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Jay-Z<\/strong><\/a> opened his headlining set at the 2026 Roots Picnic<\/a><\/strong> Saturday with a freestyle that put Drake<\/strong>, Nicki Minaj<\/strong>, Ye<\/strong>, Dame Dash<\/strong>, and Tory Lanez<\/strong> all on notice.<\/p>\n Before running through his catalog with The Roots<\/a> <\/strong>at Belmont Plateau in Philadelphia, he came out swinging with an unscripted verse that addressed each target by name, or made it clear enough that no one needed a name. He opened with a nod to his grandmother Hattie<\/strong> and closed the same way. Everything in between was for everybody who had something to say.<\/p>\n \n<\/center><\/p>\n Drake<\/a> was first. Jay rapped, \u201cMy next update, the jig is up \/ Nigga, I\u2019m up ten \/ Wrong chart, champ, you gotta look up again \/ Niggas look up to Hov, I never looked up to them.\u201d The bars were a direct response to \u201cJanice STFU,\u201d a track off Drake\u2019s Iceman<\/a><\/em>, released earlier this month, where Drake rapped, \u201cYou boys got big on my name, that\u2019s big enough \/ We know how you OGs rocking already my nigga, the jig is up.\u201d Jay flipped the line back and kept going. \u201cDon\u2019t talk success to me, you niggas is workers \/ In perpetuities, how your contracts is worded.\u201d<\/p>\n Dame Dash<\/a> came next. Jay rapped, \u201cNiggas\u2019 teeth is tumblin\u2019 out their mouth and somehow I\u2019m the one who done it, there\u2019s a murder mystery game.\u201d The line pointed directly at a September 2024 Instagram Live where Dash\u2019s teeth visibly fell out while he was in the middle of dissing 50 Cent<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The Nicki Minaj<\/a> section landed on multiple levels at once. Jay rapped, \u201cThat lady back on the stuff, she sound like she in love with him \/ Her Ken can\u2019t even p\u2014 take they kids, enough of them \/ A rapper can\u2019t be my opp, I got MAGA republicans \/ Them shots came from the very top of the government, good luck with them.\u201d The stutter on \u201cp\u2014\u201d was deliberate, mimicking a live performance where Nicki stumbled through \u201cRed Ruby Da Sleeze,\u201d losing her place on the line \u201cBut I don\u2019t fuck with horses since Christopher Reeves.\u201d Beyond the mockery, Jay went after her politics and her husband Kenneth Petty<\/a><\/strong>, a registered sex offender, in the same bars. Nicki has been publicly accusing Jay of owing her hundreds of millions of dollars<\/a> for her stake in Tidal since last year.<\/p>\n watch till the end. this man is CRAZY \ud83d\ude2d\ud83d\ude2d\ud83d\ude2d https:\/\/t.co\/u4JP7ULj5e<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/BqKa13z7QE<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 angola hills (@somebadbadnews) May 31, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/center><\/p>\n Jay then addressed Ye<\/a> for the first time publicly since March 2025, when Ye posted a series of now-deleted messages on X using an ableist slur to describe Jay and Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s twins, Rumi and Sir. \u201cWAIT HAS ANYONE EVER SEEN JAY Z AND BEYONCES YOUNGER KIDS,\u201d Ye wrote in one of the posts. \u201cTHEYRE RETA*DED. NO LIKE LITERALLY. AND THIS IS WHY ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION IS A BLESSING.\u201d Ye later apologized and deleted the posts. Jay never responded until Saturday. He rapped, \u201cYou ever heard of a wunderkind? \/ My children is some of them, have you niggas no shame? \/ Y\u2019all tryin\u2019 to get under skin \/ I really get under skin, ask Un how I\u2019m playin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Tory Lanez and his father closed it out. Jay rapped, \u201cThe Roc\u2019s not crumblin\u2019, the leprechauns have magically run out of pranks \/ Your son on a federal jail line mumblin\u2019 somethin\u2019 about havin\u2019 too much in his drink \/ You know how dumb that is?\u201d The \u201cleprechaun\u201d reference is a widely understood nod to Lanez\u2019s height. The \u201ctoo much in his drink\u201d line referenced a phone call Lanez made to Kelsey Harris from jail the morning of the 2020 shooting of Megan Thee Stallion<\/a>. <\/p>\n On it, Lanez told Harris, \u201cI know she probably never ever gonna ever talk to me ever again, but bruh I just want you to know bruh, n***a I was just so fucking drunk \u2026 I never do some shit like that bruh \u2026 you know regardless that\u2019s not gonna make anything right, and that\u2019s not gonna make my actions right bro, but I\u2019m just deeply sorry bruh.\u201d<\/p>\n Lanez was convicted on all three charges in December 2022 and sentenced to 10 years. His father, Sonstar Peterson<\/strong>, responded outside the courthouse that day by addressing Jay directly. \u201cJay-Z, let me speak to you \u2026 because my son refused to sign a Roc Nation deal with you,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cRoc Nation, you will crumble. I am an apostle of God, and you will know who I am.\u201d <\/p>\n \n<\/center><\/p>\n He opened the freestyle with a tribute to his grandmother. \u201cHattie\u2019s turnin\u2019 a hundred \/ If she would\u2019ve transitioned \u2018fore I cleared my name, I would\u2019ve hunted them \/ Every one of them playin\u2019 these silly games.\u201d He closed it the same way. \u201cHattie loves her shawnies, S-H-A-W-N \/ I find it adorable she put the S at the end \/ You don\u2019t know the show ain\u2019t even begin.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n