Although Jay-Z isn’t making much new music these days (aside from some obvious exceptions), he still remains heavily involved in the curation of playlists for the Tidal music platform — even as he sells his majority ownership stake to Square and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. In a recent Twitter spaces town hall about the upcoming deal, he boasted about his playlist prowess, challenging listeners to assemble a better compilation than he can.
“I found so many songs, my playlist game is A++,” he bragged. “I challenge anyone out there. I’m definitely in the top tier of playlist creators.”
Over the past several years, he’s made an effort to prove it, most recently putting together a list celebrating his onetime rival Nas — the only rapper with whom he’s worked in the past year — a 2020 year-end list highlighting the bar-heavy favorites that sustained him in a year of COVID, and the protest-themed “Songs For Survival 2,” which tapped into the rebellious energy of the summer 2020 uprisings against police brutality.
Elsewhere during their chat, Jack and Jay discussed the overlaps in music and Square, and how related tools like CashApp can help artists (as well as being name-checked by them in a rapidly increasing number of songs). “The things that Square and Cash App were doing is pretty much aligned with what one does with their own brand,” Jay noted. “You create a business, take out a small loan, get the things you need to help you be successful and build it out from there. So our conversations just naturally aligned.”