Two of the pop culture trends that dominated the hip-hop community in 2021 were Twitter Spaces and Verzuz. Twitter Spaces allows fans of all kinds to discuss and debate their favorite artists and albums. Verzuz is where these debates manifest hypotheticals into a livestreamed 1-on-1 battle between two artists and their catalogs.
Formed by Timbaland and Swizz Beats in 2020 to cope with the COVID-19 quarantine, Verzuz’s top battles in 2021 featured matchups like Raekwon vs. Ghostface Killah, Bow Wow vs. Soulja Boy and The Lox vs. Dipset. These clashes have fans considering who could potentially be in future Verzuz episodes.
On Tuesday (Dec. 21), JAY-Z joined a Twitter spaces hosted by Genius and Tidal with speakers Alicia Keys and Genius host Rob Markman among others. When presented with a question about potentially doing a Verzuz battle, Hov sadly put those hopes to bed.
“No one can stand on that stage with me. It’s not a chance in hell that anyone can stand on that stage with me.”
JAY-Z on Twitter Spaces
This prompted strong reactions from the hip-hop community, as some offered up opponents that could respectably compete and even defeat JAY-Z in a Verzuz battle, including Lil Wayne, Eminem, Kanye West, Busta Rhymes and Future volunteering himself.
Later in the Twitter Space, JAY-Z claimed Beyoncé reached Michael Jackson status, in terms of performance, with her famed Coachella set.
“Bey’s gonna be mad at this for saying this but Michael Jackson never had a Coachella, she’s an evolution of him because she watched him at (age) nine. Beyoncé is gonna be one of the best singers we ever heard because she is such a student.”
JAY-Z on Twitter Spaces
Even having JAY-Z particpate in social media and join a Twitter Spaces is an accomplishment within itself for the hip-hop community, but him giving us juicy, bold takes like these has been a monstrous spark for debate and dialogue. Hopefully Hov can change his mind because we would all love to see him grace the Verzuz stage.
