Football just won big at the Super Bowl, and so did Hip-Hop and the Lox members. Recently, the LOX legend took to the booth to express his sentiments on Kendrick Lamar’s exhilarating halftime show at Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, which he believes will be a massive win for the culture. But while he’s giving Kendrick his moment, he’s also sending a word of caution to artists hoping to follow his template: Originality is key.
Jadakiss joined the 7 PM in Brooklyn podcast with Carmelo Anthony and Kid Mero, where he shared his perspective on the constant evolution of Hip-Hop, from delivery methods to the shift in rap beef. The veteran MC, whose razor-sharp lyricism and battle-tested bars remain his stock in trade, did not mince words in assessing the current state of the genre.
“Music is at a strange in-between,” Jadakiss added. “In terms of how it’s being delivered and distributed, this whole streaming s### is just a different thing. But it hasn’t deterred me from wanting to make music. “I think there’s more politics in music than politics.”
Regardless of the shifting tides, one thing was clear to him: Kendrick’s Super Bowl performance was a massive cultural moment.
“For hip-hop to get to the Super Bowl, anything is a win for me.” “I don’t know, but maybe I feel different because I’m an elder statesman. I don’t care about the other stuff. Seeing him up there rocking, the message, and the aesthetics were beautiful. It was good for Hip-Hop.”
Jadakiss reflected on how the Hip-Hop genre was nowhere near the Super Bowl stage, much less with a headlining slot. In the olden days, halftime was a snack break, not a spectacle.
“I remember being young and watching the Super Bowl with my dad and my uncles, and everybody would get a plate. Nobody even cared about who was on the halftime show,” he said.
But times have changed, and rap beef has evolved with hip-hop’s mainstream domination. Kicking it to his own experience in the game, Jadakiss equated the Kendrick and Drake battle to his own by acknowledging how both artists have transformed the lyrical war into chart-topping success.
“Another genius thing with Kendrick,” he said. “He made a single. He did it with Meek [Meek Mill], Drake. The one with Meek was some Billboard charting shit.”
Thinking about his battle-tested past, Jadakiss noted that rap beefs today are handled differently. And where he thrived in an era built on unfiltered and unrepentant bars, diss records today have commercial sensibilities.
“With me coming up battling, I’m saying the most craziest s### that would never be the same,” he said. “But now they flipped it, which I think is fire. Drake did it a few times. Kendrick did it. I think that’s ill.”
However, as much respect as he has for evolution, Jadakiss stated that not all artists should attempt the Kendrick approach.
“We don’t need to hear 53 more, ‘They Not Like Us,’” he warned. “Just because that got him five Grammys, his Super Bowl, and this and that when you go to create, don’t try to make that.
For Jadakiss, the sauce to everlasting Hip-Hop success hasn’t been altered. Yes, Kendrick Lamar’s performance was defined, but this was his moment, years in the making, built with artistic integrity and a unique vision. That is a massive issue with hip-hop. Hip-hop needs innovative artists to flourish, not clones of past hits.
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