Jay-Z Responds to MC Hammer Slam

Jay-Z is a man who picks his battles carefully. So when he went after MC Hammer, of all people, last month in his verses on Kanye West's "So Appalled" — "Hammer went broke so you know I'm more focused /I lost 30 mil' so I spent another 30/ 'Cause unlike Hammer 30 million can't hurt me" — it seemed out of character.

Hammer did not take it lying down. In the "Better Run Run" video released early Monday morning, the MC accuses Jigga of being in league (and in the studio) with Satan — and then Hammer defeats the devil and forces Jay to be baptized.

In an interview with BBC's DJ Semtex this week, Jay said he didn't mean the verses as a personal attack.

"I didn't know that [Hammer's financial status] wasn't on the table for discussion!" he said (he laughs or sounds like he's smiling throughout nearly the entire interview). "I didn't know I was the first person ever to say that — I'm not, am I?"

He continued a bit more seriously, "When I say things, I think people believe me so much that they take it a different way — it's, like, not rap anymore at that point."

Photos: Hip-Hop Royalty: How Jay-Z and Beyonce Run This Town

He added: "I say some great things about him in the book I have coming out [Decoded] — that's wasn't a cheap plug," he laughed. "He's gonna be embarrassed, I said some really great things about him and people's perception of him.

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"But it is what it is, he took it that wrong way, and I didn't know I said anything wrong!"

DJ Semtex

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

More Song Stories entries »

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