Nowadays, Jay-Z is almost anti-beef. Back in March 2026, he argued that bringing kids into the beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar was a step too far for him. “I sound like the old guy wagging his finger,” Hov admitted.
“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.”
Mind you, this is the same person who told Nas he left condoms on his baby’s seat on “Supa Ugly”. Now, decades later, he believed we’re past the need for battling. But this was not the mindset Jay-Z had in 2001. At the time, he was arguably the hottest rapper in the world and was at war against Nas and Mobb Deep. Just months before he released his classic album The Blueprint, he debuted his diss “Takeover“, where he aimed at his rivals.
Meanwhile, as he rapped, he projected photos of Prodigy of Mobb Deep in dance class as a kid, wearing leotards and a sparkling jacket. The crowd absolutely erupted as Hov rapped, “You was a ballerina, I seen ya.”
You could check out the entire Summer Jam performance below, where he also brought out Missy Elliott and Michael Jackson.
Jay-Z Clowned Prodigy for Attending Dance Class as a Kid
Hov’s beef with Prodigy lasted for years after the infamous Summer Jam moment. Admittedly, the Mobb Deep MC wanted to fight Jay over the debacle, but it wasn’t really over the dance class photos. In an interview with The Breakfast Club, he joked that he thought he was Michael Jackson when he was a kid and posed accordingly. Moreover, his grandmother took the pictures because she ran the class.
When Prodigy passed away at 42 years old in 2017, Jay-Z revealed to journalist Elliott Wilson that the pair finally sat down to patch things up in 2012. Ultimately, he was devastated to see the New York legend pass away at such a young age. “He just came over, and we kicked it,” he recalled. “It’s just sad. Blessings to his family. It’s sad. Young, young man.”
Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc
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