On September 29, 2017, Jay Z sat down with Dean Baquet from the New York Times.

 

The interview covers politics, working through the difficulties of marriage, his tension with Kanye and hints at a possible Mr. & Mrs. Carter project.

 

“Do you think the debate over race in America is happening in a healthy way?”

Well, an ideal way is to have a president that says, “I’m open to dialogue and fixing this.” That’s ideal. But it’s still happening in a good way, because you can’t have a solution until you start dealing with the problem: What you reveal, you heal.

On Kanye:

“Kanye came into this business on my label. So I’ve always been like his big brother,” says JAY. “And we’re both entertainers. It’s always been like a little underlying competition with your big brother. And we both love and respect each other’s art, too. So it’s like, we both — everyone wants to be the greatest in the world. You know what I’m saying? And then there’s like a lot of other factors that play in it. But it’s gonna, we gonna always be good.”

 

On Marriage & Beyonce’s Response to 4:44:

“We had a lot of conversations. You know. [I was] really proud of the music she made, and she was really proud of the art I released. And, you know, at the end of the day we really have a healthy respect for one another’s craft. I think she’s amazing.”

“You know, most people walk away, and like divorce rate is like 50 percent or something ’cause most people can’t see themselves. The hardest thing is seeing pain on someone’s face that you caused, and then have to deal with yourself.”

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