Jay-Z has opened up on appearing on other people’s songs, saying he “never” charges to lay down guest verses.
The rapper was speaking to Kevin Hart for an episode of Hart’s new show Hart To Heart, which debuted on Peacock this week.
“It’s mostly relationships,” Jay said of his approach to appear in guest form on others’ records. “It’s actually always been mostly relationships. Sometimes it’s talent and sometimes someone asks me to be on something.
“Pretty much every song that I’m on I’m asked to be on. I don’t ask people to be on their songs. I never charge.”
He added: “I try to be straight up,” the Brooklyn mogul continued. “Sometimes it slips through the cracks. Sometimes I want to do it and my life is in a certain place and I’m movin’ and I can’t do it.
“But I typically try to be straight up with people. I don’t like to drag or like waste people’s time or hold them.”
One collaboration Jay-Z has been involved with in the past is with Jack White, and the guitarist recently revealed that unreleased music with the rapper could soon “see the light of day”.
When asked whether the pair had been working together, White replied: “Yeah. That’s true, but it’s not me who doesn’t finish stuff. So it’s, uh…I’m not that guy. No, I’m just teasing. But I’m more the personality, like, I’ll be there tomorrow, you know. So it’s different working styles. So some of that stuff I think will see the light of day when those guys aren’t busy with other projects and stuff.”
When asked if it was “fun” to work with Jay-Z, he added: “Yeah, it was. It’s so different, you know, because when I went into the studio with him, there was just one microphone which is, I kind of was [like] ‘Whoa, what? Where are the other microphones?’”
In the same interview with hart, Jay-Z said that he has not retired from rap and he hasn’t shut the door on releasing new music in the future.
He last released an album in 2017 with ‘4:44’. A year later, he and his wife Beyoncé released a collaborative record titled ‘Everything Is Love’. “I don’t know what happens next. I’m not actively making music or making an album or have plans to make an album,” he said of future plans.
“But I never want to say I’m retired… It’s a gift, and who am I to shut it off? It’s open to whatever. Maybe it’s not an album. Maybe it is. I have no idea, but I’m just going to leave it open.”
