Jay Z has opened up about Beyonce's Album of the Year Grammy loss. He told TIDAL, “I remove myself from the process and hope they just get it right. It got to the point where I was like, it’s just a marketing thing. You go, you got an album out and it could help the sales go up.”
He added that Renaissance should have won based on how it impacted the culture, saying, “Look how the energy of the world moved. They play her whole album in the club. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that. The whole entire joint — like, everything?! Every remix is amazing. Everyone’s inspired. It has inspired the world.”
Jay Z also opened up about his “God Did” Grammy performance with DJ Khaled, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Fridayy and John Legend, revealing why he decided to rap his entire verse. He explained, “I thought about it, I was in my head and I just broke down and said, ‘You know, it’s a four-minute verse.’ Again, for the culture, for Hip Hop, we got to do that.This ain’t your traditional song. … It’s not your traditional structure of what you think a song that would be nominated for Song of the Year would sound like. It’s not what you expect. And for the culture and for Hip Hop, we got to do that.”
He continued, “We owe that. This thing that changed our lives. We got to do that. A four-minute verse performed at the Grammys. We owe it to the culture, and it ain’t even a burden. It’s a blessing. It’s easy and fun.”