the artists anymore”.

“And the last pillar is battling,” he added. “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.”

“Now, people that like Kendrick hate Drake, no matter what he makes. It’s like an attack on his character. I don’t know if I love that. I don’t know if it’s helpful to our growth where the fallout lands, especially on social media,” he said.

“It’s too far. It’s bringing people’s kids in it. I don’t like that. I sound like the old guy wagging his finger, but I think we can achieve the same thing, as far as sparring with music, with collaborations more so than breaking the whole thing apart. It could stand it before because there was no social media. You had the battle and it was fun and then you moved on. Right now, I don’t know if it could stand it with the technology that we have.”

He finished by questioning whether the conflict is ultimately worthwhile.

“I don’t know if battling needs to be part of the culture anymore. We grew from breakdancing. We love graffiti. Before, the MC’s job was to bring attention to the DJ…. I want to hear what the rapper is saying. Now the last pillar is battling, and these are all the things that come with it. I hate that I have this point of view on it. I do. Because I know what it sounds like. It’s just how I feel about it.”

He later expanded on his thoughts, saying: “There is clearly an agenda to silence voices in our community, a heavy right-wing agenda. And the culture is happily playing along in the name of this insane thirst of Stan culture to have something on the other side. We are in a strange time. I’m curious as to how this plays out!”

Back in October, Drake attempted to revive his defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group related to Lamar’s diss track ‘Not Like Us’. A federal judge had previously ruled that the claims made in the song, including the lyric calling Drake a “certified paedophile” which he has repeatedly denied, fell under protected opinion and dismissed the case.

Soon after the legal decision, reports showed that ‘Not Like Us’ returned to the Top 100 charts on both iTunes and Apple Music, including strong performance across several countries. On the same day as the ruling, the track was also reported to have gained over one million streams on Spotify.

As for Jay Z, he recently confirmed two major New York stadium concerts celebrating his landmark albums ‘Reasonable Doubt’ and ‘The Blueprint’. The Yankee Stadium performances will mark the 30th and 25th anniversaries of the albums and will take place on July 10 and 11.

He is also scheduled to co headline the Roots Picnic festival in Philadelphia alongside The Roots on Saturday May 30.

Jay Z’s last full headline show took place in 2019 at Webster Hall in New York, while his most recent live appearance came in July 2025 when he joined Beyoncé during the final night of her ‘Cowboy Carter’ tour in Las Vegas.