During an interview with Elliott Wilson for Tidal, Jay-Z opened up about his disdain for being filmed in today’s era of constant surveillance.
The acclaimed journalist recalled a moment when OG Juan was so taken aback by the emcee’s technical ability that he began filming, which the Grammy award-winner previously didn’t take too kindly to. The rapper then explained his stance on not liking to have cameras recording his every move, asserting he “comes from a different world.”
“Yeah, we don’t come from that school. We come from the don’t-you-ever-record-us school. What was the line? ‘See me in sh*t you never saw/If it wasn’t for these pictures you wouldn’t see me at all,'” Mr. Carter said, reciting lyrics from 2013‘s “Oceans.”
“We come from that school and we had fights over that. Ni**as trying to record — ‘Aye yo, don’t record me, champ. I ain’t into that.’ We come from a different world.”
He then explained how creating The Black Album benefitted from filming because it was the first time the Roc Nation boss allowed outside eyes into their operation.
“That’s why The Black Album was so special,” Shawn Carter continued. “It was the first time cameras came into the studios and just lived with us. [Still, man,] we missed magic. When you look back on it, it’s like, f**k. Baseline Studios was a movie. Just Blaze. Kanye. And it started with Bink. First day in that studio, Bink had an artist. What’s the girl’s name? Started with a M. [thinks about it] Mocha.
“She’s in an elevator coming upstairs to work with Bink, and he plays me a beat he made for her, and I’m like, ‘That’s mine.’ I hear that joint, and I’m like, ‘Pull those reels up. Send it to me.’ It became [2000’s] ‘You, Me, Him & Her.’ First record I ever recorded at Baseline. Shout out to Mocha.”
The timeless emcee most recently took his lyrical prowess to the 2023 GRAMMYs, where he performed “God Did” for the first time. DJ Khaled, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Fridayy, and John Legend joined Hov as they closed the show out with a memorable set.