“I treat people based on who they are”: why did Jay-Z hate Robert De Niro so much?
In the rap world, feuds are just part and parcel of the job.
Think of all the diss tracks that have made for some pretty spectacular musical beef, from Drake versus Kendrick Lamar to 2Pac versus Biggie. It hardly comes as a shock when a rapper declares war with another, but what about when a rapper hits out at a legendary Hollywood star several decades their senior?
That’s exactly what happened in a bizarre turn of events when Jay-Z and Robert De Niro began feuding, despite the fact that the rapper had once admired the iconic star. But in 2013, he dissed the actor in his song ‘FuckWithMeYouKnowIGotIt’ from Magna Carta Holy Grail with the verses “Come money dance with the good fellas/ Hov keep gettin’ that dinero, got it/ Even if a n***a gotta rob it, get it?/ Black Jack in a casino/ A n***a got unlimited credit, uh/ A n***a got a lot of vendettas, uh.”
Slyly referring to the actor’s name while also dropping references to several of his movies, there was no denying that this wasn’t a dig at De Niro, with whom the rapper had had a tense interaction at a party the year before, creating an unlikely spat between the two. So, what went down?
The pair were both in attendance at Leonardo DiCaprio’s birthday party, but it was here that De Niro decided to confront Jay-Z for ignoring his phone calls. He’d tried to get in touch with the rapper for some unknown project, but the latter was clearly too busy to respond to the legendary Taxi Driver star.
An anonymous source recalled the incident (via PageSix), stating, “Bob was sitting at a table, and when Jay went over to say hello, De Niro told Jay that he never called him back. He told Jay that if somebody calls you six times, you call them back. It doesn’t matter who you are; that is just rude.”
De Niro had a fair point, yet, for some reason, the incident turned into something much bigger than it needed to be, and Jay-Z spoke out about the feud on The Breakfast Club, where he said, “I treat people based on who they are. Who they really are. Not the name, not Robert De Niro. Who you are as a person. It doesn’t matter who you are, everyone has to be respectful.”
It seems only the party-goers who witnessed their tense interaction know exactly what went down. However, the pair seem to have squashed their beef since then, for a few years later, De Niro and Jay-Z were spotted chatting to each other at an amfAR gala, the veteran actor seemingly over the phone calls, or lack thereof.
What De Niro could have been trying to call Jay-Z about is not something we’ll probably ever know, although it’s likely that the actor was interested in getting the rapper on board for some movie or other, perhaps on the soundtrack side of things. Maybe one day they’ll collaborate with each other after all of this time, putting their feud firmly behind them.
