Jay-Z 'haunted' by second album

Jay-Z’s second album “haunts” him.

The ’99 Problems’ hitmaker released ‘In My Lifetime, Vol 1’ in 1997, with the record going to number three on the Billboard 200 chart in the US but he admitted he has never been a fan of the record because he knows what it “could have been” if he’d done things differently.

Jay made the admission in a rare tweet in response to fellow musician Questlove’s analysis of the album.

Questlove first quoted a tweet from a fan which read: “Hot take: “Sunshine” by Jay-Z was fine and got an unnecessarily bad rap. Actually holds up better now than it did then.(sic)”

Tagging Jay – whose real name is Shawn Carter, which inspired his Twitter handle @SC – in his posts, Questlove replied: “Our main argument is his hate for Vol 1.

He is embarrassed for trying to make a monster & not putting numbers up. But ALOT of this lp contains his best moments. Fight me

@sc

Gallery: Cry me a river! Did you know these songs had so much shade?! (BANG Showbiz)

These words cut deep!

Nothing sets the internet a-light like some not-so-subtle shade in a song. There are SO many ways you can throw shade at your enemies, but none are more effective than rinsing them in a track that will be listened to by MILLIONS and talked about for years. Musicians keep spilling the tea in their tracks and we are here for the tea party! Did you know these songs were acting kind of shady?

Swish Swish — Katy Perry

Released in 2017, the song is about fighting against bullies and uses basketball metaphors to talk about overcoming hateful people and thriving. Multiple outlets suspected that the song was a response to Taylor Swift’s ‘Bad Blood’. When Katy was asked if the song was aimed at Taylor, she said: “Honestly, when women come together and they decide to unite, this world is going to be a better place. Period end of story. But, let me say this, everything has a reaction, or a consequence so don’t forget about that, okay, honey.” In the song, Katy sings: “Your game is tired, you should retire, you’re ’bout as cute as an old coupon expired” Ouch!

Look What You Made Me Do — Taylor Swift

Released in 2017, one year after Kim Kardashian’s Snapchat takedown of Taylor and after a year of public hiatus from the singer. At the time, the track reached a record for the most plays in a single day on Spotify. The song is supposed to be shade towards Kim and Kanye West after they posted a recorded phone call between the singer and Kanye, where Taylor approved song lyrics (which were about her) on one of the rapper’s tracks. She denied agreeing to the lyrics and Kim released the video in the biggest viral take down of internet history. In the song, Taylor sings: “I don’t like your little games, don’t like your tilted stage, the role you made me play of the fool, no, I don’t like you.”

Shout Out to My Ex — Little Mix

The track won the British Single of The Year at the BRIT Awards in 2017. The song was widely understood to refer to Little Mix band member Perrie Edwards’ acrimonious break-up from Zayn Malik. The couple ended their engagement in 2015 and Perrie confirmed the former One Direction star broke up with her via text message. She said in the book ‘Our World’: “It was horrible, the worst time in my life. A four-year relationship, two-year engagement ended in a simple text message. Just like that.”

Love Yourself — Justin Bieber

Even though this is such a beautiful track, there are some shady lyrics in it such as, “My mama don’t like you, and she likes everyone”. The song seems to be about a break-up from a narcissistic lover. Justin and the former Disney star Selena Gomez were famously on-and-off for years, so she’s the ex-girlfriend most commonly linked to the song. However, it seems, we will never know for sure. In an interview with NME, the singer said: “The only thing I don’t want people to ever know is ‘Love yourself’ I don’t want people to know who that’s about.” Sigh…

Same Old Love — Selena Gomez

‘Same Old Love’ was released in 2015 from Selena’s album ‘Revival’. The track is said to be Justin Bieber and the couples on and off again relationship. The lyrics read: “Take away your things and go, you can’t take back what you said, I know, I’ve heard it all before, at least a million times, I’m not one to forget, you know.” Although the singer has never admitted the song is about Justin, in an interview with the Sunday Times, she said: “It’s difficult for people to separate us. The Internet wants to freeze this moment in time and constantly repeat it.”

Cold — Kanye West

‘Cold’ was released in 2012 and at the time Kanye’s reference to the reality TV star Kim Kardashian triggered a firestorm on the web. Kanye rapped, “And I’ll admit I fell in love with Kim, around the same time she had fell in love with him,” alluding to Kim’s failed marriage to Kris Humphries. The song premiered after Kim’s divorce to Humphries which was a short 72-day marriage. Photos of Kim and Kanye also began to surface, showing them holding hands and strolling to dinner dates together. They are now married with four kids, showing that sometimes song shade does work out for the better!

Dear John — Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift and John Mayer – who have a 12-year age gap – dated for seven months when Taylor was 19 years old. It is pretty obvious who the song is about by just the title alone, however, Taylor has never denied who it’s about. She sings: “You paint me a blue sky and go back and turn it to rain, and I lived in your chess game, but you changed the rules every day.” In an interview with Rolling Stone, John said: “It made me feel terrible, because I didn’t deserve it. I’m pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do.”

7 Things — Miley Cyrus

Released in 2008, the song is believed to be about Nick Jonas of The Jonas Brothers which Miley neither confirmed nor denied. The pair dating for a year in 2006 before parting ways and getting back together in 2009 for a short period. The brutal song lists all the bad qualities of an ex-partner, Miley sings: “You’re vain, your games, you’re insecure, you love me, you like her, you make me laugh, you make me cry, I don’t know which side to buy, your friends they’re jerks, and when you act like them, just know it hurts.”

Cry Me a River — Justin Timberlake

Released in 2002, the song throws shade at Justin’s ex-girlfriend Britney Spears. The track is about a brokenhearted man who moves on from his last girlfriend, who had cheated on him. At the time, Britney alleged that the video was a publicity stunt, but Justin maintained that she did not inspire the production, even though the music video shows a Britney Spears look alike play the cheating ex-girlfriend. In 2011, Justin finally admitted that he had written the track after an argument with Britney, saying: “I was on a phone call that was not the most enjoyable phone call. I walked into the studio and he [Timbaland] could tell I was visibly angry.”

The Real Slim Shady — Eminem

Eminem is the OG of throwing shade in songs! Released in 2000, the rap track was a mega hit and is a critique of manufactured pop songs and pop stars that were popular at the time and the rapper throws barbs at A LOT of singers in the track including Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, NSYNC, Pamala Anderson and Will Smith.

“-million one questions (we ride w it)

-“I know what girls like” got shafted. 2 pop culture classics that mighta went over the head in 97, but I was there for joy.

-imaginary created HOV (lol shit built me on the real)

-streets/friend2/etc I’m running outta space.

-this jawn knock

“When you hear Players you got two sides to choose….you wanna be the cat who who got leathers…..or you wanna be the cat asking the cat if you got leathers. I wasn’t thinking “big” then (I was living in my smallness in 97 lol) but I knew I was NEVER gonna be the latter (sic)”

In response, Jay wrote: “Agreed . More so, I know what could have been, so it haunts me … streets is watching was the first song made !(sic)”

The 52-year-old star tweeted just twice in 2021 and not at all in the two years prior, so Questlove joked he was going to treasure his rare response.

He quipped in reply: “Uh can I make this tweet an NFT?(sic)