Ice-T has informed JAY-Z came to him at the 2023 Grammy Awards and asked him about a supposed beef over his song “99 Problems.”
While Hov’s 2004 Black Album cut stays one of his greatest hits, breaking the top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 and going double platinum, the song's iconic hook (“I got 99 problems, but a bitch ain’t one”) was taken from Ice-T’s 1993 original of the same name.
The tie between the two tracks came around into light last November when a video of the gangsta rap icon expressing his irritation at JAY-Z never admitting the source resurfaced.
“Why has JAY-Z never said, ‘This is Ice-T’s song’? Show me some love!” he said in a 2014 interview with Radio.com. “That’s just another way of handling the situation. I handle the situation differently. If I use your music, I want to let people know.”
It seems JAY-Z grabbed wind of Ice-T’s statements and got them up with him at the Grammys earlier this month, where they both performed. Hov closed out the ritual with “God Did” alongside DJ Khaled, John Legend, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, and Friday, while Ice wiped off “New Jack Hustler” as parts of the star-studded 50th anniversary Hip Hop award.
“I’m at the Grammys and JAY-Z comes to me. He says, ‘Ice, you know I love you, right?'” Ice-T said during a visit to Big Boy’s Neighborhood. “I say, ‘Yeah!’ He says, ‘Well, it’s on the internet that you mad.’ I said, ‘I’m not mad! They’re bringing up all kinds of interviews about it and they asked me the story, and I told them the true story.’
“He goes, ‘Yeah man, but it’s no hard feelings.’ And he started talking about how me and him — ’cause I met JAY-Z way back in the day. Big Daddy Kane brought JAY-Z to my house back in the day when he was starting out. I used to take Jay around, roll my car, him and Dame Dash, so we’re friends.”
He added: “But I said, ‘Yo, well, you know, when you did ’99 Problems,’ at the end of the record you could’ve said, ‘Ice!’ You could’ve given me a little dap or something!’ I said, ‘But I’m not mad at it. What had happened was people wanted to know the story.'”
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