Jay-Z Refused $100K Feature Payment While Working With Silkk The Shocker

Jay-Z isn’t doing much for free these days, but back in the day he was a very generous man to some of his fellow counterparts.

We know of a few rappers that Jay looked out for, but many have not heard the story of how Jay hopped on a verse without expecting payment.

Silkk the Shocker who recently started down with the Art of Dialogue podcast, revealed that Jay Z refused payment for a verse back in the 90’s.

Back in the 90’smay be unabashed about his capitalistic ways, however, the rap legend once refused compensation for his appearance on a record by Silkk the Shocker during the late ’90s.

Silkk, revealed that he budgeted $100,000 to give Jay for hopping on his 1999 song “You Know What We Bout,” only to have him turn it down.

“Our relationship was dope because when I did the song with him, I thought I had a budget for him,” the 47-year-old recalled. “I was like, ‘Yo, I got a hundred racks’ — that’s a lot of money back in the day too! I’m sure he could’ve used the extra $100,000; who ain’t gonna use that? When I hit him up, I’m like, ‘Yo, the song is dope, you killed it. Where I should I send that bread to?’ Jay was like, ‘Nah, it’s good, man. Just keep it and we’ll figure out something later on down the line.’”

Vibe Magazine reports that Silkk also said that while he was fortunate to be in Hov’s good graces to receive a verse at all, he believes that the gesture is indicative of Jay’s ability to reach the heights he’s climbed to over the years. “He won’t do it for anybody, though; he won’t even do music for anybody. What I came to learn was that it’s bigger than [money] for him,” he said. “To me, that’s consistent with [where he is] today — if you look at him, it’s not a fluke that he’s successful.”

He continued, adding “I don’t care how rich you are, you gonna be like, ‘Man, send my bread.’ But he was just dead cool. He ain’t even second-guess it like, ‘Yeah, send me half of it.’ The good part about it: down the line, I kinda did something for him and I just thought it was solid.”

A really good lesson in life is to always have people owe you one. It appears that Jay Z applied that lesson masterfully, just like he does everything else.

Listen to Silkk the Shocker speak on Jay-Z below.