Joey Badass Didn’t Sign to Jay Z Because He Wants to Become Hov Instead

Joey Bada$$ stopped by DJ Whoo Kid's Shade 45 show The Whoolywood Shuffle recently, and spoke on Statik Selektah drunkenly dropping off 40 beats for him ("Ready" among them), the origins of his stage name and why he turned down an offer to sign with Jay Z's Roc Nation. As Joey tells it, he went from dreams of signing Young Money to exclusively wanting to sign to Jay Z, but upon reading Jay's Decoded, he had a change of heart.

"I definitely didn’t always have the independent mind state," Joey says of his early career ambitions. But it was a bit in Decoded where Jay recounts meeting with Russell Simmons to sign with Def Jam in which Joey was inspired to forge his own way. "His only thought," Joey says of Jay's Def Jam meeting, "was 'Damn I don’t want to be signed to this nigga, I wanna be this nigga.' I kinda had that same perspective. But shout out to Jay, man, cause he was on it before a lot of people."

The Pro Era rapper goes onto to explain how his initial plan was to walk in to the Roc Nation offices and immediately accept, and how Jay complimented him on his song "Waves," saying, "This right here, this is hip-hop." Joey then applauds Hov's ability to keep an ear out for what's up and coming, saying, "I’m sure he’s still watching the way my shit is turning out."

Catch the full interview up above, where Joey talks about signing on to act in season 2 of USA's Mr. Robot.

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